Page 18 of Burn for Me

Phoenix

Water slapped against her chest, its noise drowned out by the absolute ruckus she was making.

I could see a large shape surrounding her flailing form beneath the water. The shark must have been curious about what was causing all the splashing.

Thankfully, the only sharks that tended to frequent the area were basking sharks. They don’t even have teeth.

I hadn’t wanted to laugh quite so much in a very long time.

Even soaked to the head, she still had that spark in her eyes—like an ember plucked straight from the fire.

My pretty little ember.

‘Please, help me?’ she called, her voice even more panicked than before.

My arm still bled from the cut she’d inflicted on me—not too deep, at least. Thin rivulets of blood snaked down over my forearm, wrapping my fingers like scarletgloves.

I had a choice. I could leave her there to tire and sink. The sea would rid me of the issue of dealing with my first mistake in years.

Or I could use her misfortune to my advantage.

To make her behave.

Leaning over the bobbing helm of the boat, I held my hand out and tensed my bicep. A fresh slew of blood dripped from the cut and followed its crimson path to my fingers, which I stretched out over the water.

‘What are you doing?’ Her words hit me, and I looked down at her stricken face. A slop of salt water hit her right in the face, making her cough.

A drop of my blood fell into the ocean. This wasn’t the first blood I’d lost to it while out on my uncle’s goddamned boat.

No, he’d seen to me losing plenty over the years.

‘Stop it. Are you… insane…’ she shouted. Her squeals as the basking shark slipped past her made my cock twitch. I wanted to make her squeal like that.

‘Please.’ Fear filled her big doe eyes. They darted from left to right as she tried to paddle back toward the boat, which was drifting slowly away from her. ‘I’ll do anything. I’m sorry! Okay?’

Lifting an eyebrow, I backed away from the edge and toward the cabin. Her wild screams and curses followed me. A chuckle sounded deep in my throat, silenced only when it reached my mouth. The feeling of the noise made me stop in my tracks.

Touching a hand to my throat, I made it again. The vibrations pulsed down my fingers. It felt… good. So fucking good.

If only it could come out fully.

I grabbed a chunky permanent marker from the kitchen and walked back to my screaming flame.

‘You absolute arsehole. Get me out of this water.’

I shook my head and dropped to my stomach, leaning over the edge beneath the railings.

The pen squeaked against the boat’s finish, black streaks forming upside-down letters.

A N Y T H I N G?

‘What?’ she called.

I underlined the word. Twice.

Her eyebrows creased until eventually she figured it out.

‘Yes, I’ll do anything if you get me out of here. Anything!’

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