Page 62 of Dance with the Devil

God, Imissedher.

I can’t let her see that, though. All those weeks when I stayed away… they would be for nothing if she knew how I really feel. How I’ve been the walking dead without her, and how I dream of that last smile she gave me after we were rescued before waking up to the nightmare of a life without her.

And that’s if Idosleep.

So, instead of coming clean, I do what I do best: I lock my emotions up tight, keeping my expression impassive as I ask her, “What are you doing here?”

Okay. That might’ve been more of a demand, and I gave away too much with it, but I can’t help it.

And then sheanswers,and any hope of simply sending her on her way and heading back to my empty apartment dies a very quick death.

“Isn’t it obvious? I was a virgin for twenty-five years. Now that I’m not anymore, I found out I like sex. I want to have more of it. And, sure, I know how you feel about my first time, but I don’t lie to you, Cross. You made it worth it. Fuck the cameras. Fuck the people who think they can use it against us?—”

That catches my attention. The second she admitted that she was trolling for some ass had my head roaring and my mouthclamped shut before I said something I couldn’t take back, but when she saidthat, and I take a step back.

“What did you say?”

“You didn’t know?” When I shake my head, she tells me, “Winter did what he said he would do. They sent that video of us to my brother.”

No wonder Damien warned me away from his sister. I should be lucky he didn’t gut me the second Genevieve was out of sight.

“When?” I rasp out, to see if it was a close shave—or if I need to even more wary of Damien now.

“I don’t know. Doesn’t matter. He didn’t watch it, and one of your guys said it’s as good as erased.”

For Genevieve’s sake, I’m glad to hear that. For mine… my gut twists, and I mutter, “I bet you wish you could forget just as easily.”

“God, you’re such a sorry fuckingass. You know? I thought you were sweet. Sensitive. A real artist-type, ya know? I saw your sad eyes and I wanted to make them happy again. But you… you just like being miserable, don’t you?”

“I don’t like it, butterfly. I’m just used to it.”

The fire of her temper ebbs some. The flames don’t die out completely, they’re still there, but when she speaks again, she gentles her voice. “What happened to your family… what that man did… I won’t ever dare tell you that you need to move on. I never knew my mother. My father was a piece of work. If I lost Damien back in May, I don’t think I’d be here now. But you survived. Cross, you’re here. Don’t you deserve to be happy?”

“What are you doing here tonight, Genevieve? I mean, besides lecturing me.”

I went too far. I know it the second the words leave my mouth. This back and forth had been as flirtatious as it was explosive, but the way Genevieve recoils after I lose control, Ihave to admit: I fucked up, and there might not be any way of making it right with her.

And then she fists her hands on her hips and snaps, “You want to know?Fine. I’ve got an itch to scratch, and if you don’t want to be the one to take care of it, I’ll find someone who will.”

A vein pulses in my neck. Ifeelit, and it’s probably due to the way I’m resisting the urge to launch myself at this tempestuous woman and take care of both of our repressed needs.

But I can’t do that, so I just raise my eyebrows and play it fucking cool. “At the Playground?”

“Why not?” she shrugs, drawing my hungry gaze right to the cleavage revealed through her mesh top. “That’s where I found you, isn’t it?”

“Well, tonight I found you.”

“Okay.” Her lips twitch. “What about hate sex? Let’s see. I’ve had pity sex with you once already. Well, you had pity sex withme. At least hate sex would tick another of the boxes I’m dying to try.”

“Oh, butterfly, you need to actually hate someone to have hate sex. And I know you don’t hate me.”

Not the way I hate myself at any rate.

“I guess we’ll see, won’t we.” And then, before I can put an end to this, before I can regain my self control and march Genevieve back inside, she does something so reckless… so undeniably fuckinghotandreckless…that I admit that this was inevitable from the moment I heard her say the word ‘cock’ in her sweet voice to another man.

I don’t care that she was threatening him in a roundabout way or that it was a throwback to our captivity. I know what she meant?—

—but Genevieve doesn’t know what she’s asking of me.

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