Page 72 of Eden's Deliverance

He’s too close, and I’m too drunk. I know he’s trying to provoke something out of me, whether it’s another heated fucking or one of our infamous arguments. His behavior only reminds me of Casanova and Broody’s overbearing obsession with having me to themselves, and it disgusts me. I let them control me for far longer than I should have, and I won’t let another person do that to me.

“Once or twice, but never again.”

“Wanna bet?"

26

Skylar

“Once or twice, but never again.”

She actually looks like she means it, too. I might believe her if it wasn’t for the nervous swallowing and rapidly beating pulse beneath my palm.

Her dilated pupils aren’t the result of her obvious arousal—it’s from whatever drugs he fed her—and while I’m glad that piece of shit ran off and she’s safe now, I would never take advantage of her when she’s not in her right mind.

Doesn’t mean I won’t stoke the fire, though.

“Wanna bet?” I taunt, running my thumb back and forth across the fair skin of her neck. Her body shivers at the touch, and it threatens to drive me over the edge.

I live for getting a reaction out of her, no matter the cause.

Leaning closer to brush my nose against hers, I inhale the sweet scent of her perfume. I’m immediately intoxicated by it and drift cautiously towards her lips before she stops me.

“Please, Skylar. Just g—”

“Scarlett! Are you home, babe? All the lights are off,” Penelope yells from downstairs, and Scarlett looks at me with panicked eyes. I know what she’s planning before she even has the chance to act on it.

Her head flies back as she takes a deep breath and attempts to release it with a shrill scream, but I cover her mouth and scoop her around the waist with my other arm, lifting her off the ground and carrying her to the balcony. With my elbow, I get the lever handle turned and push through, shutting the door behind us with my foot.

Knowing Scarlett, I’ve just told her everything she needs to know about how serious I’mnotwhen it comes to our deal. The amused tick of her eyebrow gives it away. She called my bluff, and I failed the test; if I was really going to tell Penelope anything, I wouldn’t have been afraid of being discovered.

Pressing my back to the wall, I pull her in tightly against my chest, to keep her restrained and quiet as the sound of Penelope’s footsteps echo through the door. She calls for Scarlett a few times, even coming inside her room to check for her, but ultimately retreats to her own bedroom on the other side of the house.

With a hard shove, I send Scarlett barreling towards the balustrade where she lands with a huff, the impact forcing the air from her lungs. She braces against the railing and turns to look at me, but I’m already stalking towards her.

“You think you’re so smart, don’t you? Did you think that was funny?” I ask, rolling up the sleeves on my flannel as I close in on her. Seems she’s enough of her defiant, bratty self now, because she glares at me with a light in her eyes—like she’s proud to be the source of my frustration.

Fine. Two can play at that game.

Scarlett rises to her feet and faces me, but before she can spit any of her venom, I’ve got her around the throat, pushing forward to send her leaning over the edge. Her feet lift from the ground only for a second to kick at my shins before she plants them again, so I tip her even farther back until she can no longer touch her toes to the stone balcony.

“Wait! St—”

No. Not a fucking sound from her, I won’t hear it.

How the fuck did we get here? How did we go from texting every day…to me threatening to murder her in her own house? How has she been absent from Eden for a whole month, only to find herself back in that slimy fuck’s orbit?

I’ve got to hand it to the guy, perfecting his American accent for the club was a nice touch. It’s nothing Julian and I haven’t done ourselves with her—deepening our voices and dying our hair to hide our identities—but his Italian ethnicity makes for the perfect disguise in the real world. I bet it gets all the girls wet in their fucking panties at the idea of dating a foreigner.

Scarlett’s nails dig into the skin of my wrist, but I embrace the pain. If I thought there was no going back before, it’s surely truer now than ever. She thinks I’m trying to sabotage her ability to date…and sure, I am. But mostly, I’m trying to protect her. I just can’t tell her why, becauseSkylarisn’t supposed to know anything about Eden—only what she’s told me.

I can’t exactly come clean asBroodyeither, because then I’d have to explainhowI know Dario. If I tell her what kind of threat he poses, I’d inherently be admitting my part in all of this. She’d find out how similar I am to the guy, and then she’d be afraid of me…just not in the way that gets me off.

I’m talking about true, genuine fear.

Ironically, it’s her lack of a fight that snaps me back to reality. Her arms go limp before I look down at her beet-red face and realize what I’ve done. When I pull her back to safety, she crumbles in a heap on the stone floor as she sputters for air.

“Scarlett…” I drop to a knee and inch closer to her side, but she slaps me across the cheek before I can say another word.

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