Page 44 of Cruel Games

Those blue eyes were as cold as ice, hard and cutting as she pinned him with their glare, one side of her mouth lifted in a mock smirk. “Oh, is that a fact?” Her steps, once slow and calculated, quickened as she grabbed the knife from her sleeve and flipped it around to face him, the tip just barely resting against his throat. “Are you willing to stake your life on it?”

I watched the fire die out in his eyes, watched him accept his fate, befriend his own downfall, all in a matter of seconds. He didn’t dare open his mouth and make that bet, because we allknew this woman was irresistible. Her crazy matched ours in a way that no other human alive had come close to, at least not since we’d formed this little ragtag group. And when someone spoke to a twisted group of souls like ours, it was more a gift, a blessing, than a curse.

I just had to get her, and the others, to see it that way.

I was no master manipulator like Jackal. My vocabulary had no creative wordplay like Dingo used to win people over. Hell, I was lucky if I managed to stumble through an hour of socialization without making myself look like a complete fool.

But I understood human nature and the primal instinct of animals, probably better than anyone alive. And I knew the duality between the two would be the ticket to coming out of this alive.

She wanted us dead, but she wanted something else more.

She wanted us topay.

And though she had been misled, misguided, and lied to, she wasn’t ready to see the truth. Telling her would do nothing for our cause. Denial was a powerful thing.

But if she decided a more extended torture session was more fitting, we could drag it out. Maybe she would come to the truth on her own. Or perhaps we’d forever be marked for her eventual vengeance. Who knew what the future held?

All I knew was I didn’t want to die here in this stupid warehouse without ever tasting the edge of nirvana she held in the palm of her hand.

“I think you like being someone’s dog,” she mocked, kneeling to Jackal’s level, uncaring that it put the juncture of her thighs on display for him. In fact, as his eyes roamed southward, locking in on her exposed sex like a beast in a rut, it became very,veryapparent that she had him—hook, line, and sinker.

She had only to snap her fingers, and the poor man might just come in his pants.

As if she knew the power, the sway she held on him, sheleaned forward, a single finger outstretched, and let the tip of her nail graze the curve of his bottom lip. He parted them, baring his dangerous, sharpened teeth, but she seemed unfazed. In fact, the little gasp she let out hinted at somethingmore.

Desire.

“Are you a real man, or are you just someone’sbitch?”

SEVENTEEN

DINGO

I could still tasteher on my fucking lips.

Bloody hell, she was divine. Her taste was perfection, reminding me of all the times I’d taken pleasure between a woman’s thighs and left her sated. But somehow, the women in my past couldn’t compare to the one who’d dared to take my choice, my consent, away from me, who demanded her pleasure even if I were unwilling.

I mean, I was willing. More than willing. If I were to die here tonight, I wanted to at least do it with the taste of a woman on my tongue.

And fuck me, what a woman to taste.

I’d never seen such a specimen of womanhood and insanity wrapped into the same package. Her curves, her dominance, her confidence, and the way she demanded a performance from us?—

My cock had been harder than a damn diamond. And all she’d done for the poor thing was hover atop it and accidentally brush her hand against it as she leaned forward and reached for Coyote.

Fucking Coyote.

Bastard kissed her like his world was ending–which, to be fair, we’d been threatened with as much. But hell, according to Jackal, the man had little to no experience with the opposite sex. So where had he learned to kiss like that?

Frankly, I was a little jealous. As good as her pussy tasted, I wanted to know what it felt like to have her tongue invade me like I’d used mine to invade her.

She left a trail of arousal across my chest when she slid off the table, and damned if I didn’t want to drag my finger through it and lick the fucker clean.

“Are you curious about what punishment you’ll get, Jackal?”

Her head tilted to the side like a curious dog, and she laughed when Jackal tried to pretend he wasn’t interested in anything she had to say. I mean, fuck, I couldn’t even see that well from my angle, but even I could see how fuckinghorny he was for her. He hadn’t stopped looking at her pussy since she squatted in front of him and bared it to his lecherous eyeballs. His tongue was practically hanging out of his mouth, he was so worked up and desperate.

I wondered how long he’d keep the tough guy act up.

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