Page 71 of Priest and his Anarchist

“You can’t reach it.” Vaden’s eyes widen on me. He smirks, running his wet hand through his hair. “Oh, so the Concord didn’t warn you about this, huh?”

I shuffle up the tub. “What makes you think I need them?” My head tilts and Vaden’s smug grin widens.

“Because, Lost One.”

“Because why?” I might be different, but I’m not what everyone thinks. Wait…did he say Concord?

My poker face doesn’t slip, even as panic sinks its claws deep into my skin when the words replay. So the Concord didn’t warn you about this, huh?

It happens too fast. Vaden’s eyes shift over my shoulder at the bitter touch of metal against my back. “Because you shouldn’t have followed the trail.”

Fingers curl around the front of my throat, but his movement is gentle when he tilts my head backward until I’m looking at him. He’s seated on a chair directly behind me, his knees wide as he places my head on the crotch of his jeans. Sugary embers of burning marijuana fill my nostrils as he lifts the joint, taking another hit.

Smoke billows between his lips in rings before he exhales the rest from his lungs. Staring at the end of the joint, he blows on the ember until it brightens. “You know what this is?”

I move from the stone expression on his face to the joint. “Weed?”

“Yes and no.”

“Well, what?” I try to move from beneath him when his grip tightens around my throat.

“Open your mouth.”

Even upside down, he’s beautiful. My body is as dumb as my brain because the butterflies in my belly spread their wings wide enough to feel them flutter lower.

“I don’t—” Smooth smoke fills my mouth before the warmth from his lips grazes mine. Something fractures inside my chest as my hips lift a little.

He’s about to pull away, but my hand flies to the back of his neck to hold him in place, gently closing my mouth around his bottom lip. His hesitation causes the rope of muscle behind his neck to flex, but I don’t care. My tongue slips into his mouth, and the tightness in his muscles loosens as he catches my tongue with his own. It has been years…years since I felt him like this. Even knowing what he does and how he does it. The blood. Screams. Blood. Ice… cold.

Images flash through my brain of the last time he had me like this, right before he betrayed me. His heavy breathing as he rode me like he owned me. The way his pupils dilated when he watched the soft whimpers of his name leave my mouth. As if confused as to why he didn’t kill me—or want to at that moment.

I deepen the kiss by rolling around to my knees, never breaking away. His mouth moves with mine, relaxed. The silk of his tongue coats mine, and I moan, throwing all caution out and crawling onto his lap.

Pushing him against his chair, water drips down my stomach, soaking my tangled hair. I need to be reminded why he’s a bad person and why I should not be kissing him the way I am because he’s the worst version of himself when he’s like this.

Deprived of his touch, his kiss owns me. It’s not until the memory of him giving me away to his enemies knocks me back to reality.

He holds me in place with a narrow glare, but I see it momentarily, where he loses control.

“Ahhh.” He lifts his joint back to his mouth. “So she does remember…”

“I’ve always remembered. I just?—”

“Forgot a moment?” Vaden’s sinister tone mixes with the steam from the bath. A breeze caresses my skin. I shiver, pushing away from Priest.

“Nah, uh…” My back collides with something hard, but I don’t have to turn to know who it is.

The way Priest’s eyes dance up to him with a certain cockiness tells me everything I need to know.

He blows out a cloud of smoke again, flicking the roach into the bath before returning to me. “You’re going to do everything I say, Madness, because if you don’t.” He leans forward, my body shaking when he drags his thumb over my nipple. “Well. I’m sure you know what I’m capable of.”

My face falls. I do. It’s not that I had forgotten, one would never forget something like that, but it’s that…I kissed him.

And I wanted to.

And I want to again.

Him. He’s a monster. A cold, detached, emotionless monster. But I want him. I want to fill the lonely parts of him with myself. His threat is useless, but I’ll play.

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