Page 10 of Bounty

She swings around, glaring at Jude as she pours some water into a glass from the cupboard.

“Brother,” she greets him with a hint of sarcasm. “I was up late reading a new book and fell asleep. Got thirsty when I woke up.”

“That was irresponsible. You have a busy day tomorrow prepping for the harvest party and you should have had an early night,” he admonishes her.

She begins to roll her eyes, then remembers herself and smiles at Jude instead. Father Mannix has had to reprimand her multiple times over the years about eye-rolling. Her saccharine smile is a promise of pain behind pearly white teeth. She hugs Father Mannix. It lasts a beat too long for my liking.

“Good night. I’ll see you all tomorrow.”

Several minutes later, the meeting winds down to shooting the shit and drinking beers around the table. I excuse myself and pretend to head home. I open and close the door, then lock it before tip-toeing up the back staircase to her room. After a light tap on the door, I let myself in. She’s awake, curled up in bed under a heap of blankets as she continues to read the book I got her as an early Christmas present. Some wolf shifter romance, whatever that is. When I saw the cover, I knew she’d love it. The only light in the room is the small lamp on the bedside table.

She’s angelic. Her dark blond hair fans across her pillow, and her violet eyes are wide as they take me in.

“Hey,” she whispers, scooting over to make room for me.

I climb into bed, pulling her into me and throwing a thigh over her as she nuzzles her face into my neck. If I could, I’d absorb all her golden, pure light so it can drown out the depraved darkness that never seems to leave me. This always happens after I kill someone. I ride the high, revel in the chaos and the torture. Then I remember how deranged I am for not feeling the rough and jagged edges of my broken soul. Am I even human anymore…do I feel any remorse?

Then I find my Wisteria and hold her in my arms until I start to feel like me again. Eventually she forces the inhuman monster inside me back into his cage for another day.

“You can talk to me, Colin. I love your visits, but I know you usually come because something is wrong.” Her quiet voice sounds like a soft melody.

“Nothing is wrong, little flower. I just needed to see you.” It’s not a lie, but not the whole truth either. I take a deep pull of her fresh, floral scent, letting it fill me.

“I wish you wouldn’t lie to me…I know,” she whispers. “I know what you did tonight.”

I pull away from her, holding her neck so she’s forced to look into my eyes.

“What do you think you know?” I demand of her. She shouldn’t know anything.

“My window was open…and I couldn’t sleep because I heard screaming from the shed in the woods. It turned into shrieking, like someone was dying. You, Cain, and Jude came out from the far treeline after it was all over. I saw you three.”

A jolt of fear races down my spine. My fingers squeeze into her neck, so she knows how fucking serious this is. She shouldn’t know anything about that… It’s too fucking dangerous.

“Wisteria Jean, you listen to me, and you listen good. You didn’t see or hear anything tonight, because your window wasclosed. You woke up because you got too hot with all these blankets.”

I collar her neck, putting more pressure on the sides until a few tears fall from her mesmerizing eyes. I’m holding my little flower’s life in my hands, gripping her by the stem, and it feels like I’m soaring.

“C-Colin,” she gasps.

“Did you hear me? Nod if you understand me.”

She nods, and I give her back her breath. I expect her to argue, yell at me, slap me. Claw at me until I’m out of her bed. Goddamit, I deserve it. But she doesn’t do any of those things. Her eyes are blown wide, hazed over like she’s floating. Her plump lips are parted as she sucks down air. I shift, so I can take a better look at her, and my hand grazes her hard nipple through the T-shirt she changed into.

“Do you like my hand around your throat, taking your breath away?”

She tries to bury her face in my chest, but I pull her hair back, so she can’t escape her embarrassment. She has nothing to be ashamed of. “Answer me.”

I ghost my lips over the column of her neck softly. She inhales sharply as I take her skin into my mouth, pulling hard enough to leave a mark. The thought of her wearing my bruise for everyone to see has the monster inside me snarling.

“Yes.”

“Oh, my dirty flower, you like a little pain, huh?” I remark as my cock hardens, thinking of all the things I want to do. All the ways I crave to make her hurt—then the ways I’ll kiss, bite, suck, and lick her better.

She nods again, and I crash our lips together in a frenzy of tongue and teeth. All these nights I snuck into her room, I took comfort in the warmth of her soft body against mine, never kissing her, always scared she’d turn me down. Now that Iknow how delicious she tastes—how right it feels to feast on her succulent lips—I’ll kiss her all the time. Every damn day.

I bite her bottom lip, then suck it into my mouth to soothe the sting away. She melts into me like a puddle as I plunder her mouth, then nip at her sweet lips again. With every taste I grow harder, until my dick is pressing against my zipper.

I roll her on top of me with my back to the headboard, so her pussy is sitting right over my cock, and I buck up. Her eyes go wide as I push my hand into her underwear and run a finger through her slickness.

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