Page 113 of Bake the Town Red

“If byrape,you mean pushed my cock in here.” I lean to the side, dipping two fingers inside her wet pussy.

She clenches around me, her tight hold sending another shot of adrenaline into my blood. Any remnants of kindness flush out of my system in an instant. I’m going to hurt her. I’m going to traumatize her.

I’m going to love her the only way I can.

“I do.” Another snarl.

“The answer is no.”

“What did you do, then?”

One, two, three strokes, and two moans I drag out of Dahlia. I don’t give her anymore, pulling my fingers out of her pussy and reaching for the scissors by the pillow.

“What did you do to me while I was asleep, Tyler?”

“I’m not a good person, Dahlia.” The need to claim her nearly blinds me. I don’t stop. “Not even close.”

The scowl on her lips softens. “Tyler, neither am—”

“Quiet.” I crush my lips to hers while cutting off the zip tie around her wrists.

I refuse to hear her confession. This isn’t the time. It’ll wake the compassionate side of me. The side who sees past the serial killer. The side who knows life fucked Dahlia over so badly, she had to turn to this. I don’t want to feel sorry for her like this.

“You love me.” Three words burst from her pretty, swollen lips. “You said you loved me.”

“I own you.” The wall I put up between us infuriates me. I need it gone. I need her. “Dahlia, if we’re together, bad things will happen.” I know what I must sound like. A broken record. A broken man. “I’ll protect you as much as I can. But nothing good is waiting for us on the other side of this.”

“I didn’t ask for good things, Ty. All I’ve ever wanted was you.” She arches her back. The wince I’ve been expecting twists her expression into a pained one. “What—what’s that? You cut my chest?”

“Listen, first.” Her gaze darts lower. I block her view by pinning my upper body to hers.

“No.” She wriggles and fights me with everything she’s got. “Let me see.”

“Listen to me,” I thunder.

The cloud of insane rage isn’t there. This explosive emotion is lust. Want. A necessity. I’m suffocating with it.

My face hovers inches from Dahlia’s. My cock is hard, pushing harder into the soft space between her legs. Even through my sweats.

“I love you, too,” she whispers.

Blood rushes between my ears. This is nothing new. She said those words while I was her guardian. She told me she was going to be my girlfriend.

And yet here, in my apartment, four years after we lost everything, they hit differently.

“I killed people.” I didn’t mean to sound soft, but fuck, her raw honesty changes me.

She has to know who this person is she claims to love. Because while she kills them to heal herself, I kill them for fun. Sometimes I can’t even control myself when I end their lives.

“I’m scarred. I’m fucked in the head.” My confession doesn’t rattle her. She just looks at me. “Ikillpeople, do you hear? Bad people. Other serial killers.”

“Who?”

Out of all the questions in the world, she asks me this.

“The names are not important. Some murders happened in a haze. I’m aware that I stalk them and kill them, but sometimes, it’s like I’m a spectator. Either way, I’m happy about it. As fucked as it is, I’m satisfied.”

Another second of looking into her wide eyes, and I’ll start coddling her. I might even regret marking her while she slept. I go lower down her body, parting my lips over her snake tattoo and bite.

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