Page 164 of I Was Always Yours (RCA: Royal Crown Academy)

I try to walk past him, but he grips my arm and yanks me against him.

For a moment we stay like this, this once familiar embrace now corrupted by anger, betrayal, and resentment. The roughness of my breaths draws his eyes to lips. They haze over with lust as I wet them, my mouth suddenly dry under the ardor of his gaze.

I watch in real time as a storm rolls through his eyes, replacing the lust. He slams me against the fridge and I hear the condiments rattle in the door behind me before they settle. His hand flattens next to me, keeping me pinned.

“That was then, Six, and this is now. I’m not letting you leave me, much less marry someone else.” He grabs my jaw in his hand and forces my face up to look at him. His touch is far from gentle and that savagery is reflected in his flinty gaze. “As a courtesy, I’m going to give you a piece of advice and I suggest you heed it.” He speaks so close to my face that I can feel his heated breaths hitting my cheeks with every angry word. “Don’t ever put another man’s ring on that finger of yours. Not in the comfort of your own home, not in front of me, notever.”

“You can’t tell me what to do anymore. Your feelings no longer matter.” I add bravely, emphasizing the clean break I want from him.

He continues as if I never interrupted. “If you do, I’ll break every single bone in his body, one by fucking one, as painfully and slowly as I can and I’ll make you watch the entire thing.” His lips hover over mine until we’re exchanging volatile breaths, his words nothing more than an antagonizing whisper. “Then, I’ll fuck you in all your holes in front of him until you remember that every single part of you belongs to me. Only when he’s agonized for a few hours will I slit his throat and watch the life drain from his eyes.”

I shake my face out of his grasp and glare up at him. “Your usual threats aren’t going to work this time.”

He bares his teeth, the move so primal it raises goosebumps on my skin. “They’re not threats, Six.” He says, his voice molten. “They’re one stupid decision on your part away from being a fact. I need you to understand that.”

A sob rolls up my throat and falls from my lips. I shove him with all my might and he has the grace to at least take a step backwards, his arms dropping to his sides. I slip out and his heated eyes track me as I put some much needed distance between us.

“You didn’t want me when I was your fiancée. Don’t pretend to want me now that I’m someone else’s.”

“You are no one else’s.” He booms, his hands slamming down on the counter, his voice echoing loudly off the walls. Softer, almost seductively, he repeats, “You are no one else’s but mine. My name is on you, my marks are on you, and very soon I’ll have my cum back inside you.”

“You’ll never touch me again, Phoenix, and those marks will disappear with time. As for the tattoo,” I say, crossing my arms as I face him. “Modern technology is a wonderful thing. I can have it removed in just a couple sessions. We wouldn’t want my new fiancé to get the wrong idea.”

Glacial fury explodes in his eyes as the temperature in the room drops thirty degrees. He removes his hands from the counter and straightens so slowly I swear I can hear each of his vertebrae slotting into space as he uncoils his body to his full, towering height.

He walks over to me, his pace leisurely and unhurried, and this total self-control is so much more terrifying than when he loses it. There’s no emotion there, just cold calculation and a single-minded focus on his target.

Me.

He doesn’t need to crowd me to physically intimidate me. When he’s two steps away, he stops and delivers words in a tone so bone chilling that they slither down my spine and leave a sting of cold that I know I’ll carry with me forever.

“I fucking dare you.”

I swallow thickly around the emotion lodged in my throat and look away. The air is dense around us, like a physical presence, full of the unsaid things we’ve never told each other.

“Why?” He repeats, his own throat working with difficulty. “I don’t understand why.”

For once, he doesn’t mask his emotions. He has the gall to sound confused and hurt and betrayed, and I’m so mad at him for acting like I’m the problem. For acting so possessive when he has every intention of tossing me aside the first chance he gets.

“I can’t believe you’re pretending not to know why I would break off this fucked up engagement. Why are you doingthis, Phoenix? Why are you pretending to want me, to be jealous of my new fiancé, when all along you’ve been pretending to go along with our marriage just so you could plan your escape?”

“What are you–”

“Does the name Bachmann ring a bell?”

He blanches, confirming his guilt once and for all, and a fresh wave of nausea hits me, almost bringing me to my knees.

“Yeah, I thought it might.” I say bitterly. “I saw his email, I know everything. The money. The plan to break this off before the contract was signed. All of your lies.” I say, disgustedly. “Out of all of the cruel things you’ve done to me, this is the worst. You told me you’re the only one who hurts me,” I tell him, looking away, “you’ve certainly lived up to that promise.”

I’m not crying. I feel a total desolation inside me that makes tears illusive. I am hollow and I am worn and I am so completely devastated.

“Even I can’t forgive you for this.” I add brokenly.

“Sixtine,” He starts, but I cut him off.

“Tell me how you were going to do it.” I demand, my voice emotionless. “Were you going to leave me at the altar? Were you going to leave me up there, standing alone, looking like a naive fool? Was that going to be your final way of humiliating me?” I ask.

“Stop!” I tell him when he takes a step towards me. I feel like we’re going aimlessly in circles. I just want this to be done, to make him understand it’s done so we can both close this chapter. It’s already going to be an impossible task for me without his continued presence. I need him to understand that and do me this one kindness. “Please just don’t come any closer. Don’t make this harder than it already has to be. I just want to be able to move on without you, so please let me do that.”

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