Page 50 of I Was Always Yours (RCA: Royal Crown Academy)

I straighten and my eyes clash with Phoenix’s in the mirror.

Oh, putain. I think to myself.

He hasn’t changed, he’s still wearing the same shorts he fought in and the shirt he never even had a chance to take off.

Honestly, I shouldn’t call it a fight. His hair isn’t even ruffled.

The shorts healmost killed somebody inis a better way to put it.

“Can I help you?” I ask.

My heartbeat skitters as I watch him reach behind him, his eyes never leaving mine, and turn the lock with a forebodingclick.

“What are you doing?” I ask, meeting his gaze through the mirror still. It feels like if I turn to actually look at him, it’ll make it real somehow.

“Did you have fun?”

His voice is throaty and drips with absolute authority. Something about it just makes me want to obey. He walks towards me and my pulse thrashes in my veins with every step he takes in my direction.

Be bold. Fight back.I say to myself.

“Yes,” I reply, trying to keep the quaver from my voice.

“That’s good,” He answers, and his voice is so husky it’s almost a purr. It brushes against my skin and has wetness pooling between my legs.

I can’t tell what kind of mood he’s in right now. There’s thunder and lightning in his gaze but his energy isn’t hot like I would have expected. No, he’s quietly lethal, likeDexterwith a scalpel, and it’s so much more terrifying.

“Why?” This time there’s a small tremble in my voice.

He walks up until he stands right behind me. The mirror highlights how much he dwarfs me, his body looming over mine from behind, wide and strong enough to wrap completely around mine and make me disappear.

“Because it’s my turn to have fun,” He answers, his voice an octave lower than usual. “And you’re not going to enjoy any of it.”

He grabs my throat and drags me back against his chest. I cry out, scared and surprised. I’m on my tiptoes to try and loosen his hold on my neck, but he holds firm, his other hand coming to splay over my stomach. He presses to keep me flush against him, caged in his arms.

“You showed up at my fight,” He growls, his mouth in my hair.

“I didn’t know,” I say, defensively, “I was only there to be the ring girl.”

The hand on my stomach moves to my breast, grasping it roughly with his fingers, making me shriek. He tweaks my nipple harshly, making me moan. I want to believe it’s just because of the pain from the still tender piercing, but my pussy throbs at his touch.

“You dressed like a slut,” He says, squeezing my throat harder, “You paraded in front of hundreds of men who all looked at you like you were going to be their next meal.”

He releases my breast and bends me roughly over the sink, his other hand fisting my hair. My heartbeat pounds in my ears, half from panic, half from excitement.Exhilaration bubbles just below the surface. I’m getting a reaction out of him, just like I wanted.

I’m still in disbelief at what’s happening right now. His hands are on my ass, taking the hem of my shorts and shoving them up between my cheeks until they’re bunched and my ass is on display.

“You let them see this ass,” He threads his hand back through my hair and uses his hold to control me. I can’t look back and watch, but I feel him caress my ass before his hand slaps my cheek.

Surprise makes me choke on a breath, but he doesn’t wait to see if I’ll adapt. His hand comes back down two, three, four more times, alternating between left and right cheeks, until my knees buckle.

He puts his arm below my hips and uses it to roughly pull me back into position. “If you move your ass away from me again, I won’t stop until you bleed.”

My spine stiffens when I feel something wooden touch my cheek, stroking me from one cheek to the next. Its presence is menacing. I don’t know what it is, but I know it’s not something I’m going to enjoy.

I try something desperate. “Nix…,”

Having gone a long time without using it, the nickname feels foreign on my tongue, and yet it also feels intimately familiar. Like I should have been saying it every day of the past six years.

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