Page 27 of Devil Mine

“No.” She looks down at the exhibit of thousand-year-old insects. Softer, she adds, “He thinks he’s going to marry me.”

The thought of that man or any other getting their hands on her makes my eye twitch dangerously.

I don’t fucking think so.

“He’s wrong.”

She laughs humorlessly and doesn’t say anything. My cock throbs painfully in my trousers. He’s finally found someone he wants to fuck into next year and he doesn’t appreciate not being allowed to do so.

I let the silence stretch between us until eventually she speaks again.

“That man you killed,” she starts, nodding her chin in his general direction. “He didn’t do anything to you?”

“Not specifically, no.”

“And you killed him anyway?”

“Yes.”

She looks at me like I’m an abomination.

“You’re a monster.”

“Yes.”

Unlike her, I won’t deny the truth.

Her eyes narrow when I prowl towards her. “Don’t come near me. I’ll scream.”

“I’d rather you scream in other ways.”

She gapes at me, mouth parting in shock. “What’s wrong with you? You really think I’m going to sleep with you after I watched you assault my fatherandkill an innocent man?”

An arrogant smile graces my lips. “I do.”

She sets her jaw and lifts her chin at me in challenge. “So you’re planning on assaulting me.”

I laugh, actual mirth shining in my eyes. I’m enjoying this game we’re playing; I don’t know to what end, but I’m more entertained than I have been in years.

“We both know you’ll fuck me willingly, even if you’re not ready to admit it just yet.” I step up to her and this time she stays put. Her head tilts back to keep her eyes on me, exposing her open throat. My eyes drop to the expanse of her skin. I’m desperate to claim her, to mark her in a way that identifies her as belonging to Thiago da Silva. My gaze moves back up to find her eyes hazed over with lust. “Not just willingly, Tess.Repeatedly. I can tell by the way you’ve been eye fucking me since you walked in. You’ll beg me to make you come and then you’ll beg me to please stop making you come. Depending on how merciful I feel that day, depending on how much of a good girl you’ll have been for me that day, I’ll decide then whether to use your pleasure as a reward or a form of torture.”

Her lips are parted, her breaths shallow. Her eyes pinball between mine as she rides the wave of lust my words have unfurled inside her. I know if I were to put my hands in her panties, I’d find her soaked for me.

It’s an exercise in control that I don’t actually have to not reach out and touch her.

“If you’re so convinced I’ll willingly sleep with you, then let me go,” she challenges.

I smirk. Extending my arms casually to either side of me, I look at her questioningly. “Am I holding you prisoner?”

Her eyes widen then turn wary. When I don’t move or touch her, she slides one foot to the side, then the other. She repeats the motion with her eyes trained on me like a skittish animal surveying a looming predator until I’m no longer standing between her and the door.

She doesn’t run even though I know she must be dying to, and that only makes me harder for her. I’m dizzy with the need to have her, to fuck her.

“Tess.”

She freezes, less than a foot from the door. The way her back tenses and her shoulders bunch around her ears tells me she’s afraid I’m going to hurt her. That I dangled the hope of an escape in front of her only to yank her back from the clutches of freedom at the very last second.

Nevertheless, she looks over her shoulder at me. She doesn’t bow her head or avert gaze. She looks me straight in the eye and defies me.

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