Page 99 of Devil Mine

I slap him. The crack echoes against the walls.

Then terrifying silence descends between us.

I realize just how dangerous it is to strike a man like him when his head turns slowly back towards me, all traces of humanity gone from his gaze.

Pinning me against the wall, he takes my wrists and shoves them brutally above my head. “What the fuck is your problem?”

“You are!”

“I won’t apologize for my reaction to finding you alone with another man,” he seethes through clenched teeth. “That’s not something I ever want to fucking see again.”

“This isn’t about Callum. Or Claudia for that matter. It’s aboutyou. About me,” I shout. “You married me only because you needed to win. There’s no way you could let the bride you bought run away from you. Your ego simply couldn’t take the rejection of being told no. You did it to control me. To show that no one triumphs over thegreatThiago da Silva,” I spit out bitterly. “And, bonus, you did it for the boost in social capital my name gave you. You didn’t marry me because you wantedmeor were planning on making room in your life for me. Your heart is completely closed off, so stop with the possessiveness and the jealousy and leavemyheart to its own desires. I’m just a stand-in, so don’t pretend to care, don’t pretend you want anything from me other than getting me to finally submit to you so I can be the most expensively purchased prostitute of all time.” I laugh humorlessly. “Well I refuse to be someone who warms your bed simply because the person you really want is dead. Go mourn your precious Adriana and let mego.”

My voice cracks on my last plea and I hate it. Hate that he hears that weakness, that he likely sees the tears pricking at the corners of my eyes, but weeks of pent-up anguish and resentment are trying to break free.

Then his hands are tangling in my hair again and his mouth is back on mine like he didn’t hear a single word I said. I shove at him. I bite. I try to slap him again. Shock freezes me in place when my left hand connects with his lip. He fingers the spot, his thumb coming away from his mouth with a thin pinprick of blood. My ring must have cut his lip.

But instead of getting angry, his heated eyes find mine and his smile stretches into an evil grin, revealing teeth partially stained with blood.

“That’s right, fight for me,amor.”

???

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Thiago

“What?” she asks, troubled by my bleeding lip.

“I’m in love with someone else,” I confess to her, eyes searching hers. “What do you feel?”

The care in her gaze shutters, the concern over my cut wiping away in a heartbeat. She shoves at my chest, those tears I’d spotted earlier back in her eyes once more.

“I hate you,” she promises, her lower lip trembling.

“You hate me.”

“Iloatheyou,” she cries, voice breaking.

“Why?”

Her arms flail and I grab one forearm, then the other, and yank her forward, pinning them both against my chest.

“I can’t stand you,” she says, fighting against my hold on her.

“Why?” I repeat through gritted teeth. “Why does Adriana bother you so much?”

I’m not sure how Tess knows of my sister’s existence when I haven’t mentioned her yet. Nor do I understand how she came to think Adriana was a previous love interest of mine. But I’m not afraid to use this opportunity to get to the truth, because stalking after Tess and tracking her down only to find her in a darkened hallway alone with another man did something ungodly to my insides, something I’m still recovering from.

The first thing I noticed before I even recognized Callum was that their hands were joined. The gut punch had been swift and debilitating, the feeling that I’d been shoved off an incredibly tall building and was quickly hurtling towards solid, deadly ground, completely crippling. Jealousy had slammed into me, brutally primitive and vicious. The fact that we hadn’t slept together meant that she wasn’t mine, not fully at least, and the need to immediately claim her had been crushing. I barely even registered the fact that I’d punched one of my closest allies, a man who I know has been very happily married for a long time.

Tess thrashes against me, furious tears seeping from the corners of her eyes and finally tracing down her reddened cheeks. It’s the first time I’m seeing her cry outside of her spanking and it’s not because of her father, or what I did to Dagny, or because she’s homesick, it’s because ofme. Because the thought of me loving another woman drives her crazy.

And if I had any doubts about whether any parts of my soul are salvageable, those are laid to rest with a resounding ‘no’.

Because I love it.

I fuckinglovethat she’s shedding tears for me.

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