Page 35 of My Dark Divine

Despite the sting her words evoke, I must agree with her.

The passion crackles and explodes between us, electricity licking at my heated skin as my lips magnetize back to hers. The drugs never made me feel this way, so I doubt it’s a side effect of the coke. It’s all her—she’s stealing my consciousness, transforming me into an obsessed, explosive fucking mess.

“Excuse me?”

We both stop, our mouths still connected, struggling to determine whether it’s a hallucination or if someone has truly interrupted our moment. Reluctantly, I pull back, licking the fragments of our passion from my lips. Turning my head, I catch the startled senator’s face, his eyes glued to the scene, unblinking.

How fucking rude. “You’re excused,” I say, irritation seeping into my tone. “Leave. We’ll be with you soon.”

He takes a cautious step forward, and my anger surges, wrapping around my insides like a venomous tendril. Quickly, I shift my attention back to Venetia, leaning close to her ear and savoring the shudder that ripples through her shoulders. “Go make yourself look decent. Wipe off that bliss from your pretty face. I don’t want any of them seeing you like this,” I whisper, placing a soft kiss on her cheek.

Sucking in a deep breath, she turns away, her shaky hands twisting the door handle and locking herself in the bathroom.

“Senator Hayes,” I greet, struggling to mask the anger in my voice as I turn to face him. The fucker has the audacity to cut off our moment like this, and it makes me want to snap his neck right here. “It’s nice to meet you.”

He moves closer, his expression changing from shock to smugness as he slightly throws his head back, brushing some of his black hair aside. “You too, West. We’ve been looking for you both everywhere. The meeting is about to start.”

Ah, the meeting. I had completely forgotten about that. “Yeah. And you clearly don’t know what personal space means, do you?”

He chuckles, waving me off. “Oh, West. You remind me of myself at your age—same passion, same drive.” He speaks about me like I’m fifteen, despite being only six years older than I am. “Do you two do this often?”

I freeze, struggling to process the question. “What?”

A playful smile spreads across his face as he leans in, the smell of cigars wafting from him. “I mean, in public places. The thrill of being watched or caught… I know what it does to a person,” he says, each word fueling my anger.

My insides ignite with familiar desire as I look down at him, absorbing the garbage he’s spouting.

“The best part is when that feeling transforms into something far more dangerous after being caught. See, no matter how shytheyact, there’s an adrenaline thrill inside them—something they’re so eager to deny. So when someone else witnesses the scene?—”

“Careful how you finish that sentence, senator,” I interject, my tone dropping several shades lower. I’ve crossed paths with him a few times, and it didn’t take long to piece together who heis. He has a beautiful family, but like most fuckers, he’s blind to it, ungrateful, and driven by the need to get his dick wet.

He shrugs, feigning nonchalance. “I’m just saying. More people, more fun.”

I hold back for a second before nodding, the thrill of a new idea spreading through my mind. “You came up with that as soon as you saw her, right?” I ask, trying to keep my tone even, hoping my little idea won’t reveal itself.

A frown crosses his face, but the stupid smile remains. “Yeah?”

“And what do you plan to do with her, Heyes?” I press. “What comes after just watching? Maybe touching her with your hands?”

“I don’t understand?—”

“Just say it,” I push, my patience unraveling with each passing second. “I want to know what you plan to do with my girl.”

An ugly laugh bursts from his chest. “She’s not your property, you know? You can’t own her.” He slaps my back like we’re friends, and revulsion rises in my throat. I fight the urge to butcher him, knowing it’s too early. Besides, as he continues to speak, my mind races with increasingly creative ways to deal with him. “So, well, yeah. Come on, you know how it works. Some talking, a little touching, before finally doing the deed.”

“And you’re not worried that I might kill you after hearing about these fantasies of yours?”

His expression remains one of indifference as he bares his teeth at me. “Kill a senator? Oh, I don’t think so. I’m not some random asshole from the local bar, West. It’ll be hard to kill a man like me.”

There’s a note of truth in that. It won’t be easy.

But it definitely won’t be impossible.

My hands and shirt are smeared with Hayes’s blood, some drops flecking across my vision. His screams fade into the background, muffled beneath the piercing ring in my ears. He mumbles curses and fragmented words, and I tighten my grip on the pliers, feeling a pang of melancholy.

A few hours have passed, and we’re nearing the end. I’ve savored this more than with any past victims, mostly because I’ve seen firsthand the behavior that brought us to this moment. He turned out to be even more fucking stupid than I’d expected. The fucker had the nerve to suggest I share my fiancée with him, even describing in detail what he wanted to do to her. It made my work with him more satisfying, though I barely restrainedmyself during that meeting. He believed I was humoring his fantasies—his eyes never left Venetia.

To say that infuriated me would be an understatement. I’d never struggled so hard to suppress the urge to leap over that fucking table and turn his face into a bloody mess.

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