Page 12 of Deviant

Right?

My skin heats up just imagining all the ways Elias might exact his retribution for my defiant tongue, given half the chance.

Maybe if I play my cards right, he might give me exactly what I want.

Death at the hands of someone who actually loved Nora like I did would be a merciful gift.

A girl can only hope.

I’m still wracking my brain with other ways to rile him up when he takes one last drag of his cigarette before putting it out on the ashtray in front of him.

My breath catches in my throat when, ever so leisurely, he stands up from his seat and takes three long strides toward me. He gets so close that I have no choice but to lean further back onto the rail, my hands holding onto it behind my back, just to keep from falling.

“Tell me, Rowen?” he murmurs softly, his voice holding onto its sinister taint as his iridescent midnight-blue stare holds my complete attention captive. “Is my asshole brother that bad of a fuck that you’re so hard up you want to jump on my cock next? ‘Cause I don’t do sloppy seconds. Especially when it comes to his leftovers.”

My eyes widen incredulously at the nasty insult.

Elias has never spoken to me in such a way before.

So crude.

So blatantly disrespectful.

But to my shame—now that he’s planted such a lurid idea in my head—the vile fantasy ends up taking root, and all of a sudden, I find myself imagining being properly fucked by someone who hates me… someone who knows how rotten I am on the inside and wouldn’t think twice about punishing me for it.

And for it to have been Elias, of all people, to provoke such an unwanted, visceral reaction out of me has my skin breaking out in goosebumps with the delicious, unwelcome shiver that ends up slithering down my spine, making me ashamedly wet on the spot.

Trying to hide how his remark hit more than just a nerve, I place my hands on his taut chest and push him away from me with all my might.

“That was completely uncalled for,” I reprimand with a stern expression stitched to my face, ignoring how the pulse in my clit is suddenly throbbing.

“Was it?” He lets out a wolfish grin before taking another step back.

“Yes. It was,” I rebuke in fake outrage. “What if Aidan had heard you say such a thing? If you can’t pretend to have any respect for me, then at least have the decency to show some to your brother by keeping comments like that to yourself.”

The amused cackle he lets out has me fuming, eviscerating the momentary yearning my body ignited with so unexpectedly.

“The day I respect either one of you, hell would have frozen over.”

“Wow. You really are an asshole, aren’t you?”

“And what are you, Rowen?” he asks, far too poignantly. “What pray-fucking-tell are you?”

A killer.

A murderer.

A monster.

I school my expression to look just as annoyed as his, but deep down, I know he already has the answer to that loaded question.

“Not your problem,” I say at last. “That’s who the fuck I am.”

He scoffs, eyeing me up and down suspiciously.

“We’ll see how the night plays out if that ends up being true or not.”

Confused by his cryptic remark, I decide I’ve had enough of Elias’s brand of torment for one night, so without so much as a ‘Go fuck yourself,’ I turn my back to him, walk down the two small steps off his porch, and rush to my car.

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