Page 179 of A Love Like Venom

Alice

The sound has become torturous. Grating on my nerves and testing my patience. It’s the twelfth time it has happened within the past hour. The twelfth time my ears made me wince with hearing the sound.

It goes on and on until it stops.

Only briefly. There’s only a moment of silence before it starts again.

And it’smaddening.

I want to hurl it across the wall and watch it smash leaving thousands of pieces fall the floor.

But even then I’m afraid it will still find a way to ring.

The only way the rings will ever stop is if I take my hands brutally around her delicate neck and apply pressure to cut the airway and the artery.

Not a pleasant thought but one that has crossed my mind one too many times. I’m not proud of it either. To let the anger and annoyance turn my thoughts to violence. I’m not proud of it at all.

But how else am I supposed to react?

I thought I understood the depths of obsession. Even with Razor his bizarre obsession with me is intense. I watched a maninnocently flirt with me and then never come back. But this is extreme. Isn’t it?

I swear to god if I have to hear his phone ring one more time I’m going to break out of here and strangle her.

Ring. Ring. Ring.

Ring. Ring. Ring.

Swinging my back leg up I snap my foot at the top landing my most powerful round kick yet. Bringing my foot back down I’m prepared to land another one but his hand catches my leg before impact.

With my leg captured I’m left balancing one one foot. I keep my boxing stance up like he taught me.

“Are you trying to break a rib?” He asks me jokingly but there’s underlines of worry, too.

In all our sessions I have never shown this much aggression.

“No,” I huff out.

At least not his.

Ring. Ring. Ring.

Ring. Ring. Ring.

Groaning with frustration I maneuver myself out of his hold like he taught me. Bending the leg that he holds closer towards him and then jumping in the air with the leg I was balancing on. Next twisting my body I take that very same leg and clip him under the jaw with my foot. The action causes him to release his hold and I land crouched on the floor.

Before he has the time to retaliate I kick out my leg again except this time in a sweeping motion to the back of his calves. He comes down, falling on his back and I straddle him.

His hands as always grip my waist. Unlike other times where he looks up at me with a proud smile his lips are formed in a grim line and his brows are furrowed. “What’s wrong?”

I go to move away from him but his grip tightens on my hips.

As much as I believe I’m in control I know that I’m not. Reed is highly skilled. There is no situation in which he doesn’t know how to get out of. Like he told me before, just because you’re on the ground doesn’t mean you’re not in control.

“Nothing is wrong.”

He gives me a disbelieving look. “You nearly break my ribs; you knock me on my ass and have been noticeably more aggressive.”

“That is-”

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