Page 26 of Ever Dark

She latches her hand onto my wrist. “Seriously? I threw a drink. You drove through my front fucking gates.”

My breath hitches as she strikes another nerve inside my chest. We shouldn’t be allowed to touch each other. Not like this. “Because you infuriate me, Mia,” I scream in her face.

A devious smirk pulls at the corners of her lips. “Good,” she yells back. “Because ever since I heard the nameDraven Blackwell, all I want to do is bang my head against a wall. I wish I’d never come here.”

I don’t like my name in her mouth. It sounds too familiar, too comfortable. Like she isn’t a stranger I fucked in a bathroom but a piece of something holy that I don’t have the right to touch.

The rain is coming down harder, numbing my fingers and lips. But all I can think about is this villainous creature in front of me driving me mad. “And ever since you came to town, my life has been hell. You have no idea the evil that lives inside me, Mia. The things I want to do…”

She sucks in a sharp breath. “I think you’re a coward.”

“Mia,” I warn her. I’m so close to the edge.

She arches her back, tilting her head up to look deeper intomy eyes. “You sent Aries to try to get me drunk. When that didn’t work, you sent Bones to scare me. But all it did was make me wet.”

The thick rot that lives in my veins is churning, tempting me to lose control with every torturous word out of her mouth. I squeeze her throat harder. “Watch your fucking tongue.”

She grins like the devil. “And nowyoushow up, acting like a child who wants to break all his toys. You’re pathetic.”

“Shut. Your. Fucking. Mouth,” I grit out.

“Or what? You gonna kill me, Draven?” Her chest is heaving out of control. We’re both trembling, freezing in this storm that seems to rage only for us.

I look down at her body. Her dress is useless, plastered to her skin like wet paper. And mine wants hers so fucking bad. My soul wants to relive that sliver of peace again. Even as her very existence is the catalyst for my madness.

I don’t want to kill her. Not tonight. Not yet. Fuck. I let go of her throat and inch my hand down her chest. “You’re going to freeze to death, and that’s not how I want you to die.”

“You’re a psycho,” she fires back.

It’s the ache in her voice that breaks me. I swoop her up and carry her inside.

“Wait, what are you doing?” She pushes against me, trying to wrangle free.

I set her down in front of the fireplace and start taking off my clothes. “I’m going to hate fuck you until I get you out of my system. Because I swear to the ravens if I have to hold my breath every time I get a whiff of jasmine, I’m going to checkmyselfinto an asylum.”

Her eyes darken, even the blue one this time. “Charming as ever.”

I notice how her pupils dilate when I slide off my pants and boxers. She can’t take her eyes off my cock. “Don’t fucking act like you don’t want the same thing.”

She licks her lips before finally lifting her gaze back up to mine. “But I hate you, Slick.”

I nod as I step toward her and rip her dress off in one swift move. “Yeah, I fucking hate you too, Trouble. I hate that we’re going to make each other cum so hard that we forget that part.”

Before she can utter another traitorous word, I thrust my tongue into her mouth.

MIA

I’m crashing, spiraling, breaking apart like twisted metal. Destroyed like the iron gates Draven plowed through. His tongue is violent and bitter in my mouth. His hands are all over me, his cold fingers sending sparks across my frozen flesh. The heat sets fire to the numbness. Everything hurts. Everything is ecstasy. And the only air I can suck down into my lungs is his breath.

He yanks my head back and snarls as he rakes his teeth down my neck. “Get on your knees. I want you to fucking bow to me.”

The way this man thinks he can order me around is disturbing. I pull back and hiss. “Go fuck yourself, Draven.”

He growls, his eyes glowing, as he comes for me again. In one quick swoop he flips me around so that my back is at his chest. “You are going to do at least one fucking thing I tell you to do.”

Before I can utter another hateful word, he slips two fingers inside my pussy. My breath lodges in my throat, and I have to bite back a moan. Fuck, he’s too good at touching me. It’s not fair. It’s not fuckingright.

“Yeah.” He breathes heavily in my ear. “I hate you so fucking much. I loathe what you have done to me. Now get on your fucking knees.”

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