Page 68 of Bonds of Hate

“But there was more to it than that,” I softly declare, because we both know it isn’t a question.

He doesn’t blink, a slight tilt to his head as he studies me. “There was.”

“For how long?”

His head shifts to the opposite side, watchful. “From the very beginning, until the day she died.”

The implication of it is…horrifying. Without what happened to me over this past year, it would be the most horrifying violation I could imagine.

Inscrutable eyes, so dark they’re nearly black, do not so much as blink.

It colors my perspective of him in a way that turns black-and-white into technicolor. The world has tilted on its axis and I no longer have steady ground underneath me.

What did the queen do to him?

“Look at all those questions burning in your eyes,” he purrs, voice low and dangerous. “It would be so much easier if I just showed you.”

I don’t have time to process what Poe means before he closes the distance between us. His hand wraps around the back of my neck, fingers tangling in my hair, as he pulls me forward.

He glares down at me from inches away. Cold anger swirls in those dark depths, chilling me down to the bone. He studies my face for a full minute in silence, dark gaze burning into me.

His fingers tighten painfully at the base of my skull, daring me to make an attempt at fighting him off. I recognize the trick for what it is. If I shove him away, then he’ll have all the excuse he needs to really make this hurt.

There isn’t time to question his sudden flip from calm to aggressive. Every Alpha is volatile, but Poe walks that fine line more precariously than most of them. He is basically a walking stick of dynamite, just waiting for a spark to set off the explosion.

My eyes lower in automatic submission. I stay as still as possible in his arms, barely breathing as I stare at the place where his heart beats, studying the rise and fall of his chest. I let out in involuntary shiver and his arms tighten around me, the heat of his body enveloping me like a furnace.

We stay locked in this silent embrace until I can’t stand it anymore. When our gazes meet again, I realize he’d been waiting for me to do just that. In the space between one of my stuttering breaths and another, he strikes.

The kiss is brutal, nothing like the careful explorationI’d imagined my first kiss would be. It’s all-consuming fire and desperate need, his lips crushing against mine with an intensity that makes my knees weak. My eyes squeeze shut because I can’t bear one more second of the intensity in that obsidian gaze as he remorselessly claims my mouth.

His other arm bands around my waist like an iron bar, trapping me against his chest, the heat of him searing through my clothes until I can barely tell where I end and he begins. My heart thunders against my ribs, matching the wild rhythm I can feel beneath his skin, even as I remain frozen in place.

Poe doesn’t appear fazed by my complete lack of response. He forces my lips to part with the hard press of his own. I taste a metallic shock on my tongue as he nips at my lower lip hard enough to draw blood.

I can’t stop a sound of pain and he murmurs in response, the soothing tone in complete contrast to the harshness of the kiss he forces on me.

The shift in his demeanor is gradual, but unmistakable. His bruising grip on me morphs into an actual embrace, like one between true lovers. The lips that move against mine suddenly seem softer and more plush than should be possible.

Aggression slowly leaks out of him as his tongue traces the corner of my mouth before pushing its way inside. Shocks of electricity flow like blood through my veins, until my whole body feels lit up from the inside. He uses his grip on my hair to tilt my head back, using this new angle to deepen our kiss.

A kiss that transforms into something gentle…almost teasing.

A kiss I might actually enjoy under different circumstances.

That realization finally makes me try to push him away. My hands flatten against his chest, the scent of driftwood and sea salt like poison on my tongue as I shove at him.

A grunt of dark amusement and a tightening of his vice-like grip is Poe’s only response. He is as immovable as stone as he peppers close-mouthed kisses at the corner of my mouth before thrusting his tongue down my throat hard enough I might actually be at risk of swallowing it.

We briefly scuffle, my nails scraping uselessly against the black fabric of his uniform as Poe deepens the kiss, pressing harder. More insistent. My utterly useless protests grow more frantic, legs kicking out, shoulders twisting, but his body could be steel for all the good it does me. His scent crashes over me like an ocean wave, overwhelming my senses until I can barely think straight.

When I eventually collapse against him, exhausted by the brief fight, he finally relents.

Breaking the kiss, Poe pulls back enough to see my face without releasing his hold on me.

When he finally speaks, the words are soft enough that I have to strain to hear them.

“The first kiss always came as a surprise. No matter how many times it happened, I never let myself come to expect it. Looking back, I think it’s always easiest to lie to yourself when you know facing the truth won’t change a damn thing.”

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