Page 84 of Brutal Legacy

The young guy’s eyes strayed to me.

“Including her… and there’s no need to look at her. Avert your eyes in her presence,” Elio told him curtly, with all the warmth of a frozen river.

What had happened to Elio Santori to make him this ruthless, remorseless killer?You could just ask him.Right, because stopping to ask deep, searching, personal questions when you’re literally under attack is a normal thing to do.

He opened his bedroom door and waited. I paused on the threshold.

“Shall I carry you over it? I didn’t take you for superstitious.”

I stepped forward into the room and glared at him. He entered more slowly and locked the door behind him. The world fell very quiet. My anger and shock from just outside the chapel had petered out, but I was still reeling.

Elio took me in from head to toe.

“Turn around,” he instructed me harshly.

“I will not consummate this marriage,” I stated, firm. “I refuse. I protest. I do not consent to your touch, got it?”

I raised my chin at him and folded my arms across my chest, because honestly, I didn’t know any other way to deal with this man. The one who’d broken my heart and now, all these years later, tracked me down and forced me to marry him.

“Yet, I’ve already tasted your cum,cara… and you’ve already screamed my name while my finger was in your ass. I think that ship has sailed.”

“Yeah, well, that was before I knew who you were.”

He chuckled, a dark, familiar sound. A sound ripped from the past.

“So, you wanted to fuck a brutal stranger but not the boy you pretended to care about all those years ago? That tracks. You’re still arrogant enough to think I want to stick my dick anywhere near you?”

I flinched at the icy mockery in his tone and shrugged.

“As long as we understand each other.”

He reached into his pocket and withdrew a folding knife. He opened it languidly, and the wicked point caught the sunlight falling through the window.

“Now, back to the business at hand. I said, turn around. You’d better get used to following instructions, Georgia, or this new life of yours is really going to hurt.”

I scoffed. “Hurt? Like anything you could do to me could hurt me more than you already have. What are you going to do? Beat me? Stab me? Force me?” I shrugged again. “Do your worst. It’s all I expect of you anyway.”

A muscle ticked in Elio’s stone-cut jaw as he watched me. Remaining silent, he pushed off the door and advanced on me. I turned and tried to sidestep him, but his arm quickly snaked around my waist and pulled me close.

“One day, my dear wife, you’re going to realize that these little acts of defiance and tests are dangerous. You’re going to understand how much I’m holding back, only when I lose it. So be careful,” he said.

I didn’t understand why, but his words made heat break out across my skin. Something about how his voice dipped over the threat of losing his self-control. The way he’d sounded like the old him, the brave, charming boy I’d lost my heart to so effortlessly. He was warning me not to break that mechanical, robot-like cool that he had developed in the years we’d been apart.

I wanted to break it, though. I wanted to destroy him like he was destroying me. Why should he get to be the one with the clear, unruffled composure, while I was melting down into a hot mess?

There was a slicing sound, and then the damn corset of the dress was loosening. The bodice sagged as he cut through the ribbons up the back. His hot breath hit my bare shoulder, sending prickles all through me. His thumb brushed my skin, and I fought not to arch into his touch like a cat.

“Your control isn’t mine to command.” I twisted around. “You can’t blame me for any of this.”

His gaze hit mine and then dropped.

Colored contacts. Such a simple way to hide those noteworthy green eyes. Suddenly, I wanted to see his real eyes so much, I couldn’t breathe.

I was pretty sure the sagging bodice and sheer strapless bra I’d been given this morning wasn’t leaving much to the imagination. I didn’t care. I wasn’t going to be the only one to suffer. I wasn’t going to be the only one to go fucking insane.

His gaze moved across me, bringing heat to the surface of my skin.

“Take it off and shower,” he instructed. His words were only a murmur now but a command, nonetheless.

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