Page 161 of The Beautiful Dead

Domino sat in the chair across from me, elbows on his knees, cigarette burning between his fingers. Watching. Like he was memorizing me. Like he was trying to ruin me just by looking.

His face was hollowed out with exhaustion. Shadows clung to the sharp angles of his cheekbones, dark circles bruising the skin beneath his eyes.

But he wasn’t tired.

No—he was wired.

Tension coiled so tight in his shoulders it looked like it might snap his fucking bones. Like he was holding himself together by a thread.

I turned my head toward him, peeling my eyes open. I smiled—slow, lazy. “You could just touch me, you know.”

His fingers twitched.

But he didn’t move.

Didn’t speak.

Just kept staring.

I dragged my tongue across my bottom lip, stretched just enough that my muscles flexed under his gaze.

His breath hitched.

I smirked. It was almost too easy. He was so close to the edge. So close to snapping. And I wanted him to. Needed him to.

“You’re going to lose your mind at this rate,” I murmured.

Then, deliberately slow, I trailed my fingers down my chest. Waiting. Daring.

Something cracked behind his eyes.

Still, he didn’t move.

Didn’t blink.

I chuckled. “You want to ruin me, don’t you?”

That was it.

The final push. He moved so fast that I barely had time to react before he was on me. Pinning me to the mattress. His hand wrapped around my throat, his breath hot against my ear.

My grin sharpened. “About time.”

His body was a live wire above me. All tension, all heat, all barely-contained violence. “You don’t know what you’re asking for, Remi.”

His voice was wrecked. Rough. The sound of it alone made heat curl low in my stomach.

“I do.” I dragged my fingers down the ridges of his spine, pressing into the scars I’d left there, feeling the texture of my history carved into his skin. Proof that he was mine.

I pulled him closer, baring my throat.

Inviting him.

Baiting him.

“You once said my body was your favorite playground,” I whispered. “There is nothing you can do to me that I won’t enjoy, Domino.”

His fingers flexed around my throat. His control shattered.

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