Page 34 of Ink Deep Devotion

“How was last night?” Damian asks. A buffoon couldn’t miss the warning in his eyes.

“If you care about her so much, then you tend to her.” I spit.

“Maybe I will,” With his elbows on the table, his dark hair casts a shadow over his features like a thundercloud. Damian wasn’t graced with our genetic blonde hair. He got his darker features, eyes, and a hint of a tan from his mother. His own reflection is a haunting presence for him and his father. That’s why his dad can’t look at him.

His lips curl up, feeling like a whooshing of wind as his words prepare to jab me.“She must be good in bed if she has broken you so badly.”

The fork in my hand bends from the pressure. Damian pushes back and grins,“If you didn’t care, you’d have no reaction.”

A roll of my eyes is the only answer I prefer to give.

“You’re going to see her every single day. Why torture yourself?”

Stabbing my fork roughly into my eggs, I reply,“Maybe I like pain more than pleasure now.”

“And what if she does?” Damian challenges. Titan glares at him in warning, but he continues.“You told me Mila used to hurt herself in the past. What if she hurts herself again over your dismissal?”

I wish I never told them that.

“It’s her life, not mine.” I shrug.

Has she slipped back intoallher old routines?

The answer becomes an incessant itch under my skin. The need to strip her bare and inspect every inch of her body is now a matter of urgency.

Scratch that; it’s a guarantee, a declaration, and an oath.

“You’re engaged.” Damian replies.

That’s not a peace treaty. Some engagement contracts are declarations of war.

“What man in our world has stayed faithful to his wife?”Yeah, I am a bastard.I carefully chose those words to rip open old scars from his childhood.

Why did I say that? Because I want to hurt Damian like he has hurt me.

Damian’s glare is so heavy I’m forced to acknowledge it.“Your dad stayed loyal.” Damian growls. My heart skips a beat.“Still has, even though it’s been years since your mom passed.”

Touché. We both just pried open each other’s jaws and waterboarded ourselves with past inflictions.

I lunge across the table, making contact with his left eye before Titan can stop me. Breakfast is replaced with blood and fury.

Oddly enough, it’s more tasty than the eggs.

Chapter 12

Mila

My eyes snap open to shades of darkness that send a chill through the very marrow of my bones. I’m no longer alone in my dorm room.

Thump! There, in my corner, is an ominous shadow that forms the shape of a man.

I sit up in urgency; the sheet slips down, uncovering my skin to the monster lurking. My eyes are suppressed from seeing, but my ears detect the sound of his tongue lazily swiping over his bottom lip.

“Dash,” I breathe in shock and…joy. He came.

I know it’s Dash. I could spot his silhouette anywhere. The room hums with a sorrow-filled symphony of heartbreak and yearning from the syncing of our beating hearts. Two hearts at war with each other and themselves.

We’re fatal, enemies-to-lovers-to-enemies again. A reckless sequence that has driven us to madness. We want each other so badly that we can’t stand it. It’s an ailment for which there is notreatment. If we give in and taste each other, it only makes us sicker, and the craving intensifies.

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