Page 129 of Redeemed

“No! No, I can do that myself.”

But Colton shakes his head. “I promised to take care of you. It’s my job.”

“What you just did wasnottaking care of me. It—it was the opposite. It was cruel. It wastorture.”

“As I said the other day—sometimes, pain is needed. Now open your damn legs.”

I do, but only because I’m afraid of what he’ll do if I don’t.

“You don’t know what’s best for me,” I mumble as he wipes between my legs. The warmth from the cloth is soothing, but I don’t let it lull me into a false sense of security. Colton isn’t getting the better of me again today.

“Sure, angel.”

“You don’t!”

His gaze flicks to mine for a split second, and he gives me an amused smile. “You’ll learn to accept it soon enough.”

God, he’s so fucking infuriating.

“I hate you,” I grind out, and the second he’s done, I snap my legs shut.

“So you’ve said.”

“And I want to kill you.”

“Then do it.”

My gaze locks onto his. His tone wasn’t mocking, and he isn’t wearing his signature smirk. But there’s no way he meant that.

“You’d stop me.”

“I don’t have to.”

“Why?”

He shrugs. “Because you don’t have it in you.”

Fury sparks inside me, and I lunge at him. The force of my weight—and the fact that I caught Colton off guard—knocks him backward onto the bed. My hands are around his neck a split second later, squeezing as hard as I can.

Colton’s eyebrows shoot up in surprise, but he doesn’t move to shove me off him. He just watches with a grin as his face turns red from lack of blood flow.

Is he actually going to let me murder him?

Am I actually going to follow through?

“Come on,” he says, voice strained. “You’re more creative than this. At least use a knife or something. Get messy with it. Have some fun.”

I stare down at him in shock. Visions of blood-stained sheets and Colton’s still, lifeless body lying on top of them fill my mind. It makes me sick to my stomach.

With a horrified gasp, I rear back, my hands falling from Colton’s neck. I can’t kill him. It’s not who I am. I’ve rejected a lot of the beliefs I was taught at Cornerstone, but not this one. I’d never be able to live with myself if I let myself become a killer.

Which means Colton is right.

He’s always fucking right.

What’s worse, though, is the realization that I’m sitting right on top of Colton’s erection. I’m strangling him, and the motherfucker is getting turned on by it.

I scramble off him, but Colton grabs me and shoves me onto my back. He’s on top of me a split second later, his thigh shoved between my legs and his green eyes almost glowing with hatred.

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