Page 152 of Beautiful Venom

My heart falls and a piercing pain rips through my rib cage.

“I can fuck you if you need that, but there will be no relationship.”

I press my trembling lips together. “A relationship or no fucking.”

He shrugs.

“Fine.” I plaster a smile. “Step aside. I have a date to go back to.”

A muscle jumps in his cheek. “Don’t make me go back in there and choke him to death.”

“Be my guest. I’ll find others.”

“I’ll slice each and every one of their throats. Go ahead. Fucking test me.”

“You won’t possibly know them all.”

“Tryme.”

“It’ll be a hassle to clean up.”

“I have enough money to take care of the problem.” He squeezes my chin with his fingers. “You let another man put his hands on you and it’ll be the last time they touch anything.”

“You’d rather go through all that damn trouble than be in a relationship with me?” I shout, shoving at his chest. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

“You!” he shouts back, the veins in his neck nearly popping. “You’re everything that’s fucking wrong with me. You’re ruining my goddamn life.”

“You’re destroying mine!”

“Then walk the fuck away, Dahlia.”

“Let me go, then!”

“I already did!”

“No, you didn’t. It’s not considered letting go if you threaten to kill my possible prospects, Kane.”

“You have no other prospects butme.” He yanks my dress to my waist, exposing my panties.

A shiver rushes through me. I’ve been soaking wet since he carried me out, but it became worse with his touch and the back-and-forth.

I’m burning for him in ways I’ve never felt toward anyone else.

In ways I can’t truly control.

It will feel good when he touches me. I know it will, but I simply can’t tolerate what happens afterward anymore.

I slap his hand away. “Don’t touch me unless you’re ready to fully commit. And this is not a ‘don’t touch me that means you can use me.’ This is a ‘red,’ Kane.”

He freezes, his index finger twitching, then he steps back and runs his hand through his hair. “Fuck!”

I’ve never used the safe word, not even when I thought it could get to be a bit too much. I loved it when it hurt, when he fucked me so hard I couldn’t walk for a while.

But I’m using it now. This is the red line I didn’t know I had.

I refuse to have his body without his heart—and soul, if need be.

I refuse to be another stop on his journey. And even if I end up being that, I want to be the unforgettable stop he can’t purge out of his mind.

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