Page 100 of Craving Venom

“You do realize this is fraud, right?”

“Technically, no. You have a legal background. Just enough for them to believe it.” He stretches out in his chair as though he’s settling in for a date, not a prison visit. “Besides… listing you as my wife would’ve been a dead giveaway.”

“A dead giveaway of what?”

“That you can’t stay away from me.”

“You’re confusing pity with obsession,” I say coolly. “Happens when you’ve been locked up too long. You start imagining connections where there aren’t any.”

Zane grins, but his eyes drift toward my collarbone. “The necklace says otherwise.”

Shit.

“I just didn’t want to lose track of stolen property,” I lie smoothly, though I know he’s not buying it.

“Stolen? That’s a bold accusation.”

“Yeah? Then where’d you get it?”

“It belonged to a princess. She told me to give it to someone almost as beautiful as her.”

I scoff, rolling my eyes hard enough to give myself whiplash. “Oh, so now you’re fencing royal family heirlooms? What’s next, Zane? Are you going to tell me you dated her too?”

He just smiles. “Would you be jealous if I did?”

I snort, rolling my eyes. “Oh, shut the fuck up.” I cross my arms. “Just tell me why you killed your family and I’ll leave you alone.”

His smirk vanishes, and his expression changes as the playfulness drains from his face, replaced by something darker.

“I don’t want you to.”

I open my mouth to respond, but nothing comes out, because that wasn’t a taunt, wasn’t him being an arrogant bastard this time. It was something real.

“But I want to.”

Zane clicks his tongue, shaking his head. “Here we go again. Your body doesn’t lie, Faith. No matter how much that pretty little brain of yours tries to convince you otherwise.”

My fingers dig into my thighs beneath the desk. “You forced me.”

“You came hard, good girl.”

I hate that he says it so fucking easily, like it’s something that can’t be debated.

“You forced me,” I say again, but it sounds weaker this time.

He rests his forearms on the metal table. “Ipusheda few of your boundaries, yeah,” he admits. “And look at you, you’re still shaking from it.”

“You violated me, you asshole!” I yell.

Zane laughs, and it’s a full, deep, genuine laugh. Every inch of him radiates mockery, turning my words into a punchline. And just like that, I see red.

“This is not funny!” I seethe.

“But it is,” he says, wiping the corner of his mouth. “A good girl lets loose for one night, has the best orgasm of her life, and then spends the next week convincing herself she was violated.”

“I’m not a good girl.”

Of all the fucking things to say.

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