Page 67 of Beyond Hate

A perfect victim for my bloodstained hands.

“You don’t get it, London. Iwantto hurt you. I’m nevernotgoing to want to hurt you. It isn’t about who you are, or who you’re not. It isn’t about our past. It’s not about what you did or didn’t do. It’s this body—the man who was in it before I took over. He was a killer, London. A psychopath. He… fuck, he was darker than anything I’ve ever been, and those urges are stillhere. Every time I look at you, I can imagine what you look like bleeding just behind my lids. Every time you cry, it makes me want to break you more. It makes mehardto see your tears, London. Do you get it? I crave your pain.” My eyes flicked up to him, the tremoring pulse just beneath my skin threatening to tear out and show him exactly what monster I was talking about. He looked so sweet.

So easy to break.

And I…

I wanted it. I wanted all of him.

He was quiet, like he was taking in everything I’d just said. His blue eyes were careful when they looked me over, from my shaking hands to what I was sure was a desperate gaze. And then he crawled forward, shifting my legs apart so he could crowd my space. His fingers caught in my curls, tugging gently and forcing me to look at him.

“So do it.”

My brain couldn’t make sense of what he’d just said.

“What?”

“Do it. Use me. I want you to, Otto.”

My fingers clenched hard enough I knew I was cutting into my palms, but it was the only thing stopping me from reaching out and grabbing him then and there, taking him up on the offer.

“You don’t get it. There’s a part of me that wants to cut you open so I can run my tongue across your heart and drown in the beat of you. I want to carve my name on your ribs so you’reforced to feel it when you breathe in—I want to possess every part of you, London. I want to break you until I’m the only thing you can fit around.” His breath was coming faster, but he didn’t move away. “I want to drown in all the ways I can make you cry.”

The silence carried between us for another second before he reached down, and my fingers unclenched as he brought my hand to his face, brushing it across his trembling lips as he spoke.

“Then make me cry, Otto. You can have all my tears for the rest of my life. All my pain, all my fear, as long as I’myours. As long as you let me feelyou. I know it doesn’t make sense, butyoursis the only thing I’ve ever wanted to be.”

Fuck.

He didn’t understand.

He couldn’t understand…

But I wasn’t a good man, and he was offering me everything I wanted.

I couldn’t refuse.

“Do you want to die, rabbit?” The question came out as a soft rumble as I dropped my fingers from his lips to his throat and used my grip to flip him so he was suddenly pinned to the mattress beneath me.

London looked up at me with wide eyes and bit his lower lip.

“I don’t think so, but I know I might if you don’t fuck me the way you’ve been wanting to since you found me in that alley. I know you’ve been holding back because you think I’m delicate, Otto… but maybe I want to be broken. I—”

I cut him off with fingers tightening around his throat, and the sound of his words catching under the pressure was enough to light my body up. The look of panic as it quickly chased on the wings of pleasure that flitted across his face was intoxicating, and the way his hand came up to scramble at my wrists—notpushing me away, just holding on like I was the only anchor he had—was everything I needed.

He was everything I needed.

I leaned in and took his mouth with mine as I finally loosened my grip, drinking down the sound of him trying to catch his breath and kissing him before he had a chance to inhale too deeply. I wanted him dizzy for me, I wanted him aching. I made quick work of stripping us out of our clothes before coming back to pin him down again. When he tried to lean up and kiss me, I stopped him with fingers that slid into his mouth and pressed against his tongue.

London moaned, but the sound cut off in a sharp inhalation of breath when I started fucking his mouth in a punishing pace that left no room for softness. He gagged around me, his nails biting into my skin where he held onto my wrist… not trying to push me away… he was trying to pull me closer even as he struggled.

It wasn’t enough.

London was so pretty like this, with tears streaking down his face and his cheeks flushed. The sight of his throat, red where I’d wrapped my fingers around it was gorgeous… but I wanted more.

If he really meant what he said—if he really wanted to fuck the monster in me just as much as the man—I neededmore.

My hand fumbled almost blindly for the jacket he’d thrown off before coming to bed, for the knife that had set all of this off earlier. London’s eyes flew open when the sound of the blade snicking from the hilt spilled through the air. His grip on my wrist suddenly changed, trying to pull my fingers from his mouth, but I shook my head and pressed the digits down on his tongue hard enough to make him gag.

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