Page 38 of Hunted Temptation
“I was mesmerized by you. And when I saw what your life was like, I knew I wanted to save you, but then I ended up being exactly what I hate about them. I took you.”
Elodie opens her mouth, then closes it a few times. She looks like a fucking fish again. I wish it weren’t as goddamn cute as it is, but it’s adorable.
“You aren’t what you hate about them. You’re everything that is the exact opposite of them.”
I snort, mainly because I know she’s a liar, but also because I think it’s sweet that she thinks that. I’m not going to argue about it. Selfishly, I’m just going to accept what she’s willing to give me until she doesn’t want to give it to me any longer.
“What is going to happen to the rest of them?”
Her question catches me off guard. “The rest of them?”
She lifts her chin from my chest, nodding once before she rests it back down on my pec. I feel her palm press against my other pec before she slides it up to my throat. Her fingers curl around the column of my throat, and her thumb moves up and down the side while her eyes search mine.
“The rest of the men who do what they did. The ones who succeeded with me and with whoever else they paid to hurt.”
“They die,” I state.
It’s a simple statement.
“How?”
“Let me worry about that.”
She watches me in silence while searching my gaze before she leans forward, and I feel her lips touch mine. “Will you let me watch?” she asks against my lips.
Before I can respond, she slips her tongue inside my mouth, swirling and tasting me. Then she shifts her body so she’s straddling my hips, and I grip her waist, my fingers digging into her flesh.
“Let you watch?” I ask.
I want the clarification. I need it. Because right now, my cock twitches at the thought of her wanting to watch me kill these fucks for fun. I’m not sure that’s really what she wants, though. I need to hear her say the words.
“Let me watch you kill them.”
Chapter Fifteen
VAUGHN
I slipout of bed and walk out into the living room, my phone in hand. I don’t know when we became a Bonnie and Clyde vibe, but I think I would be okay with it if that’s what she wanted.
If she wants to murder and maim every piece of shit on the planet, then I’m down to do just that. Even if I might not believe that she could be capable of being my partner. Though the fact that she didn’t even flinch when I killed those fucks, one of them being her actual father, makes me think it’s possible.
What if she’s more like me than I ever imagined?
Maybe she needs it the way I do?
To heal.
To live.
I make my way toward my office and close the door behind me, locking it, then sink down in my chair before I look down at my phone. I didn’t want to look at it, to respond to anything until I was in here alone. I learned a long time ago that nothing good comes in the middle of the night.
Unlocking my device, I take in my notifications, my eyes scanning the screen. There was a hit on Elodie’s name. Someone searched her name online. I don’t know what they’re doing with the information, or rather lack thereof. They won’t find anything on her. Lucille and Nadine have assured me of that.
She’s been scrubbed. She existed. You can’t change the fact that she has a birth certificate, a high school diploma, and people who actually knew her. But that doesn’t mean her information needs to be accessible—past, present, or future.
Elodie existed, so there are people who will remember her, but they will never find her, not ever again. I will never let anything happen to her. And the past, the people of the past, are inconsequential to her future and would only cause her pain.
I’m not sure what to do with this information, but I decide to poke around myself. I want to know what they can see. Powering on my computer, I pull up a search engine and begin. After typing in her name, I wait.
