Page 69 of Her Name in Red
I turn to Maren, blood dripping from her knife in my hand. Her eyes are wide, pupils blown, cheeks flushed. She's such a beautiful nightmare.
“Riggs,” she whispers, and my name in her mouth sounds like a prayer.
I grab her, pulling her against me, not caring about the blood on my hands or the dead man at our feet. Her mouth crashes into mine, hungry and desperate. I taste copper and salt and her.
“We need to go,” she pants against my lips, but her hands are gripping my shirt, pulling me closer.
“Not yet,” I growl, pushing her back against the opposite wall, away from dead body. My hands find her thighs, hiking up that black dress as her legs wrap around my waist.
This is insane. We're in an alley with a corpse. But the danger, the wrongness of it all, only makes the need more urgent.
“Riggs,” she moans as my teeth find her neck. “We can't?—”
“Tell me to stop,” I challenge, knowing she won't. She can't. She's as fucked up as I am. As consumed by this darkness.
Her answer is to dig her nails into my shoulders, drawing blood that mixes with the drops already on my skin.
“This is what you do to me,” I rasp against her ear. “This is what you've made me.”
I rip her panties down her legs without ceremony, the sound of tearing fabric lost in her gasp. My jeans are undone and shoved down just far enough in seconds, freeing myself while pinning her harder against the wall.
I slam into her in one brutal thrust that makes her cry out. There's no gentle warm-up, no careful preparation—just pure animal need. She feels like fucking heaven, tight and slick around me.
“This what you wanted?” I growl, driving into her again. “To make me like this?”
Her answer is to bite my shoulder through my shirt, hard enough to draw blood. Pain shoots through me, amplifying everything. I grip her ass, fingers digging in hard enough to bruise as I pound into her relentlessly.
“Harder,” she hisses in my ear, nails raking down my back. “Show me what you really are. A pretty boy monster.”
Something takes over. I'm not even human anymore—just a creature of instinct and need. I fuck her like I'm trying to break her, to mark her from the inside out. Each thrust slams her back against the wall, and the small part of my brain still capable of thought worries I might hurt her.
But Maren isn't fragile. She meets every thrust with equal force, her body arching into mine. Her nails scrape down my arms, my neck, raising welts I'll have to explain away tomorrow. I don't care. I want her marks all over me.
“Look at him,” she pants, eyes flicking to the body. “Look what we did.”
I follow her gaze to the lifeless form just feet away, blood pooling black in the dim light. The sight should kill my arousal, should make me sick with horror.
Instead, I feel my cock pulse inside her, harder than I've ever been.
“Fuck,” I groan, pace becoming erratic as heat builds at the base of my spine. “What have you done to me?”
Her laugh is breathless, triumphant. “Released you from society.”
This beautiful, dangerous woman brought out a monster I didn't know existed, and now she's taunting me with it.
“You think you've got me all figured out?” I snarl, slamming her harder against the wall. “You haven't seen shit yet.”
My hand shoots up to her throat, fingers wrapping around that delicate column of flesh. I squeeze, feeling her pulse hammer against my palm. Not enough to stop her breathing completely, but enough to restrict it.
“This what you want, Maren?” I growl, hips driving into her with bruising force. “You want the monster? You fucking got him.”
Her lips part, struggling for air, but she's smiling. Fucking smiling as I choke her. My cock throbs inside her at the sight.
“You're so fucking wet,” I hiss, feeling her cunt clench around me. “Getting off on this, aren't you? On what we did. On what I'm doing to you now.”
I tighten my grip just a fraction more, watching her eyes glaze slightly. The power is intoxicating. I control her breath, her pleasure, her life. One squeeze too hard and she'd be gone, just like Tyler.
But that's not what I want. I want her alive, responsive, mine.
