Page 133 of Madness & Mercy
“You think you can tease me and walk away?” he growls, his voice like fire dragging over silk.
I suck in a breath that doesn’t quite make it to my lungs. My mouth opens, and I try, desperately, to hold on to some part of myself.
“I wasn’t walking away,” I rasp. “You’re the one who—”
He cuts me off with a rough laugh, low and full of warning.
“Still mouthing off?” he mutters, his voice dark with restraint he’s seconds from losing.
His hand slides up, slow and possessive, fingers brushing my throat to remind me I’mhis.
I shudder beneath his touch.
“You don’tget it, piccolino,” he whispers, his thumb grazing the edge of my jaw. “You beg for pain like you think you can handle it. Like you don’tknowI’ll give it to you.”
His lips brush mine but don’t close the gap.
“Like you don’t understand how badly Iwantto break you.”
I’m shaking. From the heat, from the fury in his body, from the way his voice wraps around my spine like barbed wire. He’s not even kissing me yet, and I’m already on the edge of unraveling.
“You gonna stop me?” he asks, his voice low and vicious. “You gonna lie again,piccolino? Tell me you don’t want this.”
“No,” I choke out. “I—fuck—I’m not lying. I want it. I want—”
“You want what?” he snaps, his eyes burning into mine. “The punishment? The ruin? The pain? Or me?”
I look at him fully, and Iknow… there’s no difference anymore.
“You,” I whisper. “I wantyou.”
That’s all it takes.
He surges forward and crashes his mouth to mine like a man starved, all teeth and heat and tongue. It’s a violent, hungry,unforgivingthing that says,you’re mine now, and there’s no coming back.
I gasp against his mouth, and he uses it. He invades, devours, takes until I’m dizzy.
My hands, shaking and unsure, reach up and tangle in his shirt.
He pulls back just enough to breathe, his lips still brushing mine.
“You belong to me,” he growls. “Every fucking inch of you.”
His hand curls around my throat, just enough to hold me still. To let me feel it.
The control.
The ownership.
The fuckingneedin him that mirrors my own.
“You betrayed me, over and over again,” he whispers, his breath hot against my skin. “and I let you live.”
His mouth drops to my jaw, my neck. His teeth graze my skin like a threat and a promise.
“Remember the rules,piccolino,” he says, biting down just hard enough to make me gasp, “Betray me again, and I’ll ruin you so slowly, you’llbegme for it.”
I groan, shameless, already undone beneath his touch.
