Page 50 of Pretty Pink Poison
“I’ll make your life a living hell, I promise you.”
Was she warning me?
When I stepped toward her, her little hands were quick to grab the knife I’d put on the nightstand. I let her put it to my throat again because I loved being connected to the rawest version of her. Her anger was wildly out of control, but it was the most real part of her now. I loved that her curls sprang in all different directions, her teeth were bared, and her tits were pressed right against me.
I wrapped my arm around her waist and pulled her closer, holding her fiery gaze, “Remember, I like your poison, Pink. Even if you’re drugging me to fuck me or holding a knife to my throat. You gonna slice me open today?”
“I should,” she said, pushing the edge in deeper. “God knows you all deserve it.”
“Really? I deserve it when I was the one who came to you giving you the mask in the night like you wanted?”
“I would have taken youwithoutthe mask. I proved that last night.”
“After sleeping with my brother and him discarding you for years.”
“That’s not what that was.” She dropped the knife to her side, a look of hurt flashing across her face as her pretty eyes filled with tears.
I hummed and told her honestly, “I don’t believe you, which is why every single moment you’re with me is already my living hell … but not for the reasons you think.”
“Bane, I swear it wasn’t what you think…” She waited as if she wanted me to ask her to explain the rest.
“I don’t care what it was.” I took a step back. “It doesn’t matter now. We’re moving forward. And it seems in order for us to do that, we need some boundaries.” I glanced around her room. “You’re unhappy with being in here, you can go out. Security will make sure you’re safe. I can’t keep checking on you daily. So have the meals you want. And you’ll get everything you need as long as you don’t make a fool of us, Bianca.”
She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms but didn’t murmur even a thank you.
I sighed and pulled my wallet from my pocket to place a black card on the nightstand. “Spend what you want. Your phone is activated again. You can get room service or ask for anything. They’ll get it. I’ll make sure everything is gluten free.”
“I don’t care about any of those things. I’ll still be unhappy here, Bane.”
“Then, you’ll continue to be for the rest of the time here.”
“I’ll be unhappyforeverif you don’t find a way to be with me, Bane. If you don’t find a way to forgive me and for us to get back to what we were.”
“What we were?” How could we have been anything when she’d always been promised to him? “You fell for a damn illusion in the moonlight, and I allowed it by disguising it with masks and a hidden identity, but you’ve always been his and you solidified that when you slept with him.”
She took a shaky breath and looked toward the ceiling. “Don’t say that. It’s not true. You know that’s not what I wanted.”
I stepped back from her, shaking my head, breaking our contact.
Then she whispered, “Please don’t leave me again. Not after all this.”
And, fuck, that plea hurt and not in a good way. But my phone rang, and I saw my brother’s name on the screen, reminding me of what she was to him and to me. To me, she was the betrayal that shaped me, to him she was his promised hand in marriage. “Remember what I said about your door.”
“What?” Her eyes were shimmering with tears.
“Keep it locked if you don’t want monsters at the foot of your bed.”
CHAPTER 15
BANE
She didn’t keepit locked. She actually left it wide open most nights. And month after month right up until her next birthday, she did everything she could think of to rile me. She talked to that dumbass Oracle app all the time, she ate terrible food, she talked to Pepe way more than necessary. I think she’d made it her goal in life to piss me off, and I knew why. Her words echoed in my head daily. “I’ll be unhappy forever if you don’t find a way to be with me, Bane.”
I hadn’t tried at all. I’d cut off access to our relationship instead. I doubled her security and kept her at that resort while I flew around the world solidifying more and more partnerships, working tirelessly.
I separated us because it was the only way for us to coexist. I’d have punished her to death for the shit she was doing had I been there. And I made it my mission to only come back when she acted out badly enough that I had to clean it up.
Then, I’d fly home, straighten it out, and repeat.
