Page 41 of The Villain
He and I are enemies. We will remain enemies.
“You’re drunk,” I say again, forcing steel into my voice.
“I’m not drunk. I was, but I’m not?—”
“And I don’t know what you think telling me that will get you, but whatever it is, you’re wrong because I don’t care about it. I don’t care about you,” I add, that last part making me feel like such an asshole. “All I want is to be free of you, Cassian Trevino.”
“Free of me?”
“I want to go back to my life, and I don’t want you or your problems or your little confidences.”
His eyes harden, his jaw tensing as he sets his hands on either side of me on the altar, trapping me there. “My little confidences?” he asks, eyebrows high. “You would rather go back to a brother who would sell you off? A consigliere who has overstepped. Who has his own plans for you and your family?”
“And what plans do you have for me?”
“I wouldn’t sell you to the highest bidder, for starters.”
“No? Isn’t that what women are for? Isn’t that what you told me? Let me go, Cassian.” I shove against him, but trying to move Cassian Trevino is like trying to move a freight train.
He grips my waist and tugs me to him, bending down so his face is an inch from mine. “You want to be my enemy, Allegra?”
I push again, but again, he doesn’t budge. “It doesn’tmatter what Iwant. Iamyour enemy, Cassian. Or did you forget?”
Something in that makes him stop. There’s a shift in his eyes, a shadow falling across his face, something dark shrouding us. Cassian Trevino may be the most dangerous man I know. He may walk around like he rules the fucking world. But he’s also broken. Broken and unpredictable.
I’m walking on a field of land mines with him, and I never know when one will go off.
Correction.
One is about to blow.
He takes a deep breath in and straightens to his full height to look down at me, eyes cold as steel now.
My heart pounds against my ribs, blood roaring in my ears.
“No, Moth, I did not forget,” he says calmly before spinning me around so fast that my arms shoot out and my hands land on the altar. Cassian sets his overtop of mine. “Keep them there,” he whispers into my ear before I hear the ripping of material and cry out as my sweater slips away.
“What are you doing?”
“You’re my enemy. You said so yourself. So, I’m punishing you,” he says, hands in the waistband of my leggings pushing them down and off.
My panties are next to go and when I pull my arms from the altar, he slaps my ass hard.
“You listen like shit,” he says, and unclasps my bra, pulls it off my arms and tosses it aside.
“What the hell are you doing?” I cry out when he setshis big hand between my shoulder blades and pushes me forward so I’m bending over the altar, the stone freezing against my bare skin.
“When I tell you to stay, you stay,” he starts, then leans over me. “I’m just making sure you remember that,” he whispers that last part, his breath hot against my cheek, my ear. I crane my neck to look back at him, seeing how dark his eyes have gone as he takes in my bare flesh before tipping his nose into the crook of my neck and inhaling deeply. “But don’t worry, I’m going to teach you, Little Moth,” he says, meeting my eyes before reaching over me to pick up a candle, the wax that has melted and hardened again snapping. “Now be still.”
He tips the candle and hot wax drops onto my lower back. I suck in a breath with the instant burn. I try to pull away, but that hand at my back keeps me down and it doesn’t matter that I wriggle this way and that, he pours hot wax over my back, my ass, down my thighs.
“It hurts!” I call out, and although it does hurt, the pain is gone as soon as the wax cools and solidifies, stiff on my body, cracking with every move. I press my chest into the altar and realize he’s not holding me down anymore as I stare straight ahead, trying to control my breathing.
“Had enough?” he finally asks.
I turn my head. “I hate you.”
“But have you had enough?”
