Page 41 of Scarlet Mark
“You almost handed me back to a monster because you believed his bullshit story. What other lies will you fall for, Killian? Because that one almost cost you your life.”
He reared back as if I’d slapped him. “Did you miss the part where I killed all of them without so much as a scratch?”
“You wouldn’t have even shown up at that damn meeting had you just listened to me. But your head was too far up your own ass to see reason. Just as it is now.”
He glowered up at me. “The answer is still no.”
“Then consider us at a standstill.” I released his shirt, but his grip on my hips held me in place, our chests heaving against one another. I couldn’t say why I’d put myself here. It’d just been a natural progression, my desire to be on top and in his face overruling reason.
Anger pulsed off of him, rivaling my own.
His mouth far too close to mine.
“I’m trying to help you, Amara.”
“No. You’re trying to help yourself. If you had my best interests in mind, then you wouldn’t be trying to push me aside. You would realize and respect that I’ve earned this fight. I never had a choice in this life. I’m making one now, yet just like everyone else, you’re trying to dictate my path for me. Which makes you no better than them.”
Harsh, but true.
He had no right to tell me what I could or couldn’t do. Not now. Not ever. I spent too many years battling my fate to be shoved into yet another corner.
Never again.
“I earned this,” I repeated, angry tears welling in my eyes. “They tried to destroy me. They put me through hell. And you don’t even know the things Malcom has made me do for him over the last nine months. He sent a couple men after you? That’s so sad. He’s forced me to do sadistic, twisted, fucked-up things to him, to his associates, to men I hardly knew. I’vekilledfor him. Twice. Because he made me. Yet, I didn’t do a thorough enough job of it. So you know what he did next? He shared me at a meeting. He made me suck—”
Killian’s mouth covered mine, one of his palms sliding around the back of my neck to hold me to him when I tried to push away. Tears were streaming down my cheeks, my body trembling on top of his, and he waskissingme. Not out of passion. No. This wasn’t like the other times. This held a note of emotion. A heartache he couldn’t seem to express with words.
My shoulders fell. My heart skipped a beat. And I melted.
All my fight gone.
Like a fire blown out in the wind.
No more arguing.
No more pain.
Just Killian.
His soft, plump lips moved against mine, releasing a compassion that mesmerized me. It stole my breath and applied a salve to my open wounds that cooled the residual burns left over from the last decade.
I wrapped my arms around his neck, holding on, needing him in a way I’d never needed anyone. He returned the embrace, his forearm a brand around my lower back, his palm searing my nape.
This was so wrong.
I shouldn’t be seeking comfort from him.
But I couldn’t stop, his strength the antidote to my torment.
“Killian,” I whispered, uncertain of what I wanted to say or do.
“Yes, Amara.” He kissed me again, his lips worshiping mine in a way no one ever had. “Yes.”
I didn’t know what he meant or why he repeated the affirmation.
Or why he said it yet again.
Until suddenly I did, the reason slamming me in the chest and forcing my mouth away from his.
