Page 53 of Sweet Venom
A sheen of darkness.
An overload of violence.
And it’s all directed at me now. As if I’ve offended him in some way.
I try to pull his hand away, but he tightens his grip. So I let my arm hang at my side, losing all will to fight—not that I have that.
Maybe he truly got bored, and he’s now here to finish the job.
I shouldn’t feel relief about the possibility of death, but I’d rather face that than being the subject of Jude’s suffocating fixation.
He stares down at me with unhinged focus, as if he’ll miss whatever he’s reading on my face if I blink. “Who wants you dead, Violet?”
I mumble against the glove and shake my head, but he doesn’t remove his hand.
“Who else did you do wrong with that innocent act and those hollow fucking smiles?”
“Mmm.”
“But you can’t die when I haven’t allowed it yet. The only one who gets to cut your lifeline is me. Your fucking god.”
I’m trembling, my ass rubbing uncomfortably against his jeans.
No, not uncomfortably.
I feel weird whenever he looks at me with that intensity, as if he’s stripping me naked and looking at my unsightly body.
A chilling realization settles through me—the reason for my unease around Jude isn’t only because of fear; it’s the shards of something foreign beneath the fear.
“So next time you’re being shot at, you don’t stand up and try to be a savior. You fucking hide, do you hear me?”
My eyes widen.
“I’ve seen the footage from the security cameras and your feeble attempts at being a superhero.” He releases my mouth, then slides his hand down and wraps it around my throat. Not enough to choke, but it’s firm enough to not allow me to move. “Too late for that, don’t you think?”
“Not really,” I whisper, my voice slightly low.
“What?”
“Well, you might make me watch you torture and kill people if I let Mario die. You seem to think people are all courageous and can act when faced with danger, so superhero it is, I guess. Did my actions satisfy you? Or should I have been shot, too, to prove the nobility of my sacrifice?”
His upper lip lifts, and I recoil, but that pushes me farther into his hard, warm body. I don’t know what comes over me whenever this man is around, but I kind of just blurt out all my unfiltered thoughts.
“You seem to have a death wish.”
“You already read my journal, so you know that’s true.”
“Violet…”
“What? You blame me for not saving your mom, but still blame me when I turn around and save Mario? Will you ever be satisfied byanythingI do?”
His gloved fingers tighten around my throat, still not choking but a little constrictive, then he turns me around in a blur of motion and shoves me back toward the counter, leaning dangerously close to me as the cool edge of itmeets my lower back. “You need to learn when to shut that mouth.”
“I thought you said I need to learn how to defend myself? Provide a better manual to avoid confusion.”
He pushes me farther until I’m sort of sitting, sort of slumping on the counter, my back up against the wall. My heart lurches in my throat when he steps between my legs, and something hard pokes my belly.
Did this guy get hard from…manhandling me?
