Page 73 of The Masks and the Dancer (Their Obsession 2)

“Because whatever the fuck you’ve done to Leon, tous, doesn’t change the fact that we cannot,ever,belong to one another…” Jakub realises his mistake the second those words leave his lips, his admission as telling as it is damning.

“Do you want her to belong to us, Jakub? Do you want Christy like I want her?” Leon asks.

Jakub’s jaw grits. He refuses to answer. “Jakub. Fuck, this is important. Do you want her like I want her? Do you hope like I do that the legend is true? Do youfeelit, too?” Leon asks, slamming his palm over his chest.

With a look of determination in his eyes, Jakub’s grip tightens on the gun. “I offered you the chance to convince me not to kill her. Instead you only reminded me why shemustdie. Dálaighs have a habit of fucking things up for us Brovs, as you well know.”

Leon rushes forward, pressing his chest against the barrel of the gun. “No. I’ll do it. I’ll fucking do it, okay?” he says, twisting on his feet as he faces me, eyes pleading.

I shake my head. “Don’t.”

“What am I supposed to do? I can’t let him hurt you.”

My eyes flick to the knife on the floor and I launch myself forward, grabbing it before he’s able to. Holding it aloft, I square my shoulders, ready to fight. “You think stealing my virginity won’t hurt me?” I spit.

“I’ll be gentle,” he promises, but I see the monster in his gaze despite his need to protect me. It craves my blood, my pain, just like it always did. He can’t stop it. Hewillhurt me.

“You’re aliar!” I accuse, my hands shaking. “I’d rather Jakub shoot me dead than be subjected tothis.”

Leon grits his jaw, looking over his shoulder at Jakub. “I have your word that if I do this you won’t kill her?”

“You have my word.”

Leon nods. “Christy...” he begins, stepping towards me.

“Iwillfight,” I hiss, jabbing the knife in his direction as I back away from him and the predatory look in his eyes.

“Please don’t do that,” he begs quietly, unbuttoning his shirt as moves closer towards me. “Don’t fight me. It’ll only make this harder.”

“For who,you?” I laugh hysterically now.

“Yes,” he hisses. “Yes for me, but for you, too.”

“I don’t care. I’m capable of causing pain. YouknowI am,” I warn, waving the knife in front of me in an attempt to fend him off.

“I do. Fuck, I do.” He shucks off his t-shirt, dropping it to the floor. Kicking off his shoes, he reaches for the hem of his joggers and pushes them over his waist. He’s naked beneath, his cock erect as he bares himself to me. He’s turned on by this, just like I knew he would be.

“I will cut you!” I shout as he kicks his joggers away.

Leon’s cock jerks at my threat and Jakub tips his head back and laughs darkly, a knowing look in his eyes. “Don’t you see, Leon? She’s nothing more than an animal herself. A violent, treacherous, lustful creature. She pretends to be kind, caring, pure,goodbut she wears a mask just like us. She craves violence, as well. I see it in her eyes.”

“I amnothinglike you. I’m just trying to protect myself!”

“No?” Jakub questions, licking his lips as his gaze roves over me. “I remember how you fucked my face with your pussy, how you took my dick in your pretty little mouth and swallowed my cum. You wanted my darkness then. It made you feel alive, didn’t it?”

I shake my head. “No. That isnotwhat happened. It wasn’t like that.”

Jakub smirks, eying us both as I back away and Leon prowls towards me. “Leon, you’re drawn to Christy not because she’s the one who’ll smother the darkness within you, but because she’s the one who can make it grow. A fuckingDálaighof all people.” He shakes his head, laughing at the thought. Then, as though the idea has just occurred to him, he says: “I tell you what, fuck her like youreallywant to, and not only will Inotkill her, I will carve our names into her skin and we’ll keep her chained up in our tower of sinforever,” he says, changing tactics. Twisting this interaction to suit his needs, to fuck with Leon’s head, with mine, and I know in that moment that this was his game all along. He never wanted Leon to make love to me, he wanted him tohurtme, to be the monster we all know he’s capable of being. He wants to drag that part of him out into the open, tempting him with violence and sin. He wants his brother back.

Leon stills, his hands balling at his sides as confusion rolls across his features. “I don’t want to hurt—”

“Yes. You. Do. Use her like you truly want to and you’llneverhave to be confused again,” Jakub continues, capitalising on Leon’s moment of confusion. “That pain you felt when she died wasn’t because you cared for her, but because you didn’t get a chance to steal her innocence and feed off herpain. You mourned what you lost. Now you can take it. Fucking take it.”

“No. Don’t listen to him. He’sscaredto feel. You were right, Leon, Jakub’s fighting it.”

“I’m not,” Jakub replies, but his gaze flickers, revealing the truth of his mangled heart.

It shocks me.

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