Page 192 of Cheaters: A Dark Romance Anthology

She laughs incredulously at the sight of me leaning against the bookshelves, casually watching her walk from one title to another without a care in the world as I roll the sleeves of my white shirt up to the middle of my forearms. She’s still overdressed for a bookstore, but she’s no longer in that red dress and killer heels. Her body is far too much for a place like this.

“No, no. This isn’t how this goes,” she states, her body becoming rigid. “We had our fun, but we’re nothing more than a casual five minutes of banter.”

“I don’t think so.”

Her lips part with shock, but she masks it well as I push off from the shelves, undoing my top button with a level of indifference my father would be very proud of. I allowed a wall to drop in the presence of this woman. Maybe it was a momentary glitch, a second of vulnerability I had no control in, but I want to take back the power. Remind myself that I rule the kingdom, and people will feel that presence country-wide.

“I think so,” she argues. She’s preparing to flee, her eyes wildly chasing every exit strategy. “You had no right hunting me down like prey.”

So, I do the only thing I can in this instance. I block her way.

“It’s not nice to play with a man’s feelings like you did, sweetheart.”

I know she’s not buying the idea that she hurt even one feeling in me, but it’s nice to play with the prey.

“Did your daddy never teach you that?”

“Oh, trust me, Beckett, he taught me enough.” She smirks, but my name left her lips like a dirty word. “But what happened earlier was purely happenstance. Nothing more than a fun five minutes between strangers.”

“Right… and how’s the ankle?”

Her eyes glisten momentarily as she drops her gaze from mine to her foot, flexing her ankle before setting it down on the worn wooden flooring.

“As I said… I’ve had worse.”

“I’m sure you have,” I state, watching her closely. “And where’s the fiancé now?”

“Around.”

The woman that met me earlier isn’t here right now, and I know I did the right thing tracking her down. Something about her captured me, and I’m not about her to let her get lost in the city when there’s something about her.

She grins. “He’s here.”

A salacious smirk tugs on my lips, and I like round two a lot better than round one. She’s too late to play a dutiful fiancée to me, and she’s far too late to get away without caving to what’s between us.

“There’s nothing here for us.” I lean closer as those words leave my lips.

She tries to move, but I match her movement. As she tries to pass, I give her a moment of thinking I’ll allow her an easy exit.

“That’s where you’re wrong.”

I grab her, pulling her close to my body. Our body heat mixes immediately, and I let the way her wrist feels wrapped in my hand sink in, the softness of her skin beneath my touch—delicateness wrapped in hard force.

“Natalia.”

I breathe her name, a litany I longed to be able to say in her presence but wanted to say moments before I end her.

Now I have her in my clutches, the game’s shifted again.

“I knew you were near earlier. I could practically feel the blood pulsing in your veins.” I tug her closer. “So, when you fell into me in that bar, I had to get you where I wanted you. Right beneath the palms of my hands.”

“How?”

I’ll drink every drop of her shock if I can, just for the taste of sweet venom.

“How what?” I ask, laughing at her innocent question. “How could I ever forget you, my darling girl?”

The woman who killed me long before I even died.

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