Page 406 of Hell Hath No Fury
“Oh yeah? Well,Idecide—”
“What? Who you marry?”
Whack!
I was stunned she had slapped me across the face, but I was even more alarmed at what I now felt having her body up againstmine. “What’s in your pocket?” Her loose pants were carrying the answer to my suspicion.
She pushed against my chest, but it was no contest. Injured, dying, exhausted… none of that helped her resist my strength, so she finally surrendered the fight, but not the attitude. Jaw locked, she sneered, “Let me go.”
“Too late for that shit. Hand it over.”
Body to body, face to face, her head tilted up to mine. She panted but stayed defiant, her little nostrils flaring.
I was the same—very moved by her so close—but pissed as I reached into her pocket to retrieve a bottle of pills. At the same time, I remembered her on the dance floor, sticking her hand into her pocket. Now I knew she had just bought them. It was easy to figure out when reading the prescription that wasn’t made out to an Elle.
I could have paid her the respect of asking, but we were past that. We were both caught in our own life-or-death situations. I was fighting to live; she was planning to die…
My stare bored into her with an unexpected rage. I growled, “We strong ones don’t give up. Got it?”
She growled back, “You don’t know what you’re asking me to live through.”
“I’m not asking you to live through anything… but me.”
I slammed my mouth to hers.
Elle let me. Oh God, that woman let me into her soul and heart in one deep, passionate kiss… and she stole the spirit she claimed I had.
Our lips glued together by hopes and dreams neither of us had dared to wish for, her hand slipped out from between us and gripped the back of my neck, demanding more. Her five-hundred-dollar silk blouse pressed to my cut and wound, binding us with a blood oath, while her chest pressed to mine, letting our racing hearts find each other.
“See?” I kissed her savagely. “Your heart beats.” I wrapped my other arm, which no longer felt tired, around her waist and pulled, silently telling her I was never letting go.
In response, her fingers intertwined in my long blond hair and tightened, making a claim of her own. I groaned at her aggression, hoping she wasn’t going to fight me when I shoved her in whatever vehicle my pops would be pulling up in.
“Elle,” I moaned, “I’ll never kiss another set of lips.”
She kept kissing me. “We promised to not lie and set a brunch date.”
From behind her back, I threw the bottle of pills. They scattered all over the alley. “You wouldn’t have shown up anyways, so hear this, Sweetheart. One,” I sucked on her tongue, “I made no such promise. Two, I don’t do brunch, but Iwillbe doing you.”
Her fantastic lips sucked on my neck. “Fuck you for making me want to live.”
I gripped her ass and pulled. “You’re not dying until I say you can.”
She moaned. “God, if only that could be true, but he’ll never let me go, VP.” Her exhales against my skin were saturated with unexpected emotions. “He’d rather me dead.”
We were both lost in an unnamed storm. Storms that land namelessly on shores do so because no one sees them coming. Elle and I never saw each other coming, but that didn’t stop us from merging, blending, and becoming one that night.
Grabbing the nape of her neck and holding her head back to expose her jugular, I licked from her collarbone all the way up to her chin, marking the prize I just stole. “He no longer has any say over you.Youdo. So, choose.”
Her ribs were pushing against her skin, pressed against me, desperate for air. “You going to live, Duke?”
I forced her to look into my eyes. “What do you see?”
Tears burst from her. “A wild spirit who will never give up.”
“Minutes, babe. I’ve only given you minutes, and look how far we’ve already come. What do you think years together could give us?” When she didn’t answer, I shook her head. “What. Do. You. Have. To. Lose?”
Tears streamed… “My heart. The one that you’re forcing to beat.”
