Page 9 of Ambition

How far do you want me to go for you? Am I not cruel enough to have you?

Fuck you.I want to say that to her but I’m not brave enough.Throw your life away for a fucking druggie.Because Theo is that; partly why his control is such shit.Cocaine, for him, because everyone who does coke thinks it makes them a better sort of addict.Fuck. You, Isa. Pretending with a man likethat.

She is trembling in my arms, and I lick a line up her throat, hopelessness and lust and despair all clawing their way through my mind.

“This doesn’t mean anything,” she whispers again before a gasp leaves her lips as she flexes her fingers so her nails scratch down my chest. “We can do this, but itcannotmean—”

I clamp my teeth down harder and for one moment, she only moans the breath of my name.“Von.”

I think I might faint, the flood of warmth that single sound ushers through me as I softly bite her.

Her body is limp in my arms.

She is all mine.

You are always mine.

But as I suck her skin, then lap against where I bit her, soothing it, she…changes.

She lifts her knee, driving it right into my groin without warning.

I groan, jerking backward but I don’t let my grip on her waist go.

I think I taste iron in my mouth as I breathe heavily, staring at her.

She glares back, her eyes vicious slits.

“I’m sorry—” I start to say, but she shakes her head, cutting me off.

“You think I can haveyou?”Her eyes are glazed with lust, but she fights through it as she glares at me.“Are you deluded enough to believe I can simply becomeyours,and suddenly, Mads isn’t giving me work, my dad doesn’t assign me to jobs, the 6 look at me as something to breed, andyouget to do everything I have spent my entire fuckinglifetraining for? You really believe that’s how this is all going to go down for your goddamn happily ever after?”

I’ve never seen her this angry, spilling truths likethese,but I have seen her switch so fast, many times before when her logic catches up to her.

My own jealousy rises up to meet the way she is shaking as she tears her hands from me, curling them into fists at her side, her mouth red fromhim.

“Is that so bad?” I ask, voice vicious. “For you to belong to me?”Who else has been there for you like I have? Who the fuck else has seen what you really are?

“I don’t belong to anyone, Von.”

I breathe in. Out. I want to put my hands all over her and show her exactly who she belongs to. I want to fuck the feel of Theo goddamn Sancte out of her.

I want her to let me love her.

But just as I open my mouth, just as I think maybe I can find the words to say something like that, a sentiment I’ve held onto since the warehouse, the gym door opens with a soft creak.

I straighten, immediately pivoting so my body shields Isadora’s. In a place like Nox, anything could happen.

I meet dark eyes belonging to a tall, built man. One who could probably twist me into a fucking pretzel if I’m being honest.

Cain Bonavich glances at Isadora and I tense. I would give my life for her, of course, but against Cain… I might actually have to prove it.

“I need this room,” Cain finally says, his voice quiet but full of a power I aspire to have.

I nod once, then turn to Isadora and take her arm. No way in fuck am I leaving her in here with an Unsaint. They would give her exactly what she likes but she might not survive it.

“Fine,” I say quietly.

And while Isadora’s eyes trace the frame of Cain’s body, she doesn’t argue, and I know this conversation between us isn’t fucking over.

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