Page 47 of Tyrant (The Villetti Chronicles)

“I can’t change who we are.”

“If… if things were different, would you want me?”

I pressed my mouth harder against her hair to stop myself from answering immediately with the truth. If I told her yes, then it would cause more problems, and yet I couldn’t exactly say no either. She wouldn’t believe me after the way I’d kissed her. Hell, I’d fucking told her she was mine.

“You can’t ask me that,” I murmured. “It’s not fair on either of us.”

She pulled her face from my neck and stared up at me with bloodshot eyes.

“I just bared my feelings to you. The least you can do is the same for me.”

If I thought her being upset would tame her damn mouth, I was mistaken.

“I think you already know the answer.”

She wiped her tear-streaked face with her sleeve before reaching up and stroking her fingers along my jaw. I tensed when she leant into me, only stopping when her mouth was almost dusting over mine.

“If you won’t say it, then show me.”

“I can’t—”

“Kiss me… daddy.”

My eyes darted between her eyes and her mouth. That fucking mouth of hers.

“Don’t call me that if you don’t mean it,” I whispered.

Her other hand slid up the back of my neck into my hair. Nails dug into my scalp, making my lips part in a silent grunt.

“And if I do?”

I searched her expression. There was nothing but honesty in it.

“Fuck it.”

I said it more for my benefit than hers as I crashed my mouth against hers. My fingers went to one of her braids, gripping it in my fist and pulling her head back slightly. It allowed me to kiss her deeper. I let myself drown in Ari, so tired of denying I wanted her more than I’d ever wanted another person in my entire life. This would only end in fucking disaster, but at that moment, I couldn’t bring myself to care.

Ari shifted around in my lap, straddling me and pressing her chest to mine. My free hand went to her hip, gripping it to stop her from moving further. If she ground herself on me, I wasn’t sure I could control myself any longer. My self-restraint was hanging by a thread. It was so fucking hard to think straight when she’d made it very clear she desired more from me. Especially when she tore my hand off her braid and pressed it to her neck, wrapping my fist around it.

I released her mouth and stared down at her. My fingers squeezed her airway, testing her limits. There was only need in her eyes. A desperation I couldn’t quite put into words.

“Is this what you really want, Tink? To be all mine?”

“Yes.” She released the word on a breath, swallowing against my palm the next moment. “I know I can’t, but I want it anyway.”

I leant my forehead against hers and closed my eyes. There was too much for me to think about. Too many things to consider.

My phone buzzing in my pocket saved me from responding. I released her, taking it from my pocket and noting Arlo had sent me a few messages. Ari didn’t say a word as I opened them. There was a video from a news source, along with a note from him.

Arlo: Things are going to get out of hand very soon. We’ll have to act fast.

I clicked on the video and the sound blared from my phone along with images from a helicopter of the police surrounding a man lying dead in the street, blood pooling around his body.

“A man was shot dead in Peckham in the early hours of this morning. Police have identified him as twenty-two-year-old Kieran Brown.”

I paused the video and looked at Ari, who was staring at the screen. Her face had gone pale. Maybe I shouldn’t have played it when she was right here, but at the end of the day, what was happening with her father was her business. I had no intention of telling her what I was planning to do about it, but she could help me in some small way, given who she was.

“Someone you know?”

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