Page 62 of The Pretty Savage

VEGA

I never knew one simple word could hold so much meaning. Especially not the word so softly whispered by the one person I just promised myself I would stay far away from, for more reasons than one. Yet the moment he said that, the moment his fingers on my throat flexed, increasing the pressure with every passing second, I knew I never stood a chance against the avalanche that was Adrian Zylla.

He was the torrent that was going to destroy my world, and I didn't need a crystal ball to see how this would end. It ended with me left in pieces and him walking away once he figured out who I was.

But that didn't mean I couldn't have my fun. It didn't mean I couldn't hurt him for fucking with my heart unknowingly. For being a cheating bastard and someone unworthy of my time.

"I bet your fiancée wants the same from you," I murmured, letting the poison out, uncaring how that made me sound.

I was jealous.

Jealous of the girl that looked like she could have everything she ever wanted. I was jealous of Bethany because she had the one thing I needed. For all my years and all the things I did, I was still just a girl, incapable of controlling her emotions, because I never learned how.

No one ever told me that bottling everything up had consequences and that it would all start pouring out when you least expected it. Everyone had a trigger, and I guess Adrian Zylla was mine.

He flipped me around, caging me between his arms. A storm brewed in those dark depths as he looked down at me, the tic in his cheek popping up as he swallowed heavily. "Who told you I have a fiancée?"

"She did," I murmured, my eyes latching on his lips. "She was so kind as to tell me to stay away from you, since you don't belong to me."

"Hmm." His nose brushed over my cheek, my eyes closing involuntarily as goosebumps erupted over my skin. "And are you? Going to stay away from me, I mean?"

"I think you need to stay away from me." His teeth clamped down on my neck, pulling out a moan deep from my soul just as his tongue replaced the burn, tasting me, licking me, driving me fucking insane.

I forgot why it was a bad idea for me to mingle with him.

I forgot why I told myself to stay far away from someone who was my target.

None of it mattered as he dropped his hands to my head, his long fingers wrapping around my loose hair, holding tightly.

"I don't think I can," he admitted finally, pressing his hard cock against my stomach, making me heady with desire. "I don't think I want to," he added, looking down at me again.

This close to him I could see the yellow flecks shining in his eyes, almost completely replaced by dilated irises, making his eyes so much darker than they usually are.

"And I don't think you want me to stop."

"Are you sure about that?" I bit out, not about to make this any easier for him. I wanted him, that much I could admit, but he would never get to know just how much. How much every single touch, every single word, and every single look burrowed itself deep in my soul.

He would never know that in the years to come, I would never forget that for one moment in time, I allowed myself to feel something other than the constant numbness that had been an ever-present companion for most of my life.

He would never get to know that I would've changed my very DNA just to hold him a bit longer. Just to hear him say he belonged to me. Somewhere deep inside I knew it had everything to do with the fact that I never had anything of my own.

Every single item of clothing, the rooms, the furniture, none of it ever belonged to me. And I wanted him to be the first person, the first object of my desire that would look at me and see through the cracked mask I didn't want to wear anymore.

I wanted him to truly see me.

But I also knew that what he felt was nothing but desire. I was just a new shiny toy he could play and fuck around with, and I wasn't going to forget that. I couldn't give him a place in my heart, but he would forever stay etched in my soul.

"Oh, I'm sure, Bambi," he grunted, dragging his cock over my stomach, and I knew without a doubt I would be late for that meeting with Dante. I just hoped he would wait. "You want me as much as I want you."

"I thought I was beneath you," I smarted, not yet ready to let those words go. Or maybe I used them as a reminder of my own to remember who he was and where this could lead. "I thought I wasn't worthy of your time." There was no question in my words, and I knew he wouldn't even try to deny them, but I didn't expect to see the regret swirling with desire, or the pinched line of his lips as he looked down at me as if he was trying to figure me out.

"Don't look at me like that." I frowned, not liking the way he tried to penetrate through my walls. I knew it was contradictory, wanting it and at the same time telling him not to do it, but I would never be able to survive him if he ever managed to get through.

And we weren't made to be together. We weren't in the right place or in the right mind frame to embark on a journey that could fuck us up.

"Like what?" he asked.

"Like you're trying to figure me out." He tilted his head with the blank expression on his face as the words tumbled out of my mouth. "There's nothing to figure out, Adrian. What you see is what you get. If you want to know something all you gotta do is ask." Not like I would tell him the full truth.

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