Page 65 of Crown of Steel

Arthur lets out a huff, then brings his lips close to mine. “Well, you won’t anymore. I’ll kill them all for you. I’ll kill your monster.” Their touch, featherlight, intensifies my desire.

“You’re just saying that,” I mumble on a breath, sounding too desperate.But you don’t mean it.Because when he’s like this, all possessive and determined, he’s got me desiring things I can’t have. Things I usually have carefully stalled in the far corner of my heart.

My secret.

Such as believing that one day I can be freed from my past. That one day I can be freed from the fear of being punished, of being put in place because I deserved it.

It’s a trick.

It used to be. I’m not sure if Dad meant for them to be, but they sure felt like it. When he’d ask me about school and listened to my stories, only to suddenly…explode. Right before that would happen, his face would tighten, making his eyes pop and his smile tight. It was as if he was fighting whatever happened inside his mind from bursting free. And though I knew what would come next, knew how within the next few seconds he’d chase me down to my bedroom and lock me up, I’d always just sit and stare. I’d listen to all the horrific words he’d spray down on me, like some toxic storm.

Of how she left because of me. Of how having me had been the biggest regret in his life.

Arthur chuckles on a rasp, and his tongue flicks my earlobe. “I don’t justsaythings,chaton.” Turning over my shoulder, I’m taken aback by his genuine smile. He doesn’t get real like that often, and that smile is…the way that chiseled, square jaw takes in those lush, curvy lips. They are glistening with moisture and so beautifully red, full, and edible. And still… his dark eyes twinkle with mischief, as if he still has a secret or two up his sleeve. He probably does. Like the college’s hidden quidnunc, he seems to know exactly what’s going on around this place. “Unlike you, I don’t shy away from actions but take full responsibility.”

His eyes flicker with amusement as he waits for me to react. He doesn’t have to wait long, because something about those words beat me right in the chest.

“I don’t shy away from things,” I snarl, keeping his stare. His eyes flare with something dark, something primal. It’s not enough to keep me quiet. “I have never shied away from things. Not from this school, not from your freaky brotherhood. I have never once backed off.”

“Oh yeah?” Grabbing me by my forearms, Arthur rolls me onto my back with a harsh plop, then crawls over me. Our warm thighs connect even through the fabric of his sweats, and I growl at the lack of touch. I want to feel his skin, feel his beating flesh against mine, soothing my rattling arousal. I’m exasperated, its flame raging inside me at the thought of his words. Balling my hands into fists, I use them to lash out onto his chest. “Yeah,” I grit between my teeth. “You see, I didn’t ask for any of this. I was living my life the way I did before all of this came bursting out of the sky and right onto my doorstep.” That’s not entirely true, but we both ignore that detail for now. Besides, the more I speak, the more my words wind me up, making my skin tremble with fury.

“Living your life,” Arthur huffs out in disdain. “You mean in that small apartment where your asshole dad could treat you like shit.”

My chest flares up with heat at those words. “That’s not for you to say,” I sneer. “That’s none of your fucking business. I was nearly eighteen, I could have left myself.”

Would I have left him?

“Wrong.” Arthur dips his head, ablaze eyes colliding with mine. “I’m your stepbrother. That means it is my fucking business.”

“Why?” The word comes out on a high shrill. “Why wouldyou care? I’m an adult, you presumptuous prick. Ever since you’ve walked into my life, you’ve been nothing but against me.”

He blinks his eyes at that, silent for the first time. Not me, I seem to be on a roll, brain working overtime like some machine gone wild, spewing words as if it’s water.

“People have never given a damn about my home situation. They knew. Neighbors, teachers, they all fucking knew. And yet, they decided to turn a blind eye, to look away every time I came face to face with them, their superficial greetings making me cold to the core.”

I was so lonely.

My mind trembles at that feeling, those cold tremors making me remember every time I try to create too much of a distance from my past. It’s making me relive those moments of agony over and over again, casting iron where it tried to melt, because pain and humiliation are easier thanthis. An unknown future. I’m a good student. But I can study all I like, work those brains to get the best grades in school, the truth is, the rest of me is helplessly lost in a world too big.

“And you…” I glare up at Arthur, wishing his beauty away. “You’ve been nothing but forceful. Controlling. Continuously dragging me into this…into this—mess. ” My voice shivers a little, but it’s not because of my words or how they make me feel. There’s something else there, something that’s far more embarrassing than any cocktail of words could be. I clear my throat, but it’s still there, and it makes my body thrum.

Arthur’s eyes soften, their earlier annoyance replaced by a look of knowing. He finally trails a hand over my cheek, the fingertips taking their time to feel my flushed skin, neck, then down over my pecs to my lower abdomen. To my hot, throbbing cock.

I sigh, eyes fluttering as the humming in my body becomes stronger.

“You like me being forceful, and controlling,” he musessoftly. “You like me pulling you into this mess, challenging you, peeling you off the corners in which you’ve been hiding for too long.”

“I—” Why? I want to ask him. Why am I this defect?

“Your cock is throbbing,chaton.” The soft touch makes me jerk. “For me. Your body knows what it wants, but your mind is rebelling as always. Always so fucking stubborn.”

“I don’t want to want this,” I admit, eyes opening in a blink. Arthur has moved even closer, his pouty, kissable lips hovering over mine.

“You’re scared.” He breathes against my mouth. “And when you get scared, you shy away. You crawl back to your safety zone. Tell me, Régis, where else do you crawl back to?”

If only he knew.

He dips his chin and I shake my head. Our mouths brush and my body catches fire, the thrumming of my entire frame trembling at our touch.

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