Page 67 of Venomous Vows

“Absolutely fuckingnot,” she grounds out. “I’mnotgoing to be?—”

“You’re going to be what I want you to be.” I pull the covers over some of her body, but they just fall to the wayside since she’s still sitting up. “And that’s safe.”

She scowls. “That’s your prisoner.”

“You’re being a brat and extremely ungrateful for the things I’ve done for you. I just saved your sister. I flew to Vegas to swoop in and make sure you were unharmed. And now you’re chastising me for falling through with your side of the bargain.”

Elena presses her lips together and averts her eyes. “We don’t…”

“We don’t, what?” I ask after a few moments of silence on her end and Elena bores daggers into my head when she glimpses back over at me.

“We don’tlikeeach other. Never have. Never will. This is all futile. A means to an end, anyway. You just like having the upper hand and believing that you have it over me again.”

“I never lost it.”

Her nostrils flare, temper piqued, and she’s the most beautiful when she’s pissed at me. “I’m convinced that you’ve missed fighting with me, and this is just nostalgic for you.”

“Amongst other things.”

She perks a brow. “Like?”

My arm reaches out to wrap around her waist, surprised when Elena doesn’t stop me and I drag her closer, careful not to hurt her ribs, which must still be tender. “I’ve dreamed of you,piccola diavola. Those pretty onyx curls wrapped around my fingers, that smart-ass mouth on mine. You were just a young girl with a stubborn sense about her and I pushed you away to keep you safe. But it didn’t stop me from conjuring up ways to show you everything I wanted to do to you back then. Every mark and inch I would explore just to give you something to remember me by.”

Elena beholds me like she’s looking at a ghost and I’m here to haunt her.

Maybe I am.

I can’t say that she was a vivid memory in my mind before she came, but the moment I heard her name, it was over. Icouldn’t ignore the old feelings that were never fully laid to rest. The need to see what she looked like and how she was fairing.

“You…had a crush on me?”

Now it’s my turn to roll my eyes because I’m not entirely sure it was all that. Just an obsession. Something I knew I could never have but wanted it, anyway.

“Go to sleep, Elena,” I order, jerking my head toward her pillow. “It’s late.”

“And you have blood on your shirt.”

“Blood of someone who was going to hurt you, so you’re welcome.”

She doesn’t speak to that, just slowly lies back down like I asked for while her eyes are still locked onto me.

I move with her, getting onto my side as we continue to stare at each other like we have nothing else better to do.

“You’re insane, Adrian,” she murmurs. “This is all…it’s too much.”

“It’s nothing you need to worry about,” I promise her. “Nothing is going to happen to you.”

“I’m not doubting your tactics. But we both know I can’t give you what you need.”

“I think you can.” My thumb rubs at her hip as I start to get lost in those blue eyes. “You just don’t know it yet.”

“I know just fine.”

“We’ll see about that,piccola diavola.The moment I get you…you’re never going to want me to let go.”

21

ELENA

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