The loss of him against me has me swallowing back another whimper of agony. Thankfully, it doesn’t last long. Lex stands up, getting to his feet as he hovers at the edge of the overly large mattress and the ornate footboard. Reaching back, he grips the fabric of his shirt and pulls it over his head, dropping it to the floor to join my own clothes.
I blink and his hands are at the waistband of his jeans. I blink again and they’re gone. Tall and sharply muscled, Lex focuses the entirety of his attention on me.
Fuck. Me. He’s hot and it’s so wrong to do this here. My eyes move, once more, to the door. If we’re caught… A hand touches my ankle and spreads me wide, snapping my attention back to the man standing over me.
“Tell me something.” His words are hoarse, but I can’t move. I’m bound by the spell of him as he stands over me, silently daring me to run from him now. I know better. To run from a predator only encourages their instinct to chase. “Have you thought of me since you left?”
I wince at the hurt in that question. “Of course I have,” I say. “I’ve thought of you every single second.” All of them.
His expression remains as hard as ever. “Did you fuck him in this bed?”
My insides turn sharp, cutting the inside of my chest to ribbons. “Lex…”
“Did you think of me when he fucked you?”
I shake my head. “Lex, no, that’s not?—”
His hand on my ankle pushes me wider. “No lies, Juliet,” he snaps. “No more lies between us.”
“I’m not lying.” Not this time.
Lex’s upper lip curls away from his teeth. “Really?” His tone is caustic, disbelieving. “Then tell me something else. Have you fingered yourself in this bed?”
My breath catches, but he isn’t done.
“Did you part your pretty thighs—” His fingers trail up the inside of one leg, leaving a path of goosebumps in his wake. “—and think of all the things we did to you when you were in our beds? When you were ours?”
I’m still theirs. I open my mouth to tell him as much, to explain the reason I chose this. Because of them, always them. Everything I do is to protect them the same way they would for me.
“No.” He grips my ankle and climbs back onto the bed, on top of me again. “Don’t talk until I’m done, baby.” He reaches to the root of his cock and squeezes himself.
My eyes slowly move down the length of his body, the dips and hollows of his chest and abdomen. He’s hard, his cockbobbing against his stomach as he strokes himself once from base to tip and back again. A bubble of pearly fluid leaks at the tip of him and my mouth waters to taste it.
“Lex…” I moan his name, unable to stop myself. Shivers rack my body, hunger and need battling for dominance.
With a growl, Lex releases himself and straightens, dragging me up with him. He reaches around and unlocks my bra, yanking the straps down before the cups disappear entirely and the contraption goes the same way as the rest of our clothes. His hands are rough as he shoves me back onto the bed and then his hand comes down right over my nipple.Hard.
My back arches as pain shoots through me. A gasp leaves me and the hot sting is followed quickly by a second as he slaps my other breast. I try to cover myself, surprise and confusion slamming into me. Lex merely adjusts himself, crawling up my body to place his knees on either side of me, using his leg strength to hold my arms down and out of the way. Then, he really punishes me.
He grips both of my nipples, the pebbled points throbbing under his unkind fingers. He pinches them, twists them, glaring down at me all the while as I try to resist the urge to cry out. The pain is intense. Each one getting harder and rougher as he takes his rage out on my body.
At one point, he takes both of my nipples between his thumbs and forefingers—squeezing and pulling them until my back lifts off the mattress. Tears prick at my eyes. His cruel gaze never leaves mine.
Then the pain turns to heat and I gasp as it fills me and spreads outward. I had no idea it could feel like this. Each twist and slap—whatever he’s doing to me seems to flow into my body and turn every hurt into something volcanic and enticing. My insides churn, but my pussy throbs.
He hurts me because I hurt him, and I let him. I stop resisting and I take his anger. When he finally releases my tits, I collapse onto the sheets, dragging in gulp after gulp of air and feeling as if it’s not enough. They ache, they burn. My stomach flips and my thighs press together as fresh wetness oozes down the insides of my legs.
“I should’ve listened to them,” Lex says. “I should’ve known you were never what I thought you were—what I tried to make you. Tell me something…” He leans closer, hand finding my throat again and compressing along the sides.
Blood flow slows. My heartbeat races in my ears. Of all the ways I thought I might die, I never thought it would be at his hands. Now that we’re here, though, I wonder if I’ll let him follow through with it or if, in the end, I’ll fight him.
I guess we’re about to find out.
“Did you like playing with us?” he demands. “Did you like slumming it with the criminals from the wrong side of the tracks?” Lex doesn’t give me room to answer. “I bet you did,” he continues, eyes roving over my abused breasts as they heave for more air. “I bet you never had dick as good as when we fucked you.”
I bite back the urge to snarl at him, to fight and struggle and tell him how wrong he is, how he’ll regret the way he’s treating me. As much as I want to flip him off me and slam the flat of my palm into his nose, I can’t. Still, there’s no denying my own irritation when it surfaces.
He doesn’t know shit. If he really loved me, if he was as obsessed with me as he always claimed—if all those years of stalking and watching me meant a goddamn thing, then he would know that everything he’s saying now is utter bullshit. I bare my teeth at him.
