“You’resupposedto be mine.” His voice dips lower, almost rasping in a broken whisper. “Because I’m yours… I’ve always been yours.”
Oh, Lex…I close my eyes. His damage rains down on me, pressing my body into the wall with the kind of weight that can’t be eased without sacrifice.
My eyes fly open as Lex rips me away from the door, lifting me off my feet by the grip on my throat. I gasp, but no air slips through. My feet skim the soft cushioned carpet until the backs of my legs smack into the footboard of the bed. Only then does Lex ease his grip, dropping me onto the mattress.
I cough, choking and gagging, one hand going to my most likely bruised throat as the other holds me up in a sitting position on the mattress. “Lex, I had to. You don’t understand, I?—”
Pain explodes in my scalp as he grabs my hair and yanks hard. I swallow back the urge to scream as my eyes shift to the door and back to the man in front of me. Even if Morpheus isn’t here, there’s a whole house of employees below. All of them dedicated to a man they think is a savior.
If any of them find out that Lex is here in this room with me, that he came for me—as I should have known he would—they’ll tell him. Morpheus’ threats sink past the physical pain that Lex creates as he tightens his hold on my hair. No matter how angry he might be, I’ve made my choice—it’s them. It’s always them.
I’d die to protect them.
“I gave you a chance, baby.” Tone low, voice rolling over my ears like an audible drug, addicting me to the headiness of his possession, Lex drags his face up the side of my neck and stops at my earlobe. “Now, we’ll do things my way.” He bites down, the sharp sting shifting from light to actually painful.
“Lex!” I slap at his chest. “That hurts.”
When he pulls away, something wet drips onto my shoulder and I look down. Shocked, I spy two tiny red dots. Looking back to Lex, I shiver at the sight of his lower lip coated in the same crimson liquid—my blood.
My breasts swell and the urge to lean back and let him take out all of the banked rage burning in the depths of his gaze is almost irresistible. This isn’t the sweet man that held me in the midst of a panic attack. This isn’t the boy I befriended in our innocent youth. This is Lex, the stalker. Lex, the monster. And he’s here to rip me to shreds.
Before I can utter another word or sound of protest, he reaches for the front of my blouse, gripping the soft silk. The fabric pulls tight and the sound of rending material reaches my ears a second before air washes over the front of my body.
I glance down to find that the delicate shirt is now torn clean down the center, revealing the swells of my breasts confined in white lace and the planes of my stomach to open air. I don’t really care that he’s shredded what is likely a piece of clothing that costs several hundred dollars. The fact is—anything that comes from Morpheus is something I couldn’t give a shit less about.
Lifting my gaze back to meet his, I arch a brow. “I have more clothes in the wardrobe if you want to rip those apart too,” I offer.
He doesn’t answer, but instead continues to remove the tattered remains of the shirt in quick fashion, yanking the sleeves down my arms and tossing the shredded piece over his shoulder before he reaches for my pants.
Flipping onto my back, I have no time to resist as he strips me all the way to the matching panty set to my bra. When I’m left in nothing else, he climbs atop me and pins me beneath him. I soak in the feel of his heavy body on top of mine. It doesn’t frighten me like it used to. A memory of being shoved into theback of his SUV with Nolan pinning me to the back seat of the vehicle pops into my mind.
I hadn’t realized then what was so upsetting about the pressure. I hadn’t yet remembered what happened with Morpheus. That ugly piece of my history was so far repressed into the deepest part of my mind that all I’d been able to do is react. It’s different now. Lex is in my heart, a piece of my jagged, torn soul. I trust him.
His legs trap both of mine together and his hand returns to my throat, gripping with a strength that he’s never used on me like this before.
“Lex, please…” His hand clamps down and he grits his teeth as he hovers over me.
“You left.”
The sheer agony in those words cuts deep, sliding a wickedly scorching hot blade right between my ribs and directly into my heart. I clamp my lips shut, unwilling to let the truth spill out.
He shakes his head. “You can’t leave,” he says. “You’remine. Youpromised.” Through his words, I see what he hasn’t said. It’s written across his face as if the truth is embedded in his skin only for me to read.
I am nothing without you. If you won’t have me, what else is there for me to live for? I would die for you. I would kill for you. I would burn the world down for you and I would never let the flame touch you.
Why did you leave me?
Somehow, between when we were children and now, Lex has found solace in his obsession with me. He’s developed a whole world around the two of us in a way that he sees my recent actions are more than a betrayal—they’re an unraveling of his reality.
I once worried that his fixation on me was temporary, that it would fade with time when he realized I wasn’t the perfectJuliet from his memory. Now, I understand that the only way I could have hurt him was to do exactly as I’ve done now. I wanted him to think that I abandoned him to protect him, and now he believes it when the truth is so far from that ugly lie.
His hands are so hard, I know I’ll wear his marks for days. Bruises that will remind me of all the hurt I’ve given him. Maybe it would be better to tell him the truth, to tell him that I lied.
Lex’s forehead presses against mine. His hair falls over my cheeks, brushing against my skin in the softest caress. Gently, oh-so fucking gently, he tips his chin down and strokes his lips against mine, back and forth. It’s the sweetest, most cruel of kisses. It tastes of venom and betrayal and pain.
“I warned you, baby,” he whispers, voice rough, cracking. Broken. The burn in my eyes heats. “If I can’t have you, no one will.” His breath is warm against my cheeks.
I’m so focused on how damn good it feels to have him on top of me, to have his weight pressing into me from shoulder to thighs, that it takes me a moment to comprehend his words. By the time the synapsis in my brain fires correctly long enough for me to actually hear him, he’s pulling away from me.
