This crawling, repulsive thing inside me that screeches against my skull. Isthiswhat he felt when he saw me with Teddy? When he imagined me smiling, laughing,trustingsomeone else?
A scowl anchors itself deep into my face, blood running hot.
“What’s so wrong with trusting him?” I ask, sharp as a knife. “He’s someone who’s actuallyfoughtfor justice. We were friends long before any of this shit.”
Roman’s expression darkens, fury simmering beneath the surface. “You think I’m obsessed, but you’ll have to drop your fascination with your precious Teddy. He can’t protect you fromme.From what I’ll do to make you see who you really are.”
The implication shouldn’t make my thighs clench. But it does.
A harsh laugh escapes me, bitterness rippling through the sound. “You’re one to talk about obsession, Roman. Especially when I see how fucking taken Rosa seems to be by you.”
He tilts his head, changing the way the shadows sharpen across his features. Handsome, priceless, singular.
I want him so goddamn bad. It’s humiliating, and that only makes me wetter.
He steps forward, bridging the distance between us. “Do you really think so little of me that my relationship with Rosa would be anything but professional?”
I don’t believe him. Or, I do, and it doesn’t matter.
They don’t need to be lovers for me to hate their closeness.
Jealousy flares in my chest like dry leaves catching fire. My hands curl into fists at my sides. I’m strangled by it. Rage. Want. That sick, territorial ache I wish I could carve out with my bare hands.
“That’s exactly what you’re accusing me of with Teddy.”
We’re close enough now that I can feel his breath, hot and steady. He doesn’t blink. The whole world is spiced air and wet throbbing heat.
He leans in, and the heat coming off him threatens to melt the fury from my bones and replace it with something needful.
“If you really think this is all there is, that you are just another woman I’ve decided to give attention, you underestimate me. I told you already. There are no other women.”
His eyes sizzle against mine.
“It’s you, little viper. Only you.”
It shouldn’t land in my chest like a vow. It shouldn’t thrill me like a confession. But it does. I hate that it does. I waver, lip quivering.
My nipples are tight and aching. I feel like I could come right now, just thinking about his tongue in my throat, his cock pushing into me, just an inch and I’d be rolling with pleasure.
“This isn’t about?—”
“It is,” he interrupts again, voice barely above a whisper. “You’re just as jealous as I am, little viper. Maybe even more. You hate that she has me. You want me to be yours.”
My breath hitches. I don’t even notice it until he smiles.
“I want you dead,” I hiss, desperate to believe my own lie.
He spins me around so fast I almost fall, but he catches me by the throat, thumb tracing the hollow of my neck, the fluttering pulse there. I can almost feel the mark on his palm, the one I left when I still believed I might have control over the situation.
Over myself.
“You don’t know what you want, Giselle. You never have.”
He’s wrong. He’sright.I want to ruin him. I want tokeephim. I want to crawl into his ribcage and tear out whatever organ keeps whispering my name.
“You’re not special,” I hiss. “You’re just another psycho with a god complex.”
He leans in, lips at my ear. “And you’re just another girl who likes being broken by one.”
