I ignored him.
My fingers curled around the cold metal of the handle as I prepared for freedom.But strong arms wrapped around my waist and lifted me clean off the ground.
“What the—let me go!”I twisted, clawed, kicked, but his grip didn’t budge.He dragged me back like I weighed nothing, turned me in his arms, held me pinned against his chest.
His strength was infuriating.His heat bled through my thin shirt.His breath grazed my cheek.
I looked up, ready to spit in his face, and everything stopped.
His face was inches from mine.Close enough that I could see the flecks of silver in his grey eyes.Close enough that when I inhaled, I was breathing him in… danger, sweat, heat, something so dark and male that it terrified me and made my stomach drop all at once.
“Put me down,” I whispered.
He didn’t.Instead, his grip tightened while his jaw flexed.
And then, something changed.The slightest hitch in his breath.A shift in the air between us.His forehead brushed mine.
It happened that fast, and then his mouth was on mine.
The shock hit me like a slap.His lips were rough, firm, claiming.His hand slid up my back, holding me steady as his mouth moved against mine like he’d been waiting fifteen years for this moment.
I shouldn’t have kissed him.I shouldn’t have even looked at him.He slaughtered my family.He stole my life.He followed me, stalked me, dragged me into his own private hell… but my traitorous body betrayed me instantly.
I gasped into him and he deepened the kiss.My fingers curled into his shirt.I felt his chest against mine, solid, unforgiving, real, and something inside me cracked…
Alive.I felt alive.For the first time in my life.
I hated it.I wanted more of it.Both truths hit at once, violent and unstoppable.
He kissed like a man who took what he wanted and expected the world to kneel.And I… I melted.My lips parted, welcoming him.His tongue swept against mine—slow, sure, claiming.A sound escaped my throat, small and desperate, and he growled low in response, pulling me tighter against him.
Heat shot through me.My body arched, instinctive and hungry.
He kissed me harder, deeper, until I couldn’t breathe.Until I forgot myself.Until I was clutching at him like he was the only solid thing in the room.
Then instinct cut through the haze.
I bit him.Hard.
He jerked back with a hiss, lips red, teeth bared in something like amusement or anger—I couldn’t tell which.
“Dangerous girl,” he growled, thumb brushing my lower lip.
My chest heaved.“Put me down.”
His gaze traveled over my face—my swollen mouth, my flushed skin, the fear I was trying not to show.He set me on my feet, but didn’t step back.
A breath passed between us.Thick.Charged.
And then the truth swept over me so violently that my knees almost buckled.
He killed my family.The man who slaughtered everyone I ever loved… just kissed me.And I let him.
I stumbled away from him, hand over my mouth, shaking.My stomach twisted.Shame and fury ripped through me.
“What the hell is wrong with me?”I whispered.
He didn’t answer.