Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 79261 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 396(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79261 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 396(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
Until my possessive hold gripped hard, sliding down to her neck instead.
All it would take to even the score would be to choke the life right out of her.
“I just want to know,” I breathed out against her lips, gripping her neck harder. “How many times did they fuck you?”
Through a clenched jaw, she replied, “None of your fucking business, that’s how many times.”
I smiled, big and wide. “There’s my girl.”
The whirlwind of bullshit lingered in the air, in the room, in my fucking soul.
“Do you love him, Sloan?”
Her eyes glazed over, and I narrowed mine at her as if I were searching for all the evidence to back up my accusations and questions. The ones I asked and the ones obviously plaguing me through my tormented glare.
We stared at each other for the next few seconds, going through the emotions running mercilessly through our minds.
“Why’s it so fuckin’ hard for you to respond to one question?”
I leaned in closer on pure impulse, never taking my focus off her vacant, hollow eyes, looking for anything to hold on to. Seeking out the woman I was falling in love with, or at this point…
I was in love with.
I felt her lightly suck in a breath before I lightly brushed my lips against hers until I remembered where her mouth may have been, and I pulled away, growling. I was teetering on the edge. I could sense my resolve shattering. My thoughts were raging war with one another, right along with hers.
Both of us lost in the world we created for ourselves.
I thought she needed me as much as I needed her. I watched her with a captivated regard, wanting to know what the hell she was thinking.
Feeling.
Love proved to be blinding and, at times, cruel. You only saw what you wanted to see. Only picturing the good and never the bad.
I knew I’d always have demons lurking inside me… I just never imagined she’d end up being one of them.
CHAPTER
TWENTY-NINE
LUKE
I was the first to break our connection. I could no longer bear to see the woman staring back at me.
My heart.
My mind.
My sanity couldn’t take it anymore.
My thoughts swung back and forth along with my emotions—I was suffocating in them. It didn’t help that she gripped my soul like a fucking vise.
My safe house was eerie and silent, her scent masking the air all around me. Fueling the uncertainty for what was to come.
It was thriving.
Living.
Breathing inside me.
This was the only way—it was my only choice.
Even though I intently stared at her, I didn’t say a word. I just sat in my office chair in the room's shadow, with my elbow leaning against the armrest as I rubbed my fingers back and forth across my lips with the drink I made earlier in my hand.
I thought I could drink her away.
Once again, I was lost in my own purgatory in a way I’d never been before. Her unruly hair draped over her gorgeous face, regardless of the shiner on her cheek and the cut on her lip. I could see her through the slits of the strands in her hair.
I’d taken off her cloak and mask. Now she was just sitting there with her tied arms behind her back and in nothing but lingerie. In a normal setting, this would probably turn me the fuck on…
Who the hell am I kidding?
I was turned on.
She was still so damn sexy, and it didn’t help that I was into bondage play. Despite the darkness in the room, she could still see my dark, cold, beady eyes penetrating deep into hers, only burning a deep reaction within my core. The bourbon I started drinking only added to the way I watched her.
It was only then I realized she wasn’t looking at me.
She was looking through me.
I didn’t know why, but I wanted to stay lost in her eyes. I couldn’t look away because there was so much beauty in my catastrophic pain. She lured me in with her gaze, pulling every sentiment from my body as if it belonged to her.
Like we were the only two people in the world.
Like time stood still.
Like our relationship wasn’t based on anything but lies.
It felt like every passing second between us was another thought, another emotion, another memory of her for me. I was physically there with her, but my head was entirely elsewhere.
“Sloan Duchess Del Toro,” I whispered through my index and middle fingers, which continued to rub my lips. I needed something else to focus on besides her and what I was struggling with.
I wanted to move, but I couldn’t get my feet to stand.
My heart screamed for me to go to her although my body declared war, determined to ultimately win the internal battle erupting inside me when it came to her.
It awakened every last demon on my back.