Total pages in book: 187
Estimated words: 184867 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 924(@200wpm)___ 739(@250wpm)___ 616(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 184867 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 924(@200wpm)___ 739(@250wpm)___ 616(@300wpm)
An air of darkness slowly envelops me.
“Ares.” His name rolls off my tongue like I’m summoning a demon from hell.
“Good girl. So you’ve heard what people say about me.” He grabs a strand of my hair and lifts it. “Yet you still smiled at me. Why?”
“Why … I smiled?” I’m flabbergasted that this is the question he’d ask.
“You’ve seen what I’m capable of. Why aren’t you terrified?”
I suck in a breath through my teeth, staying put despite his looming presence towering over me. “I don’t break for anyone.”
I’ve been broken too many times to let anyone shatter me again.
His fingers dig deeper into my dress. “We’ll see about that.”
I stick my hand into my pocket and grasp the handle of my knife.
“You can’t kill me in front of all these people,” I mutter, sweat drops trickling down my back.
I can hear him snort away a laugh. “You think I want to kill you?”
“You killed those men,” I whisper.
It’s out there now.
“I did kill them.”
How he so easily admits to it makes my blood boil.
“Aren’t you going to ask me why?”
I bite my lip, wondering what I should say. Every word feels like a maze, and each answer leads into his carefully laid out trap. “Does it change the outcome?”
There’s a pause. “You have a way with words.”
I grasp the banister of the terrace, ready to kick back. “And you destroy people because of the words they speak.”
“Don’t pretend to know my business,” he says. “I don’t think you understand what it takes to lead the Tartarus House. But I do.”
A knife suddenly prods into my waist, making my heart jump.
“You know my secret. But I’m not here to kill you, Crystal.”
My jaw drops.
How does he know my name?
“I don’t want you to die. Not this sweet, innocent soul who smiled so happily at a killer.” He plays with my hair, coiling it around his finger like I’m a shiny, new toy to play with. “No, what I want is something far more sinister.”
I hold my breath to stop his blade from piercing my skin.
“Your fear.”
I can’t breathe. Can’t swallow. Can’t even flinch without feeling the tip of his knife bore into me. But I will never give him the thing he wants most.
His free hand trails a line from my neck all the way down to where my dress covers my breasts, and when he hovers over it, I grasp his hand.
“Oh … so the little innocent girl does have some bite to her,” he murmurs. “Good. A chase isn’t fun without a challenge.”
The knife pushes farther into my skin with each passing second, as if he’s taunting me to see how far I’ll take it, until I can no longer hold his wrist. The moment I let go, the knife stops digging into me, and I let out a breath.
“Good choice,” he murmurs into my ear.
His hand lingers near my chest, electricity humming between us like he’s testing the waters, seeing how easily I’ll bend to his will. Just like everyone else in his world.
I should stab him. Thrust this knife into his cold, detached heart. He deserves it.
But then his lips suddenly come down on my neck, and all my thoughts of murder dissipate.
I’m frozen to the ground as his lips freely roam my skin, planting kisses wherever he goes, and I can barely breathe.
“You taste as sweet as you look,” he murmurs, his heady voice luring me into the abyss with him. “I wonder if your blood does too.”
His teeth sink into my flesh, and a strangled cry escapes my mouth, the sound blocked by his hand, which swiftly moves to cover it.
What the hell? He actually bit my shoulder.
His teeth retract, and my skin surges with blood and pain, but when his lips cover the wound, I gasp. His tongue dips out to lick the blood, kissing my skin before he licks his lips against my ear.
“Sweet as fucking sin.”
He’s sick. Completely deranged, and—
“Don’t scream. Unless you want this knife to make you bleed too,” he whispers, the tip of his knife reminding me of my precarious situation. “And I will certainly lick the blood off the blade as well.”
“You’re insane,” I murmur when he finally removes his hand.
“Insane … perhaps.” His hand moves down my neck. “Or perhaps you just haven’t seen anything of this world yet.”
His hand dips into my dress from the top where he cups my naked breast and squeezes.
“Perhaps you haven’t experienced enough of it yet to differentiate between pleasure …”
I suck in a breath to stop the moan from spilling out when he pinches my nipple between his index finger and thumb and rolls it around.
“And pain.”
He pinches it so hard I bite my tongue. “F-fuck.”
“Ah-ah. Quiet,” he whispers, pushing the tip of the knife into my side. “Or I will have to cut our little bout of titillation short.”