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)
“What happened to him?” I mutter, my eyes glued on Ares’s back as Caleb dabs the sponge against his wounds. Ares hisses in pain but remains seated.
Blaine sighs. “I don’t know. Ares refuses to tell us. But for your own sake, don’t ask him.” He places a hand on my shoulder. “It’s best if you go back to Caleb’s room.”
I briefly glance at him in his red bathrobe, then nod and slowly turn away from him, walking all the way back to Caleb’s room before I shut the door to take deep breaths.
Those wounds were fresh, and they looked so damn painful … it’s hard not to feel sorry for him. But the thought of feeling not pity but actual compassion for a guy who literally locked me up in his house and uses me as a personal slut is hard to accept.
I hate him with every fiber of my being, yet …
Seeing him all wrangled up like that made it feel like someone carved my flesh too.
My heart hurts just as much as my mind.
I sink to the floor near the bed and bury my face in my hands, hoping that if I sit here long enough, I’ll forget what I saw.
Caleb
“Leave me.”
Ares’s stern voice wounds me, but I don’t hesitate to listen.
“If you need me—”
“I know,” he interjects, but he can’t even bear to look at me, let alone himself.
I swallow down the pride and walk out of the room.
“How’s he doing?” Blaine asks.
“Not good,” I reply, shutting the door.
“She saw him.”
My eyes narrow. Fuck. “I’m gonna go check on her.”
I march across the hallway and head into my room. She’s sitting against the bed, but she looks up at me the second she hears the door close.
There’s not a single tear on her flushed cheeks yet …
She looks pained.
Wounded.
Not physically, but emotionally.
And it’s eating me up alive.
Why does all this have to be so fucking difficult? I don’t want to have to choose between the two of them.
She crawls up from the floor, her eyes completely glazed over and emotionless. Like she’s shut them all off. And I watch her walk to my bathroom to turn on the rain shower. She grabs the metallic straps on her shoulders and slowly pulls them down, exposing her skin, and I can’t take my eyes off her as it drops to the floor, leaving nothing to the imagination.
Her blond hair is still caked with blood from yesterday, and when she glances at me over her shoulder, I swear she’s like a fallen angel. So much beauty, corrupted with a single death.
And it’s all because of him.
My door is opened, and someone steps inside, but I pay no attention. I can hear the door close, but my eyes remain fixated on her as she steps under the shower and lets the water wash over her.
Blaine stands beside me, his long black hair falling over his red robe as he tilts his head and folds his arms.
“Gorgeous …” Blaine murmurs, licking his lips. “Even more so with all the blood.”
Rivulets of water mixed with blood roll down her neck, across her nipples which peak under our gazes, and my hard-on nearly bursts out of my sweatpants.
She’s seen death with her own damn eyes and survived while I’m here waning because of a death that hasn’t happened yet. She’s the epitome of strength and all that I wish I could have.
I swallow away the lump in my throat as her presence coaxes me to come closer and closer, not giving a shit about the water splashing onto my pants.
She’s a siren luring me in with just her eyes, beckoning me to obey, and I am more than willing to yield.
I grab the sponge off my shelf and run it across her shoulders while I step under too. My clothes are soaked, but all I care about is being close to her. She’s the girl I should’ve stayed away from, the girl who’s wormed her way into our lives and made our dark minds her home.
I help her wash off the blood, but a part of me wants to revel in the pain she’s caused.
So I tip up her chin and make her look at me, show her that I’m not a threat … that I would kill for her if she’d ask.
And I plant my lips on hers, claiming that darkness spreading inside her like an infection from a single bite Ares left on her shoulder. He’s turned her into a mirror of his own image, a creature of ruin and revenge, and I want nothing more than to bask in their fucking glory.
Blaine steps under the shower too, dropping his red robe on the floor as he plucks her face away from me, only to kiss her right on those very same lips, stealing her away from me.