CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Adrian
I watched her run.
So pretty. So vulnerable. So deceptive.
The sight of Serafina fleeing down the corridor stirred something primal in my chest. Fuck, she made me want to chase after her, to hunt her down like a savage.
Her dark hair streamed behind her, fluttering as she ran away, her slender form disappearing around the corner.
The taste of her shame, of her need lingered in my mouth—sweet and intoxicating. I leaned against the wall, my breathing still ragged from the fight, from her.
My cock throbbed painfully against my blood-stained pants. I palmed myself through the fabric, savoring the ache she’d left behind. The memory of her body pressed against mine, trembling with a desire she couldn’t admit to herself, burned through me like vengeful fire.
“Goddamn it,” I growled, adjusting myself with a grimace. The pain from the fight grounded me, kept me focused.
She had felt so fucking good, so fucking right. All that fire and resistance melting into submission beneath my hands. I felt it in her pulse, in the way her body quaked against mine.
Serafina was a woman who craved darkness, a woman who wanted to be devoured.
But she didn’t even understand how much of that darkness she truly desired.
Oh, silly her…
I leaned back, my head against the wall and closed my eyes. The way her breath had hitched when I thrust against her… I knew that sound would haunt my dreams tonight. That, and the way her eyes had widened when she realized how wet she was for me.
My brother thought he had won, bringing her to The Pit to witness my savagery. He thought he was showing her what a monster, what a heartless beast I was. To scare her. To intimidate her. To remind her that I was the evil brother.
But he didn’t know her like I did so he couldn’t have known…
Serafina didn’t run from me because she was disgusted.
She ran because she was terrified of what she wanted.
I pushed off the wall, straightening my torn shirt. When I smiled, my split lips bled some more, but the pain was nothing compared to the burning in my gut.
The need for vengeance that had consumed me for a year now had a new target.
A new purpose.
My chest rumbled with a dark, bitter laugh that echoed off the walls of the corridor.
And what a beautiful pawn she was.