Chapter 31
EVELINA
It’s all a blur as Vaughn pulls me after him back upstairs and through the ball. Suddenly, the cool night air tingles over my skin, and I realize we're outside.
He doesn’t stop.
He yanks me stumbling after him as he storms off the driveway, through the side garden, then into the darkness past the floodlights illuminating the chateau.
“Vaughn!” I blurt, almost twisting my ankle as my heel catches in a divot in the lawn. “Stop! Where are we—”
He whirls, and for the first time since we stormed out of the basement, I see his face.
White. Shaking with rage. A cold mask of fury, vengeance, and violence.
“No one talks to you like that.”
He surges into me, wrapping an iron hand around my throat and lifting my wide-eyed gaze to his livid one.
“No one touches what’s mine,” he growls.
He pulls me tight against him, his muscles twitching like a caged animal's.
A huge piece of me wants to throw my arms around him as my savior and hero, but his words stick and catch in my mind.
“What’s yours?”
His eyes narrow down into mine. “You are fucking mine—”
“So you freak out and go ballistic when an asshole makes a crude remark—”
“What that asshole said,” he snarls, “was—”
“Was just one more man making one more gross comment!!” I hurl back at him.
“Vaughn, I’m a woman! I’m sheltered, but do you seriously think I’ve never had men say disgusting, vile shit like that to me before?
! Welcome to being female! You want to track down every creep who’s ever brushed up against me on the subway or slid into my DMs with obscene messages since I was twelve? !”
“YES!” he roars, making me jump as he surges into me. “Yes, I fucking do! Maybe I can’t hunt down every fucker who's ever sent you a dick pic, but you’ll forgive me for taking the opportunity to do something when it’s shoved in my goddamn face!”
“Vaughn, I love that you stood up for me!” I yell. “And…okay…I kind of love that you went off the psycho deep end like that, probably more than I should.” I swallow. “But you’re missing the point.”
“So arrive at it!” he roars.
“You freaked the hell out when that asshole was a jerk to me. But that was the whole reason you brought me to the meeting!”
“Jesus,” he snarls, whirling away.
“Am I wrong?!” I yell at his back. “You told me you were—and I quote—betting on it creating the same sort of obscenities in the minds of the men you were meeting with!” My eyes narrow. “You said you wanted their thoughts wandering, thinking about my body while you were negotiating with them!”
Vaughn barks a laugh, shaking his head. “Un-fucking-believable.”
My brows shoot up. “I’m unbelievable?! For what?! Getting whiplash trying to figure out if you’re going to kick in a guy's teeth for holding a door for me, or pimp me out for a business deal?!”
He storms into me and wraps his hand around my throat. His eyes stab into mine, his teeth glinting in the moonlight.
“I’m trying, Evelina,” he snarls. “But you’re…FUCK!”
“I’m what?” I yell back.
“Fucking me up!!” he roars, making me shudder under his grip. “I never should have allowed you into that fucking initiation! You shouldn’t even be here!”
“You brought me here!” I scream.
“Yes, to keep a fucking eye on you!” he bellows back.
“To keep an eye on me?” I blurt incredulously. “What are you talking about?!”
He chokes out a cold, guttural laugh. “You think I don’t know that you’re up to something?!” he snaps, his eyes blazing. “What is it, Evelina! Why the fuck are you digging into Carson's past?! What’s your fucking angle?! We both know you don’t give a shit about joining the Syndicate!”
“I—you know why I came to that initiation,” I stammer, my heart jumping erratically as I try and formulate words. “Because I wanted your help to save—”
“Your piece of shit father?!” He laughs coldly. “Hilarious. We both know there were other options.”
“No, I don’t think we do!” I snap at him.
He rolls his eyes. “You seriously think, fuckhead though he is, your dad doesn’t still have friends everywhere!
? He sat on the Iron Table, for fuck's sake! There are dozens of people you could have gone to who would have happily helped him!” he roars.
“So why the fuck did you come knocking on my door?!”
“How about you tell me about these dozens of other options!” I scream back. “Because trust me, I’d rather go to any of them than deal with your psycho head games and sadistic sexual abuse for one more second!”
“Oh, like your cunt doesn’t drip all over the floor for my brand of sadism. Such a greedy little whore—”
The sound of my palm cracking against his cheek echoes in the night.
Then the entire scene goes pin-drop quiet.
My eyes widen, and my pulse beats in a rapid, staccato frenzy. My palm is still stinging from slapping him as Vaughn slowly twists his head back toward me, his cheek bright red.
“Vaughn,” I choke. “I—”
“You know what I think, princess?” he murmurs quietly, his voice eerily calm.
My pulse jangles as I swallow heavily.
“I didn’t mean to—”
“I think I’ve done you a disservice,” he growls. “You think you’ve been dealing with the full force of the monster inside me.” His lips curl dangerously as he leans closer, his eyes wild and glinting. “You haven’t seen the half of it.”
He draws in a slow breath as he slips his hand into his tuxedo.
“You think I’ve shown you the worst I have to offer.”
His hand slides back out, and metal glints in the moonlight.
“I haven’t.”
My eyes grow wide when I see the gleaming hunting knife in his hand.
“Vaughn—”
“Tonight, Evelina,” he murmurs in a quiet, dark, unhinged tone, “we’re going to change that.” His head tilts to the side, his eyes positively demonic as they shimmer like ice in the moonlight.
“Hang on,” I choke as I slowly start to back away from him. “Vaughn—”
He reaches up and loosens his bow tie, letting it fall undone before popping the top button of his shirt, letting the skulls and ghouls inked onto his chest leer and grin at me. Ice ripples through my veins as I take another shaking step back.
“Please,” I whisper haggardly. “Vaughn—”
“Tonight, you’re going to use your fucking safe word.”
He shrugs off his jacket, letting it fall to the grassy field.
“You’re going to fucking scream it. So run, princess,” he snarls in a deep, vicious voice I don’t recognize that sends ripples skittering through my body. “And run fast. Because when I catch you…”
The knife glints in his fingers as my pulse hammers in my veins.
“I’m going to fucking break you.”
I kick off my heels.
I turn.
And I run.
I bolt through the dark field, angling toward the forest that abuts the chateau estate. Pure adrenaline and fear explode through my veins like liquid fire, incinerating everything in their path as my legs pump as hard as they can.
It’s not enough.
He’s too fast.
Too strong.
Too powerful.
I make it all of ten paces before a hand grabs my hair and yanks viciously. Pain explodes in my scalp, and I yelp as he brutally tugs me back and tackles me.
He slams his weight into me, pinning me down and shoving my legs apart as he gets between them. I scream and thrash, clawing and kicking, trying to jab my fingernails into anything soft I can find. I catch something, and I hear his roaring grunt of pain before fire erupts across my cheek.
Holy shit. He just slapped me.
I want so badly to feel furious.
Instead, all I feel is a traitorous, tingling sensation creeping over my skin. The dark need inside me coils and tightens like a noose around my soul.
His hand wraps around my throat as his supernaturally blue eyes glint in the moonlight. He brings the knife to my neck. The tip nicks my skin, and I’m about to scream when Vaughn’s mouth drops to the wound.
His lips fasten around it, sucking as his tongue drags over the cut.
My core melts, the combination of pain and the sensual, dark feel of his tongue and lips on my skin sending a lightning storm thundering through me. He bites down, growling into my throat as I moan, my hips bucking against his body.
Oh God.
He’s so fucking hard.
Vaughn bites my throat again, growling and sliding his tongue over the cut. He pulls away, and I whimper when I see blood dripping from the corners of his lips and raw darkness blazing in his eyes.
His blade goes to the bodice of the gown, and I can’t stop the needy, broken sound that erupts from my throat when he jerks his arm up, slicing the gorgeous, insanely expensive dress from my navel all the way up to my breasts.
He rips the gown open all at once, and his knife goes to my throat again.
“Welcome to my monster, princess,” he rasps in a tone I’ve never heard before. He drags the blade over my collarbone, then down the slope of one breast, making my breath hitch sharply.
He brings the tip of the knife to the tight, aching bud of my nipple, sending a storm of pleasure mixed with fight or flight survival instinct exploding through my system. Then the knife slides across my skin, making me shudder and gasp as he teases the lethal point over my other nipple.
The cold blade slips away, immediately replaced by his warm tongue. His teeth nip and then bite down hard, making me scream in broken, fucked-up pleasure as my back jerks violently off the ground.
Vaughn growls and shoves the gown up to my hips. I’m shaking with pain, pleasure, fear and raw, unhinged need for him as he pushes his hand between my legs and cups my pussy through the flimsy black thong.
“My my my, princess,” Vaughn rasps as his mouth returns to my throat.
He bites down again, making me shriek before his fingers start to rub my slick pussy through my panties.
“You know what I think?” he growls into my skin.
“I think you’ve been waiting for me to stop holding back.
I think you’ve been aching for my monster to come out to play. ”
His fingers slip under the strip of lace, his knuckles brushing against my pussy.
Then his arms jerks, ripping the panties away.