Chapter 10 #2
His smile made my bones vibrate—it was a hide-your-kids-and-loved-ones type of smile.
My throat constricted—I couldn’t breathe; I couldn’t inflate my lungs—and panic clawed through me like noxious venom.
His grim face and muscular body would give pause to the most bloodthirsty…
Neither the perfectly tailored clothes he wore, nor the expensive watch strapped around his wrist, did anything to detract from the murder and brutality that raged in his stare. That look turned my spine to liquid.
Fuckety crap.
I locked eyes with him, squared my shoulders, and stood straight. I lifted my chin even as nausea gripped me. The deadly glint in his eyes bored into me full of intense fury—a squall before the storm.
‘You betrayed me, Little Red,’ he said with dangerous calm, and I clamped my lips together. He was raw, vicious, and powerful… and I was utterly screwed.
His power hit me like a wave—thick, suffocating. It felt like I was buried in the sand up to my neck—tide water lapping around my mouth, threatening to drown me. It was potent and deadly.
‘You betrayed me,’ that barrel-deep voice roared. His hard, dangerous stare set my legs to trembling, and cold enveloped my body like ice water. The limitless power of the ocean raged within those blue-green eyes like a tempest churning the air before a lightning bolt strikes the water.
I was blasted with another shockwave of power as pain flamed across my flesh. Agony seared behind my eyes. My lungs screamed for air, and I grabbed my throat. It felt as though I was being dragged into that violent tempest, where the riptides drag you out to sea and suck you underwater.
‘I can kill you right now by dry drowning you, mortal.’ His voice was calm and deadly. ‘How dare you betray me… for Ixion.’
Then the pain disappeared like raindrops evaporating on hot cement, and I sucked in air. Before I could react, he moved like a blur and was in front of me, grabbing my throat in one hand, lifting me off my feet, and slamming me against the wall.
‘I—I…’ I croaked, still breathless.
‘Save your words, assassin.’ His grip tightened around my throat, and I struggled to gasp, my feet kicking against nothing. His thumb dragged along my thumping pulse point, slow and deliberate. ‘Your words change nothing.’
‘My… sister,’ I choked out, gasping, trying to breathe. His grip loosened… marginally. Hot tears burned down my cheeks, and my lungs sucked in shallow gulps of air as I met his eyes.
‘What about your sister?’
‘They threatened to kill her if I didn’t…’ A sob broke free, and he dropped me. I crumpled to the floor, landing on my ass, my body shaking, sobs tearing loose.
He walked away, his hand rubbing the back of his neck.
When he turned to me again, the violence in his eyes had dissipated.
A little. I struggled to my feet, and he moved in a flash, standing within inches of me, cupping my face in his large hands and brushing his thumbs across my cheeks to wipe away my tears.
Electricity sparked across my body at his touch.
His power overwhelmed me, sinking deep into my middle, and I fought the urge to lean into him.
‘You belong to me now…’ he said, voice low and dark. ‘I own you, Little Red.’ His breath dusted my face, but my temper sparked.
‘Fuck you,’ I spat. ‘No one owns me.’
His smile was wicked. Ruinous. ‘Maybe I will fuck that sweet, hot cunt of yours, before I punish you. But I think you’d like that.’
How could he scare and arouse me in the same breath?
‘I wouldn’t,’ I lied, voice barely above a whisper.
He released a long breath that ghosted across my lips. ‘I am angry with you, Cordelia,’ he said softly. His words caused my breath to stutter. He studied me for a long moment, his gaze cutting through the silence.
‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ His voice was low—too low—the kind of quiet that carried a warning.
I met his eyes, throat tight. ‘Would you have believed me?’
The muscle in his jaw jumped, and a shadow passed over his face. ‘Did you think I wouldn’t believe you?’
‘I didn’t think it mattered,’ I said, the words slipping out, fragile and low. ‘I was there to kill you.’
He exhaled slowly, but it wasn’t calm—it was control.
‘Perhaps,’ he said finally, voice rough as the sea in winter, ‘I’m ruthless. But I won’t hurt you…’
My breath faltered, and his gaze darkened at the sound. A pause stretched between us… dangerous, electric.
Then his mouth curved, slow and deliberate. ‘Not in a way you didn’t like, anyway,’ he added, softer now, but no less menacing.
Red-hot desire pulsed low in my stomach, shame and want tangling until I couldn’t tell one from the other.
‘Don’t fear me,’ he murmured. ‘Knowing you were coerced changes everything.’ His eyes burned—no mercy, no disguise. ‘I can be tyrannous… I can be many things, Cordelia… but never your harm.’
He stepped closer, voice deepening, threaded with something rawer—regret, maybe fury at himself. ‘You should have come to me. I would have kept you safe. You and your sister. You didn’t have to face this alone.’
My chest tightened. I couldn’t look away, couldn’t breathe.
‘But instead, you risked everything. Risked me,’ he said, quieter now, the anger curving inward. His gaze searched mine, sharp and unyielding. ‘Was it Ixion who hired you?’
I swallowed hard. ‘I think so,’ I whispered.
His jaw flexed, tightening as he fought for control. The air between us thickened—tension, wrath, and something far more dangerous simmering just beneath.
He placed a hand on my waist, and the heat of his touch on my bare flesh burned, scorching my skin. I trembled.
The proximity of him vibrated through my body, making it hard to breathe. His fingers drifted to the edge of my yoga pants, dipping down into the waistband. My whole world stopped on its axis, and my eyes drifted closed.
The hunter had overwhelmed the quarry.
I needed his fingers much, much lower. Needed those luscious lips on every inch of my skin. Yearned for the feel of his beautiful cock thrusting into me.