twenty-two #2
“More than you love Baron?”
I swallow hard. “Are you Baron?”
“Do you think I am?”
“You could be tricking me, to find out who I love more.”
“I could be.” He grins. “You’d never know. I know how crazy that makes you.”
“I’m not crazy.”
“Do you love me more than Baron?”
This time, I don’t argue. I nod. “Yes.”
“Good girl,” he says, running his hands up my thighs. He mashes his thumb over my clit, and the bundle of nerves comes alive. My thighs quake, and he smiles wider, doing it again.
“Are you high?” I whisper.
He shakes his head. “Not this time.”
His thumb continues stroking relentlessly, until pulses of pleasure ripple all the way down my legs, up my back. Gooseflesh explodes over my skin, and my inner walks clamp down on him.
He moans, lifting his hips, grinding up into me. “Cum for me, Duchess.”
I don’t want to, but I do. My body wants it, even as my mind recoils with the same kind of disgust Baron feels for me when I do.
Duke watches me, holding me pinned and winding me higher, tormenting my clit until I cry out helplessly.
My thighs clench, my back arches, and my hips jerk in spasms as I shatter.
My walls grip him, holding him close and bathing him in my release as darkness dots my vision.
I scrunch my eyes closed so I don’t have to see his smug grin when I’m done.
Duke goes on for a few more minutes before he finishes too. Then he rolls us over so we’re facing each other on the bed. He’s still inside me, and I have to fight not to show my revulsion at the feeling of him softening inside me, thick and wet.
“Maybe if I keep you plugged up, I’ll finally get a baby in you,” he says.
My heart tears the way it always does, but I don’t say anything, don’t tell him there will never be a baby. He blames himself for enough without knowing he took that from me—and from himself.
“You know,” I say, stroking his cheek. “You always ask if I love you. But you never tell me you do.”
“Of course I love you,” he says. “How can you doubt it?”
“I don’t know,” I say. “You’re… Different. Do you still want to be with me? Or are you just doing it for Baron?”
“Of course I want to be with you.”
“You never did anything to prove it,” I point out, my voice low.
He draws back. “Like what? Kill someone?”
“I mean… You were supposed to kill Jane to begin with. Baron’s proven what he’ll do for us a few times since we found out he failed. But we knew from the start you did, and no one ever asked you for more.”
“I do illegal shit for us all the time,” he says. “I ran the operation all year.”
“Yeah,” I say. “But that’s for Baron. You’ve never did anything to prove you wanted me.”
“You’re insecure?” he asks.
“I’m human too.”
He stares at me a long minute, then draws his hips away. His cock slides out of me in a slippery rush. “Who do you want me to kill?” he asks, frowning up at the ceiling.
“I was thinking about Dixie,” I say. “What she did to me in high school.”
“Really?” he asks. “She didn’t do that much.”
“She did a lot,” I say. “Not just to me. To my brother too.”
“Then have him kill her.”
“He doesn’t have it in him.”
Duke stares at the ceiling another minute, and then he smiles. “He doesn’t, does he? Fucking pussy. He’s always been soft.”
“Will you do it?”
“Someone has to avenge you,” he says. “Obviously your family’s too weak to do it.”
“She’s going home for Labor Day,” I say. “I thought, maybe we could get her on the way. And then go visit your folks in Faulkner. It’s only a month away.”
“Really?” he asks. “You’d go back?”
“Of course,” I say, planting a soft kiss on his shoulder. “I know how much it means to you.”
“Okay. I’ll kill Dixie. Since it means so much to you.”
“We’ll have to make sure she’s driving home alone,” I say. “I don’t want anyone else to get hurt.”
“You don’t mind killing someone,” he points out.
“People who deserve it.”
“Why do you get to decide that?” he asks. “You’re playing god.”
“Well, sometimes god doesn’t do a very good job. Someone has to step in and do it for him.”
Duke tucks the pillow behind his head and doesn’t speak for a long time. Finally, he says, “Am I next?”
“For what?”
“You’re getting rid of everyone who wronged you. Didn’t we wrong you the most?”
“You’re making up for it now.”
“You never say you love me unless I ask,” he says. “Do you mean it?”
“I mean it as much as you mean it.”
“If I do this, will you believe me?” he asks. “Or will you keep asking me to kill more people, like you did Baron?”
“Would you?” I ask, toying with the neck of his t-shirt. “For me?”
“I would try.”
“Who would you kill?” I ask. “If you got to pick. Anyone in the world. Who would you kill?”
“I wouldn’t kill anyone,” he says. “Isn’t that the point? To make me do something I wouldn’t do, to prove to you how much I love you?”
“Then who would you kill to prove it?” I ask. “Baron got rid of his pet for me. Who would you get rid of? Someone important to you, so I know you love me as much as he does. Or even more.”
“You want me to say Olive, don’t you?”
“No,” I say, appalled. “She’s a child.” I think about it for a long minute. “I would never ask you to hurt an innocent person. But if I did ask you to, would you do it?”
“You’re sick.” He tries to take his arm from under my head, but I hold onto him, so he can’t.
“I just want to know how far you’d go,” I say. “Even Jane’s death was meaningless to you. I want to know how much you’d sacrifice for me. Who would you give up, who you love, who’s hurt me?”
“Oh,” he says flatly. “You want me to kill Baron.”