Chapter 16
Maya
I can’t fall in love with my sister’s husband.
Or her ex-husband. I don’t even know what his legal status is with Valeria anymore.
Either way, I cannot fall in love with Graham. I keep repeating that over and over in my head after waking up in his massive bed—the morning after he practically sucked my soul straight out through my pussy.
He presses a kiss to the side of my face. He looks at me like I am the sun, like the entire solar system revolves around my existence. It is a terrifyingly dangerous drug for a woman who has been made to feel like less than nothing her entire life.
This man is trying to isolate me from every single person in my world.
And it appears he has completely succeeded.
He ensured I got fired from all my jobs so I would have absolutely nothing left but him. He married my sister just to force himself into my orbit. Then he threw her into a psych ward.
And now, I am lying bare in his bed.
“When did you start…” I trail off, the question burning my throat until I can’t stop myself from asking. I swallow hard, looking into his bottomless eyes. “When did you start getting obsessed with me, Graham?”
Graham lets out a low hum. He drags his lips down to kiss my bare shoulder. A shiver rips through my spine at the contact, and I curse my depraved body for its reaction. A slick pool of heat is already forming between my thighs.
Fuck him.
“Obsession is entirely too small a word for what I feel for you, Maya,” he murmurs.
His shadow completely eclipses me as his kisses trace a path from my jaw, past my ear, and back to my shoulder.
“I don’t possess normal feelings, little flower,” he confesses. “All my life, everything has been nothing but a sea of grey. Then you came along.”
“I… came along?” My brows furrow. “What do you mean? We didn’t even meet until Valeria brought you home.”
Graham buries his face deep in my hair, sniffing the scent of my scalp like it is cocaine. He lets out a ragged exhale.
“You probably won’t ever remember this,” he rasps, “but I was a recurring patron at that dingy restaurant you used to work at years ago.”
“What?!” I gasp.
I instinctively raise a hand to cover my mouth. But before I can hide, Graham clamps his teeth over my fingertips, biting down just enough to force my hand back to the mattress.
“I know you didn’t notice me, little flower,” he growls. “And to this day, it still fucking pisses me off. You walked right past my table every single time. Blind to me. But the very first moment I saw you… it was like a flash of color slammed into my life. I watched you for months, Maya.”
I swallow the thick lump of bile in my throat.
“If you wanted me… why did you marry Valeria?”
Graham bares his teeth in a dark smirk.
“Because you wouldn’t even look at me, Maya. You were too innocent. Valeria was easy to manipulate, and her greed made her predictable. I knew if I put a ring on her finger, I would get to you.”
His hot breath fans across my lips as he hovers over mine.
“You were always the prize. My one true eternal compass.”
Anger flares, mixing with the terrifying confusion already taking over my heart. I feel like an object. A plaything. A whore.
“Okay, so what the fuck am I to you?” I snap. “My sister’s husband’s mistress?”
“I divorced her,” he says casually.
I have no idea what is happening to my chest, but the pressure is so immense it feels like a heart attack.
“Huh?!” I shriek. “How? Valeria would never agree to that! There is no fucking way she signed papers from inside an asylum!”
“She didn’t have to agree, little flower. It was written explicitly into the prenuptial agreement. Severe mental instability and institutionalization are immediate grounds for dissolution of the marriage. We both signed it.”
I fling myself upright against the headboard.
“Does she… does she even know?”
He nods, completely unbothered.
“She was served and informed this morning.”
“You are a fucking monster,” I hiss as a fresh wave of hot tears spills over my lashes.
“Your monster, little flower,” he corrects, crawling up the mattress until his chest traps me against the headboard. “The monster that sucks all the light out of your life and drags it straight into mine. And the most beautiful part of it? You have absolutely no idea why you love it.”
He bites my bottom lip.
Tears mix with the friction of our mouths.
Completely powerless against his gravity, I find myself kissing the devil back.
Graham wraps the strands of my hair around his forearm, twisting twice until my roots burn.
He yanks his arm back, tilting my head so far that I’m forced to stare at the ceiling.
His tongue slides across my cheek, licking away the tears spilling from my eyes.
My heart beats erratically.
I am scared of him. I am furious at the destruction of my life. But beneath the terror and rage, intrigue coils in my gut.
“I promise to constantly break you, Maya,” he whispers. “Just for the pleasure of putting your life back together with my own hands.”
He clamps his teeth into the flesh of my right cheek. When he finally releases the pressure, I can feel the stinging throb his bite leaves behind.
“I vow to be the only thing you ever need,” he growls.
“You’re insane,” I choke out.
But I’m fully aware that my body is betraying me, begging for the monster.
“Call me whatever you want, little flower,” he chuckles, his black eyes completely unhinged. “But you belong to me now.”