Chapter 30 #3
He shoves past Cy and storms out. Suddenly, it’s just me and Cyrus and the kind of silence that is threatening to explode.
“Have you truly gone insane? Vex was just being nice. Nothing is going on between us. And who the hell are you to tell me who I can or can’t be with?”
Cy wheels around and grabs my arms. My ass hits the counter, and I yelp when he pushes between my legs, his face inches from mine. Staring into his blue eyes is a mistake as they threaten to drown me all over again.
He grips the edge, muscles flexing as he boxes me in.
It’s only then that I notice he’s shirtless.
The heat coming off his body is oppressive, and he smells incredible.
The aroma of dark musky vanilla and something smoky, like burnt cedarwood, invades my senses.
It is as chaotic a blend as the man himself, but if the saying sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll had a scent… this is it.
“Do you want him?”
It takes a second for my brain to come back online. My pulse is too loud, and my thoughts are tangled.
“No,” I breathe, the word almost too low for him to hear. “But that’s not the point.”
At first, he doesn’t move. He doesn’t answer. Cyrus is the most dangerous when he is quiet…when he decides he’s done listening. I wait for what comes next, holding as still as a small animal trying to hide from a predator.
Suddenly, his mouth crashes into mine like a storm that’s been building. He’s all heat and demanding, completely consuming. There’s nothing soft about it. Nothing hesitant either. This isn’t teasing. He’s behaving as if he’s been starved, and I’m the only thing that can feed him.
Part of me revolts against the idea that I want this, after everything, but the other part of me is here for it.
I lean back as he presses closer, chasing my lips.
There’s nowhere to go. Nowhere to run.
There is only him.
A broken sound slips out before I can stop it. My body betrays me further as his hands skim up my sides like he already owns every inch he touches.
Why am I not pushing him away? Why am I not fighting harder? I remember every reason this is wrong, every scar he has carved into me, every moment that I swore never again. If for no other reason than to keep my sanity, this can’t happen. But the truth is undeniable and sits heavily on my chest.
God help me. I’ve never stopped loving him.
Cyrus Vale is a dark temptation. He’s the apple in Eden, the kind of sin that doesn’t ask permission. The danger you see coming and step into anyway because you’re drawn to the light like a moth to a flame.
I’ve loved him in silence, in anger, and in pieces. And no matter how much I know this will destroy me…I don’t stop it. Not now. Maybe not ever. Because I’ve been craving the fall since the first time I tasted him.
Cy breaks the kiss with a rough breath. My lips are swollen, and my lungs struggle to catch up. For a second, we just stare at each other. And I see it. The shift. The one that used to mean cruelty. Now it’s something worse.
Darker. Full of desire. It coils through me like fire, licking up my spine, settling low in the pit of my stomach, and threatening to burn its way through me.
A sound rips from him so raw that I shiver as his hands fist in the front of my band T-shirt.
“You’re mine.”
I don’t move. Don’t breathe. Don’t give in.
“Say you’re mine.”
I narrow my gaze. “No.”
“Say. It.”
Sucking in a deep breath, I raise my chin and stare my monster straight in the eyes.
“Never.”
With a hard and devastating jerk, the fabric tears. My shirt splits down the middle, the word Venomous hangs open as my chest rises and falls too fast. But I don’t try to cover myself back up as Cy’s eyes lock on my breasts.
“Say it,” he demands again.
“I already told you, no.”
His jaw tightens, and something cracks. I see it in his stare. Possessive and completely unforgiving.
“Why are you so stubborn,” he asks, voice reduced to a deep growl.
“Why have you always been such an asshole?”
We freeze, and everything goes still. Chills race through my body as I brace for a fight. For the version of Cyrus who used to break me just to prove he could.
But this? This is worse.
Cy’s hand tangles in my hair, and he pulls. I cry out as my body arches back. He has me exposed and vulnerable. My nipples harden in the cool air brushing against him. Cy runs his hand up my chest, teasing my breasts. His hands are rough, and I can feel him balancing on a dangerous edge.
“Fuck me, you’re my ruination,” Cy whispers. I’m not sure how to take that, but the gravelly sound and the feel of his breath make my core ache.
My breath stutters, and my thoughts scatter to the wind.
Everything narrows down to Cyrus and the heat burning between us.
My body responds as if it remembers him.
This is surrender masquerading as defiance.
I know it will end badly. With Cy, there is no alternative.
But those thoughts are distant and drowned out by a much louder truth.
I want him.
I’ve always wanted him.
And whatever this—twisted, toxic, inevitable—thing is. I’m about to let it happen.