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A pair of brown leather brogues appear ahead of me before he speaks. “You shouldn’t be here, Miss Cameron.”
Flashing my eyes up, I catch the man’s hard stare. Icy blue. So cold that I’m frozen to the spot even as he attempts to turn me around. It takes me a moment to remember his name from our encounter a little over a month ago in Percival’s office.
“Go home.”
“Where’s Henry?”
His brows furrow, morphing his austere expression into an irate sneer before he tells me, “Not here.”
He’s lying. My dad always told me that not saying enough is as telling as saying too much. Aside from that, I know Henry’s here. I feel the electricity of his presence in my bones.
“Go. Home, Eve. Leave.” Julian takes a commanding step towards me. He’s so naturally frosty that I can’t stop myself from backing away a couple of feet so that I’m on the edge of the top step.
“Turn around,” he instructs through gritted teeth.
This is as far as I go, though. Steeling myself, I pull my shoulders back and stare him in the eyes. If I can deal with Henry’s anger issues, I can definitely deal with this guy’s authoritarian glower.
The agreeable part of me fleetingly considers doing as he’s ordering me, but I’ve been here before with Julian. I have a feeling that if he gets too close, the outcome right now will be the same as last time. And so, I dig my heels in, curling my toes in my boots as if that will give me extra stay-put power. I hope it does because I’m precariously balancing on the edge of the tall flight of stairs with nothing to catch my fall and a gene fault that could make this game over for me.
“No.” I shake my head, emphasising my reply as his chest almost touches mine.
Our wills battle it out between us in the silence. He’s considering his options, and I’m hoping that this standoff goes my way.
“Do as you’re told,” the order booms from behind me, sending my heart into a frenzy.
I’m hot, I’m cold, I’m everything in between. Most of all, I’m elated that the feeling in my bones was right. Maybe I’m not so crazy for believing that there is something in me that is not just attuned to him but that recognises his existence.
Excitement makes it hard for me to breathe as I lean to the side, slowly deviating my stare from Julian to where Henry is standing in the hallway leading to the room where I first laid eyes on him. Exactly like that night, there’s a darkness in his eyes that twists my insides. A pull that I can’t resist as I step around Julian and go to him.
Something’s happened. I don’t just feel it in my bones; I can sense it with every bit of my DNA. There’s violence burning in his eyes when I stop in front of him.
Rough hands grip my hips, pulling me flush to him even as he tells me, “Get out of here.”
“You called me,” I murmur, hovering my hands over his chest while I shake my head at his command.
A shudder steels his entire body when my fingers brush over the loose cotton of his black T-shirt. He smells of soap, like he’s just washed. As if our bodies aren’t already touching, I step deeper into him, enough so that his hands grudgingly claw to my arse.
“Turn around and walk out, or I drag you out myself,” he growls, leaning over me so that his lips are close enough that I can taste the vicious edge of his words as they cut through me.
This man might be the biggest arsehole in the world, but I know firsthand how these military men work. Their hard shell is impenetrable until it cracks. Then they’re just like any other human—vulnerable.
“Go for it,” I bite back, low enough that the words die a whisper over his jaw. The dark stubble makes my fingers burn with the urge to feel its scratch, the same consuming graze that I still feel ghosting the curve of my neck since yesterday.
Henry’s hold on my arse tightens, and the squeeze of his hands sends a frisson of heat and pain through me that causes me to whimper. Before I can brace myself, he heaves me up the length of his body, throwing me over his shoulder as he starts towards the stairs. A muscled arm wraps around my thighs while his other hand fists my dress at my lower back.
Every step is punctuated with an angry breath. Every jolt threatens to crush my lungs. Still, I don’t fight or argue. He called me. I know it was him. It could only be him. The devil called, and I came running. I came to him because it’s what he wanted. It’s the reason he called me.
My blurred surroundings come to a halt. Suddenly, Henry drops me to my feet with a shrug of his shoulder. There’s a savage cruelty in the way he shakes me off him and spins me to face the wall of the alcove at the top of the first flight of stairs. The draped curtain keeps most of the light out as his front presses to my back, pinning me with his weight.
Little does he know that this is exactly what I was yearning for when he called. His body on mine. His weight over me. That in his stubborn spite, he’s giving me what I want.
“Will you ever do as you are told?” he barks into my ear with a hard tug of my hair as my nails claw at the silk-lined wall.
Henry doesn’t give me the chance to reply. Wrapping the length of my long hair around my throat, he pulls it taut so that I can barely pull a rasp of air into my lungs. My eyes blink up in a sidelong glance that catches a slither of his seething expression.
“Is this what you want, Eve? To be fucked like a common whore for everyone to see?”
I should shake my head. I should fight him. Scratch and claw at him until he releases me. Instead, I lift my face to his, twisting so that the rope of hair strangles me harder. I’ve never felt as alive as I do right now or as close to death as when he glares deep into my stare.
