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I lick my dry lips. “Do what?”
He gives the smallest, one-sided grin and transfers my wrists into one of his hands at my back. With the other, he reaches under my hair, behind my neck, feeling there, looking for something.
I know what.
“The mark. Did he do it?”
“You want him to brand me?”
He shifts his hold so he cups the back of my head, then squeezes his fingers in my hair.
“You’re hurting me, Gregory.”
“You like being hurt, Helena.”
“What do you want? What do you want with me? Do you want me because you feel something for me or do you want me because I’m his?”
He tugs my head backward just a little, just enough. “What do I want?”
I grit my teeth, feel my eyes harden as I try to nod.
He holds me so tightly that I can’t move and brings his mouth to mine.
When his lips touch mine, I make a sound, sealing them until he tugs my head backward, forcing them to open.
“Stop.”
He sucks my lower lip into his mouth and he’s soft and I like the taste of him, that of whiskey and the hint of cigarette smoke and him, and I think about how beautiful he is when he comes. How his eyes glisten when he comes.
He lets out a small, satisfied moan, then takes my lower lip between his teeth and all the while, he’s watching me. Watching as he bites, just a little, just enough to break skin, to draw a taste of blood before pulling back and looking at me. Grinning.
“I like kissing you, Helena. I like it very much.”
“He’ll kill you.”
“This is what I wanted,” he says, ignoring my comment. “It was all I wanted. But you couldn’t give it to me.”
“Gregory—”
“You couldn’t give me this one thing.”
“Please, don’t.”
“I don’t ask much.” He kisses me again and this time, I manage to turn my face away.
“I love him!”
Anger flits across his features and he releases me like I’ve just burned him. Like I’ve just scalded his skin.
“Then prove it,” he says. He steps backward as he wipes the corner of his mouth. “Do it.”
I feel my eyes widen.
He smiles, but it looks wrong.
“Let him brand you and I’ll know you mean it and I’ll let you go. Or don’t, and I’ll take everything from him. The Scafoni inheritance. You. Everything.”
“I’ll hate you.”
“I don’t care. I did. But I don’t anymore.”
“You can’t do it.”
“I can. With Ethan out of the way, it can all be mine.”
The kitchen door swings open and we both turn to find Sebastian standing there.
It takes him exactly one millisecond to look at us like this before he pounces.
Gregory’s ready for him.
I press my back into the wall as the brothers go after each other, two giants battling, glasses shattering, chairs toppling over as they fight ruthlessly.
I scream.
Watching them, it’s terrifying.
They’re going to kill each other.
“Stop!” I cry out, wanting to physically stop them, afraid to go near them. They’re too big and too strong.
“You always want what’s not yours,” Sebastian says, his voice steel.
“No. Not always. Just now.”
“Fuck you, brother.”
Sebastian’s fist almost sends Gregory to the floor, but a moment later, it’s Sebastian who’s taking a blow from Gregory, toppling backward into the kitchen table.
“Stop it! You’re going to kill each other!”
But it’s like I’m not here at all. Neither of them are listening to me. So I pick up the bottle of whiskey and hurl it against the far wall.
I don’t know if it’s the shattering of crystal or my scream that finally makes them stop. Finally makes them look at me.
“I’ll do it. He’ll do it,” I say, my voice higher, panicked. I’m looking from one to the other.
“Quiet, Helena. This is between me and my brother,” Sebastian says.
The way Gregory looks at him as he wipes blood from his temple, I think Sebastian is right. That all of this, it’s always been between them.
None of this has ever been about me.
“I’ll do it,” I say again, more quietly this time. I sag back against the counter.
“I said quiet, Helena.” Sebastian’s voice, too, is quieter.
“No. Don’t quiet her,” Gregory says.
He steps away, lets out a small, strange laugh. His gaze burns into mine.
Sebastian steps toward me, wraps an arm around my waist. I lean into him, my knees buckling at what I’m agreeing to.
Gregory’s voice is level when he speaks again. “Let her prove herself. If you do this, I’ll relinquish my claim. She’ll be yours.”
He’s talking to Sebastian, but his unblinking eyes are locked on mine.
“You can’t ask that—” Sebastian starts, then stops. “Ask something of me. Not her.”
Gregory finally turns to him. “That’s not how this works, and you know it. There are rules. There’s no other way.” He takes a long breath in. “That’s the thing, isn’t it? We’re all locked in. And this contract ensures our hate.”
