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He comes over to me and I tug the blankets higher. With a hand beneath my chin, he tilts my face upward. “Tonight, we’ll figure out if you’ll be useful to me.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means you’d better be useful.”
“You mean I’d better not pass out so you can feel better about taking something that I don’t give?” I don’t know why I say it because in my heart, I know he won’t do that. He would have already done it if he were that kind of man.
He snorts, eyes growing darker looking like a midnight sky. “Careful, Little Kitten.”
“Don’t call me that.”
“Why not? It fits. I was wrong.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re not Fury. You’re just a harmless Little Kitten.”
I tug my face out of his grasp, but he grips it again, this time tighter.
“Let go of me. Don’t ever touch me.” I close my hands around his forearm which feels like a steel bar.
“Did I touch you last night?”
“You’re hurting me.”
“Or did I take care of you when you needed to be taken care of?” When I don’t answer, he presses the back of my head against the headboard. At least it’s soft. “Answer me.”
“I don’t need you—”
“Answer me. Did I hurt you? Did I take what I wanted with no regard for you?”
I stare up at him and he stares down at me.
But then he cocks his head to the side. “Or are you not sure? Can’t you remember?”
“I thought I was wrong about you, Cristiano. I thought you were nice.”
He laughs at that. At me. And I hear how naïve I sound, how ridiculous and stupid.
“I’m not nice, Little Kitten. I’m nowhere near nice.” He studies me, softens his grip then runs his knuckles over the curve of my neck. He tickles my collarbone and I wonder if he can see how hard my heart is beating in my pulse. He lets his gaze fall to my mouth then back up. “Or are you disappointed that I didn’t do it? Were you hoping to get fucked? Wanting it?”
“Fuck you.” I try to move away but he captures my arm to stop me.
“I see how you look at me. Would it make you feel better about yourself if I took it?”
“That’s not…Shut up!”
“Then you could say it wasn’t your choice. That’s how it was with your brothers, right? The wedding? Not your choice? Your little hunger strike all you could actually do instead of standing up for yourself, instead of fighting. You say you’d have thrown yourself out the window rather than fuck Rinaldi but maybe that’s a lie.”
I dig my nails into his skin. “Let go!”
“I’ll let go when I’m ready to let go.”
“I hate you!”
“Is it a lie? Tell me.”
“Let me go!” I reach my hands to his face wanting to scratch him again, but he takes my wrists and flips me over onto my belly. He leans his weight over me, so I feel him at my back. Feel how much bigger he is than me. How much stronger.
“Don’t fucking do that ever again.”
“Let me go!”
“Tell me. Is it a lie?”
“Stop.” I squirm beneath him.
“Or is it that you just don’t hate him enough. And if that’s the case, if you don’t hate him enough, then you are my enemy, Scarlett De La Cruz.”
“I’m not weak. I did the only thing I could. You weren’t there. You don’t know what happened. What—” my voice breaks. I turn my face into the bed. I hate this. Hate that it all still makes me feel like this. That it has so much power over me still.
He draws back and suddenly I’m spun over onto my back. He studies me, watches my eyes, a momentary softening in his. But then it’s gone and he’s all hard edges again. A high wall erected with bricks of hate laid one on top of another.
“You’ll apologize to me tonight. First thing. You will get on your knees and you will apologize for what you accused me of. Am I clear?”
“Or you’ll make my brother pay? That’s what they did too, and it worked. Kept me in line. It’s what you’re going to do too, isn’t it? You’re just like them.”
His hand is around my throat in an instant. Instinct kicks in and I claw at his forearm. He’s too strong though and if he squeezes any harder, I’m dead.
“No, Little Kitten. I’m nothing like them,” he says through his teeth, eyes dark with rage. “And I’ll make you pay.”
9
Cristiano
She’s ruffled me. Gotten under my skin.
I’m distracted when I walk out of the room. I fist my hand, relax it. I swear I can still feel the pulse at her throat in my fist. I need to be careful. I need to check my rage. I may need her yet.
And I don’t want to hurt her.
