Page 119 of Coal Hearts

The natural moisture of my body and the desire Henri had conjured utterly condemned me.

I hung in my cuffs as another crack sounded, another fissure, another break deep within.

“Tight, but not a virgin,” Victor whispered, his breath laced with sweet fumes of brandy. “Pity but not unexpected.”

His touch was grotesque.

Repugnant.

Vile.

Two fingers became three.

I clamped down on my tongue.

I choked on my screams.

Crashing, crippling horror crested.

Every organ perished. Every bone shattered. Tears suffocated, threatening to sweep me away in a river of panic.

Please...

Please, stop—

Moments.

I was moments away from—

“Two million in whatever fucking currency you want. Two million to get your motherfucking fingers out of what is mine.”

Silence fell.

Everyone froze.

My watery eyes opened and only saw Henri.

Savage, secretive, sadistic Henri.

His shirt already off and dead by his feet. His loafers gone. Fingers fumbling at his zipper as he wrenched off his shorts and boxers, revealing the same cock I’d felt against me three separate times. An angry red scar marked his otherwise perfect thighs.

He fisted himself as if he cursed the part of his anatomy that’d gotten him into this place.

I saw every tiny detail.

I imprinted his beauty.

But beneath our physical connection, I sensed him.

Just like Krish had taught me.

Just like I’d been sensing him ever since I first laid eyes on him.

Henri was dark and dangerous, but beneath all that...deep, deep inside him, there was goodness and kindness and a soul that screamed to mine.

He visibly shook on the grass, his attention locked on my tears.

The kick in my chest. The smoke in my heart.