Page 47 of Sorrow & Strangers

His hand flashes to my throat, collaring me. He squeezes, applying enough pressure to claim my air. “Do not push me with your lies right now,” he snarls.

“I . . . fucking . . . hate . . . you,” I force out past my constrained vocal cords, pissed off enough now not to care about the consequences. He can kill me if he wants.

He tightens his hand. “I said no lies.” His gaze slips from my eyes, and my lips tingle under his scrutiny. “If I kissed you, would you compare it to your little liaison?” he asks, his voice a little softer, a little gentler, like honey laced with poison. “Or would you realize how much you’re still missing?”

I try to draw in air, but his grip is too tight, and to my shame, my core throbs a little in response. “You are nothing . . . to me. No one . . . to me.”

He tilts his head, watching me, and then he moves in closer. I think he’s going to claim my lips, but at the last moment, he diverts his mouth to whisper against my ear, “I am your beginning and end.” His low voice sends a shiver down my spine. “Your first breath and your last.” He tightens his hand again, and my lips part. The room spins a little, stars dancing in my vision. “You have always belonged to me.”

My consciousness teeters on a razor’s edge, but I smirk. “Did you watch?” I barely manage to whisper, pressing my throat deeper into his palm. I know he hears me from the way he tenses. His snarl is all the more menacing in that it is nearly silent, but he loosens his hand a little. “Did you watch as he fucked me?” I gasp in a bit of air. “Satisfied me?” He loosens his grip a little more. “Made me come?”

He growls and tightens his hand again. “You love to play with fire because it’s the only way you can distract me from what we both know is true.” His lips are still at my ear, and I can tell he’s trying to act as if my words aren’t bothering him, but his shoulders remain tight. “In the end, our dust will be mingled as one. No others.”

A tear slides down my cheek, the stars growing brighter as darkness invades from the edges of my vision. “He made me . . . feel so . . . fucking good . . . Cock so bi⁠—”

He chuckles cruelly. “You want to provoke me into comparing?” He loosens his grip again, expertly keeping me in the clutches of consciousness. “You want me to prove that I am the only one that can ever truly be yours?”

“It’s all I can think about,” I gasp out, gulping at the air greedily while he allows it. The influx of oxygen makes my head spin slightly, and my core throbs again. Focus, Summer! “How he slammed me into the wall and fucked me. Hard.” He tightens his hand again. “You could never compare.”

He bites my ear hard, and I curse as a moan escapes me. He yanks me up against him and wraps my legs around his waist. My pantiless state means that my bare pussy is pressed against his erection, and holy shit, he is enormous.

Ignore it. Ignore it. Ignore it.

My traitorous core throbs and heats in response.

“He didn’t tear you in two, and that is what you need, brat,” he growls, his voice laced with desire. “To be taken past the point of pain and into true pleasure.”

Another moan slips from me, and I can feel how slick I am. Not for him, I deny. Never for him.

“I hate you.” But my words are so desire-addled that not even I believe them.

He bucks his hips, the ridge of his cock rubbing against my clit. I gasp, my swollen and sensitive flesh greedy for attention.

“Your tiny cock could never satisfy me,” I growl, but I can feel the lie, and so can he. His cock is anything but tiny, and every fucking inch of it is pressed against me.

He bites my ear again, and I gasp in pain as warm, sticky blood slides along my jaw. “You keep running that mouth, and I’ll make you choke on me, little fae,” he growls before swiping his tongue just beneath my ear, tasting my blood. He moans, the sound almost pained, and then he vanishes.

Without his hold and the press of his body, I drop to the floor and land hard. I lie there, panting for air as my stomach churns and my arousal soaks my thighs.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

I brush my hand along my jaw, and the sight of my blood staining my fingers only heightens my need, making me wetter.

“Sum? You okay?” Alice calls from downstairs.

“I’m good!” I yell back. The last thing I need is for her to see what state I’m in.

My phone alerts, and I grab it, knowing it’s from him. There is no message, only a photo attachment.

Do not open that!

My instincts scream at me to delete it, but I can’t help it. There is another, primal, stronger part of me that wants what he promised. Suddenly, I’m staring at the photo of his massive cock. It stands proudly at attention, the piercings lining the wide shaft just out of view.

I can’t look away. It’s so b⁠—

My lips start to tingle, and when I slide my tongue along my bottom lip, I realize that it’s slicked in a thick, warm substance. It is salty, with a hint of sweetness. I swallow, the taste sending another spike of desire right to my core. The anger inside ‌me stirs, but it only seems to fuel my need.

My phone pings again.