Page 16 of Road to Redemption

Let her try. I won’t bite so easily.

Pulling in a deep breath through my nose, I rolled my shoulders back and fought to rein myself in. At least for the night.

“Here’s how this is going to work, Viper. Your shit stays on that side of the room. You don’t touch my stuff, you don’t look at my stuff, and you don’t fucking bother me. Got it?”

She blinked up at me, still stunned by my proximity as I towered over her.

Does she feel that too? The ache?

It had always been there, truthfully. But ever since I took her, it had grown… undeniable. Troublesome.

And the quiver of her lip was only making it worse.

Pathetic.

Ripping my eyes away from hers, I stormed toward the bed, desperate for something I could sink my fingers into. I grabbed a pillow and tossed it at the far wall. Then another.

Only once I’d created some distance between us did the smallest trickle of air return to the room. And with it, Kiera suddenly found her voice.

“You gonna save any pillows for me?” She crossed her arms over her chest.

I resisted the urge to laugh at her false bravado. It was almost cute, which only pissed me off more. She could never just make things easy, could she?

Even talking to her didn’t feel safe anymore. I grabbed a pillow and chucked it at her feet hard enough to thud against the floor, but she didn’t even flinch.

“What, you can’t be an adult and share a bed? This is ridiculous.”

The barb slipped right under my skin, sinking deep into my pulsing veins. I turned on her with bared teeth. If she kept going, it wouldn’t just be my blood that was drawn.

I knew what it would take to stop her bratty bullshit. And as the images flashed through my mind — throwing her down on that bed, pinning her delicate wrists, ripping away her flimsy clothes, and ravaging her body — I really considered it.

It would feel so fucking good. Better than I cared to admit.

But I wouldn't give in that easily.

Not yet.

So instead, I grabbed a corner of the neatly folded throw blanket and ripped it away from the foot of the bed, tossing it down with my heap of pillows.

I could feel her balking at the back of my head as I shut off the lights and laid on the floor, keeping as much distance between myself and that snare of a bed as possible.

The floor was cold and hard beneath my bones, but I didn’t give a fuck. I laid still until I heard the mattress squeak beneath her, until she finally closed those piercing green eyes.

Only once I heard her quiet breathing did I pull in a breath of my own.

Things had gotten far too complicated. I never should have taken her. I shouldn’t have let her so close. I should have insisted the Oracle relocate her all those months ago. Fuck, I should have burned down the house before she could ever cross its threshold.

But we were too far gone now to undo any of it. All I could do now was choose my next move carefully. And sharing that bed with her wasn’t going to help anything.

It’ll be hard enough to keep my hands off of her from the floor. Though whether it’d be to kill her or to fuck her, I’m not sure…

Up on the bed, Kiera let out a deep huff before rolling over, the mattress squeaking from the force of her movements.

Oh, is it just so hard to settle on that plush mattress? Ungrateful bitch.

But even as I clenched my jaw and pulled my blanket tighter around my shoulders, I knew the thought wasn’t fair. It couldn’t be easy sleeping with a monster lurking in the shadows of your bedframe.

I’m making this harder for her.