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I see Devlin scowling in the distance, the expression on his face mean and jealous.
I’ve seen that look on many faces and I know that it’s not jealousy over Rhys’ announcement, but jealousy of him in general.
He’s angry, bitter and covetous of Rhys’ position.
Devlin is a man whose life will be spent on the sidelines in the shade. He’ll ever feel a ray of sunlight warm his skin.
And Rhys is the sun.
I’m glad I listened to my spidey senses when it came to him. I knew there was something off.
“Now that that’s settled,” Rhys says, nuzzling my neck, “Let’s go to my place.” He leads me down the stairs with my hand still in his.
“You’re crazy. I didn’t need you to do that.” I tell him, before squeezing his hand, “But thanks.”
Instead of heading for the front door at the bottom of the stairs, he turns and takes us deeper into the house. When we get to the kitchen, he stops and pulls me against him.
“I did. Clearly I haven’t been staking my claim well enough if you thought for even a second that I was open to sharing or trying to hide this.” He steps around the island and grabs a bottle of tequila from the counter before coming back to me. “For as long as we’re doing this, you belong to me. Your spicy little personality, your legs, your braid, that adorable giggle that makes me want to make you laugh again every time, your soft lips and your sharp tongue. Fuck,especiallyyour soft lips and your sharp tongue. They belong to me. Itallbelongs to me.” He takes a swig of tequila from the bottle before bringing his lips down on mine.
The fiery liquid passes his lips and through mine, into my ready mouth where it burns my tongue with its heat. Fueled by the sting of the tequila, the kiss feels intoxicating and disorienting.
I wrench myself back to reality and find that my hands are digging into the skin of his chest as I hold onto him like a feral cat trying to climb a tree.
“If you ever doubt that again, come find me. I’ll put myself on a leash and let you walk me around campus for all to see, because I belong to you just as much as you belong to me.” He kisses the tip of my nose. “Understood?”
I nod a couple of times dumbly before I can get out a whispered, “Yes.”
“Good.” He says, with a sharp smack on my ass. He grabs Phoenix’s torn sweater and the bottle of tequila in one hand and my hand in the other and marches us out the front door as I furiously text Nera telling her I’m about to leave.
Once we’re out front, he stops on the front lawn and throws the remnants of the sweater on the grass.
“What are you doing?” I ask him.
He doesn’t answer me, instead he uncorks the tequila and turns the bottle over, dousing the shreds of clothing in alcohol. He picks up one of the pieces of the sweater and brings a lighter up to the bottom.
“Bye, Thayer!” Nera says, bouncing out the front door and towards me but slowing down as Rhys lights the piece of fabric on fire. “Woah.” She adds, walking up to me.
Rhys watches the fire for a second, the flame reflected brightly in his dark, captivating eyes, before he drops the scrap onto the rest of the shreds.
The whole pile takes flame, fueled by the use of alcohol as an accelerant, and the flames reach several feet up into the sky.
I’m glued to the spot, transfixed by it.
When I finally pull my gaze back to look at him, he’s already staring at me. He stands there, shirtless, apparently immune to the cool November air and dwarfing the blaze with his massive body, looking downright predatory.
“A lesson.” He growls, darkly, “Next time another man touches you, whether it’s with his hands or anything else, I’ll light his clothes on fire with him still in them.”
He gives me an antagonistic smile that guarantees delivery of every one of his threats and promises.
“He’s insane.” Nera says from right next to me. She says it without judgment, like it’s a fact that she’s just learned about this particular breed of man.
“I know,” I laugh, and out of the corner of my eye I see her turn that same look towards me. “I fucking love it.”
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30
Rhys
