Page 8 of Marked By Him

His sharp jawline was covered in dark stubble. His broad shoulders stretched the fabric of his dark blue t-shirt, making me wonder about the body that hid beneath those clothes.For fuck’s sake Eve. What is wrong with you?

I tore my gaze from him, looking over his shoulder at a row of metal shelves lined up against the concrete walls. Each one was filled with jars of food and cardboard boxes.

I hoped I’d wake up and this would all have been a nightmare.

It wasn’t.

I was hungry.

I was thirsty.

My ass and back ached from the wooden chair. My wrists and ankles hurt from the plastic ties binding them. The cuts on my legs and feet burned.

And my heart was shattered because my parents were gone.

It was the not knowing that hurt the most. Not knowing if thatthinghad left their bodies to rot, to decompose and blend with the earth. Or if he had spared them, had taken enough blood to quench his thirst, then taken them back to wherever he came from. Hope blossomed in my chest as though that should comfort me. Then, reality crumbled hope in its fist. Even if he’d spared them at that moment, they’d die eventually. Humans were disposable. We were nothing more than food, and those who weren’t food were playthings. Because, physically, humans were weak. Because no matter how much we rebelled, we would always end up being forced to stay hidden in camps in the middle of nowhere, thankful to be alive.

Well, I wasn’t thankful. Not anymore.

If this man wanted to kill me, I welcomed death with a smile.

He bent over and picked up a plate from the floor. He shoveled a forkful of scrambled eggs and held it in front of my face. “Here.”

I narrowed my eyes at him, ignoring the cramping in my stomach at the smell of food. “You think you’ll feed me some breakfast and we’ll bond? That I’ll open my heart and share my deepest secrets?” I wasn’t sharing shit with him. I didn’t know who he was, where I was, or what he had planned for me. I didn’t even know his name.

“I think you’ll open your fucking mouth and eat the food I spent the last ten minutes preparing.” His gaze dragged over my face, stopping for a second on my mouth.

I felt that lookeverywhere.

The muscles in his jaw flexed. He swallowed, then moved his stare back to my eyes. “That’s what I think.”

I sat up straight. Stiff. Standing my ground in silence, even though I was hungry enough to devour every last crumb on that plate.

His eyes fell to my chest as it rose and fell with every breath I took. A flash of something passed across the bright blue, darkening his eyes like the sky before a storm.

The air sizzled and sparked.

My heart pounded. My stomach coiled—from hunger, maybe.Or something else. Something deeper, darker. Something I’d felt in a dream the night before. Something I refused to accept because it wasn’t possible. Something that would make me more screwed up than I wanted to admit.

He looked back up at me. “Open. Your. Mouth.” His voice was harsh, his breath ragged.

My pulse quickened, and I hated not knowing if it was in warning or anticipation.

“Or what?”

“Or sit here and starve. The fuck do I care?”

Outwardly, I didn’t budge.

Inside, my stomach churned in protest.

My baser needs won out, and I opened my mouth enough for him to slide the fork inside.

He slowly slid it back out, wetting his lips as he watched me chew.

My stomach was in knots. My nerves were a twisted bundle of electric currents firing through my bloodstream.

He slanted his head. His gaze was laser-focused on mine, deep and penetrating. “Now, was that so hard?”

Source: www.allfreenovel.com