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All of a sudden, he lets go of me and shoves me up against the wall. “Is there someone else you want instead?” His hands are on my shoulders, pinning me in place.
This again? Is the arrogant, supremely confident Joshua Smith suddenly insecure?
“No!” I snap at him. Frankly, that’s insulting. “Why would you even think that? Will you chill the hell out? What’s wrong with you?”
“That man who flirted with you in the restaurant.” His blue eyes are the color of a stormy sea. “Would you rather be with him?”
“We already talked about this!” I yell at him. “Today! Do you have freaking dementia? Did you forget what we talked about like four hours ago? I had no interest in him! He was a wimpy little dweeb!” He wasn’t. Cassius seemed like a great guy for any woman other than me, but if I tell Joshua that, Cassius will probably turn up in a back alley with his throat slit.
“Have you wantedany other mansince you’ve been with me?” He’s shouting now.
Tears run down my cheeks. “No! Damn it, no! I can’t even look at another man ever since I’ve been with you! Why are you doing this to me?”
His eyes are wild, and he’s breathing hard. “Because you won’t admit that you belong to me. And I belong to you.”
I go still, staring at him in shock. He belongs tome? I’m not just a thing he owns?
He nods at my look of astonishment. “Oh, yes. I’m all yours. You crawled inside me and took up residence from the minute I first saw you. When other women flirt with me now, I want to slit their throats.”
Wait,what?Fury billows through me. “What other women flirt with you? When did this happen?”
He rolls his eyes. “It doesn’t matter.”
“It does to me,” I spit out before I can stop myself. “You’re asking me to completely surrender to you, and you’re flirting with other women?”
He didn’t say that at all, but the idea of him being with other women after he met me…it hadn’t even occurred to me. It calls up a killing rage inside me.
“You’re with other women?” I scream, and I start raining blows on his hard chest. “You fucking asshole! Did you make them come? Did you call thembaby? Sweetheart?Who are they?”
He cups my face in his hands. I’m sobbing now, crazed with pain at the thought of him running his hands over the bodies of all these phantom women who are prettier than me and smarter than me and sexier than me. “Why would you do that?” I shout, and rivers of tears run down my face.
He pats the side of my cheek hard, just short of a slap, then tips my head up so I’m forced to look at him. “Tamara. I love that you’re jealous, but there’s no reason for it. Did you hear what I just said? Were you listening at all? Other women have tried to flirt withme,not me flirting with them, and I literally, no exaggeration, wanted to stab them in the throat. I have not so much as glanced at another woman with interest since the day I took you. You are my everything.”
“Do you mean it?” I stare up at him miserably.
“You know I do.” He kisses my cheeks, drags his tongue through my tears. He smiles with grim humor. I blink hard and just stare at him, drinking in his beauty, but I can’t help but see something new in his face. A weariness that was never there before. “Damn. You’re as fucked up and crazy as I am, Tamara. Can’t you see how perfect you are for me?”
CHAPTERTHIRTEEN
TAMARA
Long seconds drag by, and I take deep breaths until the strangling fury loosens its hold on me. Where did that storm of jealousy come from? It was ridiculous. He’s never given me any cause for it. If anything, from the moment he took me, he’s completely devoted himself to me—in unhealthy ways for sure, but there was never any question that he was wrapping his life around mine.
And yet, just thinking about women being in the same room as Joshua, looking at him, wanting him…it makes me feel murderous. I can imagine how other women react when they see him, because I know what effect he had on me when I first saw him. His cold beauty, the raw animal power that roves just beneath the surface…it pulled me toward him like the moon is drawn to Earth.
Abruptly, Joshua steps away from me.
“We’re going to go for a walk now,” he announces.
“A walk? Like…just going out and enjoying the scenery?”
“Yes.” He nods firmly and throws his arm around my shoulder. He steers me toward the front door. “We’re going to spend some time together doing normal couple things if it kills us. Normal couples take walks outside when it’s nice, don’t they?”
I can’t help it; I actually start to laugh as we head through the foyer into an enormous living room with views of the mountains in the distance, and the dark cloud that was clinging to me blows clean away.
“How did this even occur to you? Did you look it up online or something?”
“Where else? I went to the website datingforserialkillers.com and picked one from the list.”
