Thank you!

The preternatural calm was a lie, Devin realized. His body was poised, ready for the killing strike. It was his eyes though that showed his turmoil beyond the fixed stare. Clamping her lips into a hard line, she gave a minute shake of her head. Refusing to bare more of her soul to him.

“Despite sitting at that stupid desk, watching him destroy me a little more each day, you made it better,” she breathed, eyes widening as she willed her treacherous tongue to stop moving. “Just seeing you, even smelling you… There was hope, somewhere in all of it, and…”

“Enough.” His was a voice dragged over hot coals, wrenched from a place neither of them knew existed. A dark abyss that became more twisted, more voracious as Devin shone a glimpse of light upon it.

“You always made me feel safe.”

“And you hated my touch. Always yelling your accusations of stealing things from you, taking everything away,” he snarled against her lips. “You tried to kill both of us, to destroy all of this, and you expect me to believe I made you feel safe?”

“It scared me, Daniel.”

“And now you’re not, is that it?”

“Not of you.”

As if it had never faltered, the shimmering heat returned. It bloomed through her chest, tangling through her limbs as she struggled to work them free to return his crushing grasp. Whining low in her throat when he kept her imprisoned, she did the only thing she could. Arching her neck, she brought their lips flush. Her tongue teased at the tender flesh, begging for entry. Devin whimpered when he tore his mouth away.

“No.”