Perversion (Page 39)

I place my hand on his cheek and pull him closer with my legs. “So, don’t be.”

I don’t want gentle. I just want him. Us. Joined together for always, but if I’ve learned anything, it’s that life is short. And if tonight’s all the universe is going to give us, I’m going to take it.

He rips my panties from my body. I gasp as I feel the soft skin around his hard shaft pressed up against my slick entrance.

I don’t have time to brace myself, mentally or otherwise when he thrusts inside me fully. OH MY FUCKING GOD it hurts. But I don’t tell him to stop. I’d rather feel pain with Grim than pleasure with anyone else. He looks at me, asking a silent question.

“Whatever you do,” I bite out. “Don’t fucking stop.”

He groans and again thrusts his hips forward. The pain is still there, as sharp as ever, but there’s also a wild need for him. A lust so thick I’m blind to anything else. I don’t care that it hurts. I just care that it’s Grim who’s inside me right now. The need builds and builds. He thrusts harder and harder with one hand digging into my ass cheek, the other holding me back of my neck, his hand tangled in my hair. My head bangs roughly against the concrete wall behind me. Our lips blindly reach for the other, meeting with a clank of teeth and bites of skin. We are crazed and lust-fueled.

I’ve never experienced anything so fucking amazing.

My lower stomach tightens and clenches and does a thousand things it’s never done before. I think I’m breaking until the sensation unfurls. Grim continues his furious pace faster, harder until I am sent off into an oblivion. A tangle of stars behind my eyes. Pleasure crashes into me like the waters of the bay just formed a tidal wave and washed over me. It continues like that for so long it becomes more painful than it first started, but I never want it to end.

I never want us to end.

Grim growls my name and looks into my eyes. I feel him harden inside of my body before he releases himself on a strangled cry, my name on his lips. He’s still inside me when he holds my face in his hands and repeats his earlier words.

“My Life. My Death. My Loyalty. My Honor. For you. For us.” His forehead falls to mine. “For Always.”

Grim leaves first, allowing me enough time to fix myself up before rejoining the funeral. I’m feeling hopeful for the first time in a long time. The moonlight is still bright. The sounds of the funeral party, a mixture of laughter and music, floats in the air all around me.

When I get to the end of the path, there’s someone waiting for me. I smile, thinking it’s Grim, until he steps from the shadows, and I come to a screeching halt.

“This was a test, princessa,” Marco grinds out. He grabs my arm and squeezes tight. He presses his lips against my ear. “And you fucking failed.”

Twenty-Eight

The entire way back to the compound, Marco is silent. He doesn’t even whistle or sing along to the radio. I’d prefer anger or yelling to this eerie sort of calm he so rarely exhibits.

He pushes me up the steps to his office, and when we’re finally there, he slams the door and pushes me hard against the table. He pulls up my dress. “This is on you, EJ. I warned you. Now, you’re gonna get everything I told you that you would.”

“Don’t do this. You said I was family once. Like a sister to you!” Marco doesn’t stop. I hate the desperation in my cries, but I have no other choice. Marco’s threats are about to become reality.

MY reality.

Marco laughs, long and loud, like a hyena in the desert.

My skin feels like a thousand ants are crawling all over it. My insides are on revolt, and I’m sure I’m about to empty the contents of my stomach along with some other vital organs all over Marco’s desk.

“You’re right. You’re my sister. My family. I’m the head of this family, and you broke the fucking rules. Now, you’re going to have to pay the price. Besides, if you think reminding me that we’re family is going to stop me, then you’d be wrong. If you wanna know how wrong—” He leans down so close his lips brush mine. I can smell the tequila on his breath, and my stomach rolls. “Then, you should ask Gabby.”

No. No!

He didn’t.

I look up into Marco’s eyes.

He did.

It clicks. The reason Gabby’s been acting so distant. The reason she’s flinched every time I’ve tried to offer her comfort. The reason why she fake smiles at him all the time, trying to appease him in every way. I should have known from the way she shivers when he enters a room. The deep sadness written all over her face. I’ve chalked it up to her being unhappy here. I just didn’t know HOW unhappy. I’ve spent so long hiding my feelings that I didn’t stop to think that Gabby was hiding a secret of her own.

A horrible, horrible secret.

Marco had raped her. His own sister.

“I’ll kill you myself,” I scream, as he rips off my dress and tosses it against the wall. The fabric hitting the floor isn’t loud, but it might as well be a cymbal the way the sound shakes in my ears.

Marco unbuckles his belt. He wraps it around my neck, pulling it tight. I’m choking, fighting to take in air. I feel the pressure building in my face as he cuts off my circulation. He pushes down his jeans, then spreads my legs as wide as they can go. “Slut, couldn’t even bother putting your fucking panties back on. I’ll show you who’s slut you are, and it’s not his.”

“You’ll die for this,” I rasp.

He snarls. “You want me to die?” He chuckles, then bites down hard on my ear. “You first, bitch.”

I’m not always present in my everyday life. My mind is always elsewhere, adrift in one daydream or another to escape reality. But never have I closed my eyes and prayed to a God I wasn’t sure existed for my mind to be anywhere other than in my own body.

Until now.

Marco forces himself inside of me.

I scream as the world crumbles and collapses all around me.

His hand covers my mouth. I can’t fucking breathe.

He pulls tighter on the belt.

I see stars.

“And to think,” he spits. “You don’t even know the real fucking reason I brought you here. But don’t worry. You’ll find out soon enough.”

He pulls even tighter.

Fighting him off is as useless as trying not to feel my body and soul as they’re invaded. I heave like I’m going to vomit as his sweat-soaked skin rubs against mine, his hardness thrusting again and again inside me. His grunts of angry pleasure sound like the very worst out of tune song that I’m being forced to listen to over and over again.

Finally, I stop resisting. My legs go limp as all the fight leaves me. After all, it’s a pointless use of my strength. If I keep fighting, I’ll die.

It’s as simple as that.

Instead, I will myself to be somewhere else.

Anywhere else.

While Marco hammers away at my insides, at what’s left of my innocence, I start to drift. I don’t float above my own body like a ghost. Fuck that. I don’t need to look down and see the horribleness I’m escaping. I don’t want to understand what’s going on, because there is no understanding.

There is only pain. Hurt. Anger.

Suddenly, I can feel the warmth of the sun as it beats down on my face.

I open my eyes. I’m at my favorite spot in the park, sitting under the big oak right in the middle. I’ve got a great view of the pond, and my favorite pen is pressed up against the corner of my lip. I stare down at where I left off on my story. Only a few seconds pass before the pen is moving across the page as if it’s possessed and my hand is just along for the ride.