This girl is not supposed to be so brazen with me. I’ve apparently coddled her somehow. I’m not sure how exactly, but clearly, I’ve spoiled her. Frustrating damn female.
Just as I start to pull another cruel line from my arsenal, her brow furrows and she glances away as though she’s just recalled something.
Her body goes rigid, and she backs away, lips twitching like she holds the keys to the universe.
“You want me alive so you can sever the final bond and go out in a flame of glory, right?”
I’m the one who turns to stone this time, feeling as though someone has just replaced my spine with a steel pole. It’s very rare anyone makes me react in surprise.
Her smile spreads wider, as though she just noticed my reaction and is truly enjoying this.
“You have a weakness, Slade. The fact you survived hell just so you could end your life and ruin your brother once and for all makes you pathetic as well. You’ll understand if insults from a man who is this—”
I have her pressed against the wall in the next breath, my hand gripping her throat just tight enough to keep her from dematerializing, as my jaw grinds. Her eyes light up silver, and mine glow brighter in challenge as a growl tears out of me.
I can smell her arousal mingle with the sweet scent of her fear the second the sound escapes me, and that certainly pisses me right the hell off with the distraction it brings.
“Who’ve you been talking to, Princess?” I bite out, narrowing my eyes in suspicion. “First you close a portal not even I knew how to seal, then you turn around and goad me with information you should not possess. What’re your secrets?”
That daring little grin plays wickedly on her annoyingly tempting lips, the fear melding into just arousal with each ticking second, and driving me out of my damn mind.
“Wouldn’t you like to know,” she says defiantly.
The steely resolve in her eyes is not one of pride. It’s one of power. She likes feeling as though she has the upper hand on me. I’ll be damned if I let her keep that power.
Gavin. She has to have been in contact with him—since she’s foolish enough to trust any-damn-body who claims to have been a victim. They all do.
I release her throat and back away, forcing a cold smile to my lips as I crack my neck to the side.
“Train me and I’ll tell you my secrets,” she finally offers, forcing her composure as her eyes dim to a dull bluish-green color.
Her eyes change with her mood, and this is the color I see the most. Aside from silver.
“Why waste time on something so pointless?” I ask her, trying to mask my tension by forcing my body to appear relaxed.
I need her away from me. She smells too good so soon after touching her too much. My skin still burns with the little bit of contact we shared. And that bloody erection she miraculously hasn’t seemed to notice is also still lingering.
I need her hatred.
I sure as fuck don’t need her desire at a moment when my control is so frayed.
I need her gone.
Coldly, I prop up against the wall as she continues to stare at me like she holds the full deck of cards, calling me out on my ‘bluff.’
“Your powers are too much for you to handle because you’re the one who is riddled with weaknesses, Ella.” She flinches this time, and I go on, pushing off the wall to move closer to her.
“You think you’re so powerful, but you’re merely a burden for your people to keep worrying about, removing their focus from the life threatening events at hand.”
She moves away from the wall I left her against, glaring up at me as I approach.
“You think you can talk me into staying in a corner? What good does that do anyone? You’re just too scared to be too close to me. Admit it. It isn’t my weakness that poses a problem. It’s yours.”
Arrogant little thing that she is, she’s still not entirely wrong. Not that I’d ever admit such a pathetic thing.
My lips twitch in amusement at her futile glare, one that doesn’t hold any threat to me in the least. She doesn’t know her darkest secret—the fact that when she loses herself, she comes to me. Craves me. Hungers so darkly for me that it rains agony onto both our souls when the connection is denied.
Her pride might just crumble with that knowledge.