The Marriage Debt (Underworld Kings)

“But not you,” I respond, looking into her eyes. “Maybe that’s exactly why.”

“So you’re a masochist,” she says.

I snort. “Maybe that’s the one thing we have in common then.”

Her eyes widen, and she immediately turns red as a beet again. “I … am not,” she stutters.

“Is that why you moan every time I touch you?” I tilt my head. “Because that sure sounds like someone who hate-loves pain.”

She rolls her eyes and looks away, but I know she got the point.

“Why do you think I passed on the opportunity to marry your sister?” I ask. “She would’ve been the easier option compared to you.”

“Thanks,” she scoffs.

“You know it’s true.”

“But you don’t do easy.”

“Exactly.” I tilt my head to look at her, but she keeps looking away like she’s hiding herself, and it pisses me off. “I’ve wanted for nothing else, nothing … but to own you,” I say, and I grab her face with both hands. “But you’ve wanted nothing more than my fucking brother. That motherfucker died for you.”

“And that’s why you do all of this,” she hisses. “To punish me for your brother’s death.”

I take in a deep breath. “That’s what I thought too.”

Now she finally looks at me without me having to force her to.

“What do you mean?”

I pick up the sponge and sink it into the water before slathering it all over her arm again, watching every drop of water roll down her skin, and at that moment, I want nothing more than to lick each one of them.

“I want to,” I answer, thinking of all the ways I could make her hurt and beg. “Believe me.”

“Do it then,” she says, her eyes boring into mine. “I chose to run away.”

“Is that what you expect me to do?” I ask. “Is it what you want?”

“Since when do you care about what I want?” she sneers.

I grab her hand and press a kiss onto the top, which immediately grabs her attention … and makes the air lock in her throat.

“You think you know me, but you don’t,” I say as I look up at her from underneath my eyelashes.

“I know you hate me as much as I hate you,” she responds.

“I never said I hated you …” I reply, leaning over the tub so she can’t look away. “I hate what you’ve done to me. What you make me do.” I grab her face and inch closer and closer. “How greedy you make me.”

Her lips are wet, the steam rising from the bath drawing smoke between us. But nothing can keep me away from her.

Nothing.

Not even my own damn stone-cold heart.

“I want to hate you,” I murmur so close to her lips I can almost taste them. “So badly …”

“Hate is all you’ve ever shown me,” she murmurs back, her eyes completely transfixed on mine.

“If I hadn’t, there would’ve been nothing left of you.”

She sucks in a breath, her body freezing in the hot bath, her nipples growing taut as I hover so close to her face I can feel every one of her twitches just from the vibrations in the air.

“Show me then. Show me what it means not to hate.”

I press my top lip against hers, and whisper, “Kiss me and find out.”

One second.

That’s all it takes for our lips to collide and for her mouth to finally crave mine as I have craved hers. I’ve claimed her lips before, but she’s never given them to me freely. Willingly. Hungrily.

And fuck me, that makes me hungry for more.

The way she kisses me back wakes the hunter inside me.

I groan against her lips as I coax them to open, desperate for a taste. And when she does, our tongues entangle, and I kiss her deep and hard, wanting to draw out her soul.

I’ve kissed girls before, but none of them ever made me this lusty, this greedy for more.

I lean up and get closer and closer until I’m halfway into the tub with my arms, but I don’t care. The warmth only heats me up even more as I circle my tongue around and lick the roof of her mouth.

She tastes pure, divine, like everything I could ever want to ruin.

The more I have, the more I want to take, and take, and take until there’s nothing left.

I want to break every last inch of her until all she’ll ever want is me.

All I wanted was to punish her for my brother’s death, for destroying my family, for fleeing from me in that car and running away from the airport when she was supposed to marry me, for k—

I pull away from her mouth and stare at her for a moment. Her lips are swollen and red, still pouted from the kiss, and so fucking delicious looking that it almost makes me want to have another taste.