Exodus (The Ravenhood)

I lift my eyes when he comes back into view, despising the surge in my veins when they connect. “I think you’ve made your point. How long do you think I’ll let this go on?”

“What makes you think you can stop it?” He strides back into the room, tossing a box on my bed, and I blink at it.

“Whatever it is, you can take it back.”

“Just fucking open it.”

“I’m not your whore, don’t bring me gifts.”

He jerks the bow on the box, speaking through gritted teeth. “Open it.”

I unfasten the ribbon and open it to see it’s a new negligee and matching silk robe. Expensive. I toss it at his chest, and it lands at his shoes.

“For someone who was so intent not to be labeled Daddy’s princess, you sure are acting like the bitchiest noble of them all.”

“You want me to be grateful to you?” I shake my head. “Your arrogance is truly astounding.” I dart my eyes to his offering. “Take that with you when you go.”

In the next second, my hair is fisted around his thick fingers as he pins me, his eyes firing bright with annoyance. I turn away from him, the burn in my scalp strengthening as he rights me where he wants me. I sigh, giving in, my body coming alive with him so close. “Just leave. I’ve got nothing to offer you.”

He squeezes my jaw, so my lips part a fraction, and I glare at him.

“Please tell me you aren’t that disgusting.”

“You’re making it very easy to be that asshole.”

“I don’t want your gift, or you.”

He pushes me down onto the bed and presses his forehead to mine. “I came to apologize for ripping your dress.”

“Are you going to apologize for ruining my relationships, invading my privacy, busting my necklace, biting me, kissing me, fucking me?”

“No.”

“Then why apologize for anything else?”

“Good point,” he dips and kisses me, and I fight him. I fight him, my fire coming back in waves as he presses his body against mine, laying on top of me, stealing my breath, and rattling my senses until I succumb. I grip him to me, destroying his hair, running the thick strands through my fingers. And I kiss him with the same fire, with the same passion I felt to fight just seconds before. Because I hate him, I hate that I think about him, I hate the threatening gnaw I felt in my icy chest the minute our eyes locked. I hate that I thought the gown was beautiful and imagined him fucking me in it. And I hate that I love the way he kisses me.

It’s possession and now bordering on obsession, and it’s not what I’m supposed to feel. I won’t allow it. I bite his lip, and he bites mine in return, and then we’re moaning onto each other’s tongues. With him this close, I can’t do anything but feel him, want him, and he knows it.

He pulls away and I lunge for him, latching onto his throat, suckling his neck, inhaling his scent and loving his sounds as he runs his hands down my sides.

It’s then I realize I’ve been waiting for him, and worse, hoping for him to show. It’s no mystery to me why he feels so familiar. Because I know him, and the reason I know him is that the essence of who he is was fed to me in bits and pieces by Sean and Dom. Ironically, a large part of me is drawn to him because last summer as I was falling for them—in a way—I’d been falling for Tobias too, his ideals, his ambitions, his agenda, his take on life. I tear myself away and collapse on my back, frustration brimming as I turn my head to avoid his gaze. “Just leave. Nothing good is coming out of this. And this wasn’t a part of our deal.”

He dips and kisses the hollow of my throat, and when he gets no reaction from me, he tenses, his exhale audible. “Maybe I am sorry for more than the negligee.” If he’s feeling remorse, it’s much too late. He can’t have a heart. He’s never supposed to have a heart. He’s not allowed to, and neither am I.

“Please don’t.” A long silence passes as he stays suspended above me. I feel his need, our yearning for the other ricocheting between us. He’s becoming familiar, and it’s terrifying.

This was not supposed to happen.

We are not supposed to happen.

We cannot happen.

I refuse to let us happen.

“I ransacked your life out of anger…” he swallows, and I shake my head.

“Don’t plead your case to me, Tobias. I know why you did what you did. You felt just as betrayed, but we took it a step further, and we can’t undo that now. No amount of apology will ever make this right. You did what you set out to do, so fucking deal with it.” I turn my head and gaze up at him. “We are just business.”