Lust & Lies Box Set-Sexual Awakenings, Excess, Predator & Prey

I glanced at the man as he stalked toward us. “Daniello, don’t. Oh God, don’t. Daniello, please don’t.”

“Get the fuck out of the car, asshole!” Hundreds of cars whizzed past us while he beat on Daniello’s window with an intent fist.

Daniello moved in close, his lips a whisper from mine. “Don’t close your eyes, Phoenix.” In a flash, he was out of the car. The man had one threatening word out of his mouth before Daniello made his move. In seconds, the man was screaming in pain, mutilated and bloody, as his eyes searched fruitlessly for help and met mine through the windshield. Before I could open my door, the screaming stopped, and the man went completely limp. Daniello dragged his body to his truck, placed him in the driver’s seat, slammed the door, and made quick work of getting us back onto the interstate.

All of it lasted fifteen seconds.

It took fifteen seconds for Daniello to show me who he was.

We pulled to a stop at a hotel on Amelia Island, a sleepy beach town off the Florida coast. A valet opened my door, and Daniello tipped him as I moved in a zombie-like stupor into the hotel. I waited by the elevator as Daniello checked us in and then followed him into the small space as he pressed the number to reach our floor. He gripped my arm by the elbow and guided me into our room. I sat at the edge of the bed in the massive suite with my eyes to the floor.

“I am hungry.” Daniello loosened his tie and opened the mini bar fridge. He plucked a Jack Daniels mini from it and tossed it on the bed next to me. I eyed the bottle and then looked to him.

Daniello’s expression was completely void of remorse.

Death was his business.

I uncapped the bottle, swallowed all the whiskey, and motioned to him for another. He brought this bottle to me and tilted my head with a fistful of my hair and brought it to my lips.

I swallowed the bottle as he stood with me in his grip until my throat was coated with whiskey. His eyes danced over my face with a touch of apprehension before he freed me.

“I will not force you to stay.”

I bit my lip and nodded.

“I will leave you to your decision.” He picked up his jacket and walke

d out of the room.

“You alone?” A woman took the seat next to me at the hotel bar. She smelled of too much perfume. I glanced her way as she smiled at me. “I could use some company, handsome.”

She brushed her leg against mine, and I expelled a harsh breath as she forced my reply. She was a woman in her late forties and wore too much makeup to disguise it. “I am in no mood for company.”

“Oh, I love your accent! Come on now, don’t be shy.” She had a southern accent that made my chest tighten. She slid a careful finger down my arm. “We’re in this beautiful place; we should have some fun.”

The bartender greeted the spirited woman with a smile. “What’ll it be?”

She wrinkled her nose as she sniffed my drink. “Strawberry margarita.”

I pulled some money from my pocket and threw it on the bar in front of her. “I wish you well.”

“Bummer,” she said to the bartender as I took my drink and walked poolside and took a chair to stare at the sea. I had no business here. I had taken too many liberties with Taylor. Her tantrum with that man at the bar still cut me deep. She wanted truth, pushed me for it, and now she had it. She would never look at me the same, and it was for the best. I had to instill fear into her. I had to make her believe. It was the only way we could continue. The only way. I had just taken a man’s life, but I would do anything to keep her.

Anything.

Death was easy. Too easy.

It had been my life, my way, my reason for existing on this fucked up Earth, until I saw her at that club in Savannah. Years of living like a savage had forced me to a place where very little light existed, but Taylor’s light forced her way under my skin and into my veins.

I had seen all sides of her and accepted them. But even with all her strength, she had human limits I’d grown immune to over time. For years I’d watched unimaginable and vicious slaughter due to man’s greed and became indifferent to the effect of death, to the act of taking life. I had just shown her the darkest part of me. And it was just a glimpse of my capabilities. I was a trained killer. Emotion played no part in it. It did not affect me to take a life, not the type of life that I felt I had to extinguish. And I did not spare her from the truth.

My only regret was that I had burdened her with it.

I sat for endless minutes, watching the sun disappear below the sea. If she had left, fled from me, I knew my place with her. I would accept it.

“It was my fault.”

I released a breath and closed my eyes. When I opened them, I saw the guilt in hers as she stood above me.