A Promise of Torment (A Violent Agenda)

DANTE

Viola is absolutely perfect.

She always has been. There’s a reason I kept her around. I stalked her to hell and back. I trained her and taught her everything she knows. Then I let her go. But she came back, because deep down she knows she’s mine.

All mine.

I watch her walk out of the treatment room and allow the corners of my mouth to curl up. Fucking her just now was not my intention. I usually like to draw things out. I’m a long game kind of guy, but suddenly I just couldn’t hold back. Her pain was palatable. She was desperate. I could taste her darkness on her lips and that was all it took.

I don’t regret moving so soon. I would do it all over again, and I will. I promise her that. I meant it when I said I wasn’t just another one of her schoolboys. I will have her again, and when I do, she’ll beg me to destroy her. The taste of her skin, the sound of her breathy moans as her pink lips made the perfect O, even the feel of her around my cock.

Goddamn, V. What have you done to me? I’m already hard just thinking about thrusting into her lithe body again, making it undeniably mine.

But I need to focus.

I should have stayed away from her. I really should have. But V is an addiction. One I’ve already accepted. And like everything involving V, this addiction complicates things. Women are for fucking. I enjoy them, but I much prefer to work. What happens when your work becomes the woman you care about? Everything falls down. Messy and unpredictable are things I stay away from.

But I can’t stay away from V.

After she’s gone, I clean up and hit the gym. I don’t see Viola for the rest of the day. When I get back to the boarding house, I find her with Quinn trying to decipher some of her father’s emails after Quinn has hacked into his system. I snort when she tells me. She asks me why and I explain. Her father is careful. He might be someone I despise, but he’s not going to leave all his plans in the open where any old hack can find them.

Quinn shoots me another hateful look, so I leave them to it. Quinn has had it in for me since I tied her to a chair and threatened to kill her. It wasn’t personal. It was business. I actually don’t mind the girl.

Still, I’m not here to make friends.

I’m here for V, and her alone.

I owe her that.

Viola turnsup the next day for training in the gym at 7 a.m. sharp. I’m a little surprised to see Duke with her, but I acknowledge him with a nod. We take turns sparring one on one. I go with V first, who is rusty as hell. I get her on her back a few times, despite my shoulder, earning daggered looks from her boyfriend. I ignore him, enjoying the way her body yields to mine. The look on her face is indignant, but also filled with desire. Lips parted, and eyes half-lidded and alluring.

It’s exactly what I want to see.

Over the years, I’ve toyed with making V mine completely, but I’ve never gone through with it for all sorts of reasons. Maybe I shouldn’t have waited. Then again, I’m a patient man. I would wait for Viola until the last second, just to enjoy the chase.

“Is this all you’ve got?” she sneers as I get her on her back again in a choke hold with my weight to one side so she can’t bridge her back or buck me off.

“I can do this all night,” I say, tightening my grip, looking into those brown eyes of hers.

“Are you both fucking serious?”

We both glance to the side to see Duke staring down at us. I smirk at him and let V up, offering a hand to her so she can climb to her feet. Her left wrist is still healing so I want to give her as much support as possible.

Duke scowls at me and takes V’s place on the mat. He’s not bad at grappling, and a few times he gets me in a hold even though he can’t seem to keep me there. The way he moves suggests he’s trained before. I’m impressed, and that takes a lot.

V snorts and rolls her eyes as she watches us. She’s curious as to who is better. She’s also turned on. I can see in the way her chest rises, her irises become large, and she bites her lower lip. When I get her boyfriend on the mat again, flat on his back, she exhales and moistens them.

Interesting.

She still has feelings for him.

At the end of the session, I take her aside. Duke gives me a dark look, but he gets the message and leaves.

“If you want him, I’m fine with that,” I say, keeping my voice neutral after he’s gone.

Her eyes blaze as she scowls. “What the fuck? Are you giving me permission now? I fuck who I like, D. You don’t own me.”

I let my mouth curl up as I take her in. Hair snatched back in a ponytail, eyes stormy, mouth sulky and petulant. Right now, she’s one hundred percent fuckable.