I ran my hands down my throat and closed my eyes, imagining his mouth against me, the delicious feeling of being possessed by him. My freedom was sweet. His kiss was sweeter.
“Snap out of it, weirdo.” I finished my water, then switched off the lights in the kitchen and walked into the living room.
“Have a good time?”
I jumped and squeaked. “Link?”
He sat in a side chair, his back to the small window. His face in shadow, he sat unmoving, but I could feel his gaze on me.
“What are you doing here?”
He didn’t respond. I flipped the light switch. Nothing happened.
My skin crawled as I stared at his dark profile. “Link?”
“All this time I’ve been waiting.” Something snapped in his hand. “Giving you space. Letting you tell me when you were ready for more.” Creak, snap. “I respected your need for time. Held you while you cried about your parents, then went home with balls bluer than the fucking Hudson.” Creak, snap.
I edged backward toward the hall.
“Stop. Don’t bother.” He held his hand out, the light catching the ring box in his palm. “This should have been yours. You don’t deserve it.” He pulled it back into the shadows. Creak, snap. “I was the good guy, waiting for you. But you didn’t want a good guy, did you?”
“Link, you should go.” I took another step back.
The shadow moved, and Link launched at me. I darted down the hallway, but he caught me around the waist and slapped a hand over my mouth. “You wanted a bad guy. You gave what was mine to that fucking maniac.” Rage coated his words. “You let him fuck you up against a dirty wall like the piece of trash you truly are.” He walked me forward toward Veronica’s bedroom. “My mistake was treating you like you were special, like you were the one. What you really wanted was to be treated like a whore. Just like all the other whores.”
I fought, scratching at his arms and trying to kick. This wasn’t happening. I wouldn’t let it happen.
He squeezed my face and my waist until I thought he might break me in half. “Shh. Don’t worry. I’m going to give you what you want. I saw how you like it. Rough, filthy. That’s just what you’ll get. No more good guy for you.”
He pushed me onto the bed and pinned me, one hand still on my mouth. “Do you want to explain all this to me?”
I nodded.
“If you scream, I’ll choke you out, and then I’ll do what I want with your body. Understand?”
I nodded again.
He peeled his hand away and grabbed a handful of my hair. “Talk.”
This wasn’t the Link I knew. His eyes were crazed, his face twisted into a mask of fury. He’d snapped. “Please, don’t.”
“Shh.” He slapped his hand back over my mouth. “I thought you were going to explain to me why I saw that piece of shit Sebastian fucking my pussy. That’s what I want to know. Can you tell me that, or should I just get down to business?” He slid one hand under my skirt, hiking it up.
I nodded, my thoughts racing.
“Okay.” He dug his fingers into my thigh. “Last chance.” He freed my mouth.
“What Mint suspected was true. I never made it to the Amazon. Sebastian had me the entire time.”
He shook his head. “What?”
“It’s true. He kept me at his house. I couldn’t escape.”
His fingers dug harder into my thigh. “So are you telling me you gave it to him before tonight?”
“Link, please.” I grabbed his wrist. “He kept me captive.”
He adopted a thoughtful expression. “Okay, so let’s say that’s true, and he held you prisoner.” His eyes seared into mine. “Were you a prisoner tonight up against that wall?”
My voice broke. “This isn’t you.”
“That’s where you’re wrong.” He hooked his fingers into my panties at my hip. “This has always been me. I tried to change for you. To be better. To be your white knight.” He yanked, the fabric tearing and scraping my skin. “But that’s not what you wanted, not really.”
“Don’t.” A tear slipped down my temple.
“Do you love him?” He gripped my hip. “Don’t lie to me.”
My voice caught in my throat, and I couldn’t answer. But the truth was in my eyes, because he tensed and bared his teeth.
He closed his eyes, his jaw tight. “That’s what I thought.” When he opened his eyes again, he was gone. Only wrath remained.
“Link.”
“Shut up.” He gripped my throat. “Not another word. You’re going to give me what you owe me. Then I’m going to walk away. If you go to the police, I’ll tell them all about Sebastian, how he held you against your will—all of it. Your psycho lover boy will go to prison where he fucking belongs.”
I struggled, trying to buck him off, fighting and kicking. He was too strong. His body pinned me, and he squeezed my throat, stopping my air. I scratched his face.