“I was never okay. You made sure of that. You took things from me that you can never give back.”
“I never took anything from you. I saved you. Damien would never have let you out alive.”
“You took my right to choose what my heart wants. You stole control over my body. You did it before, and now you’re doing it again.”
“You gave me those things willingly at one point.”
“Because I thought you were a good man. I didn’t know you were King.”
“I’m not a good man, Juliana, and no fantasies you imagine in your head will ever change that. I wanted to own your screams, your tremors, and your life.” He slowly approached the bed. “You wanted to fix me, but I didn’t want to change. I wanted to break you with my hands, my tongue, and my cock. So stop trying to find excuses so you can feel better about your love for me.”
“Love?” I let out a curt laugh as I broke eye contact with him.
His fingers dug into my chin as he turned my head so my eyes met his stormy blue, almost gray eyes. “Hate me. Deny everything we were to each other, but don’t ever say you didn’t love me.”
He leaned in and kissed me long and hard. A kiss that ended with a sharp bite of my bottom lip. “Don’t take that away from me.”
He leaned his forehead against mine, the agony that he usually hid etched on his face. “I don’t want to hurt you. I never did,” he breathed against my lips.
Devlin
I was an idiot to think I had any idea what would happen when I found her. I knew I lacked the kind of self-control needed to be rational.
I woke with such an incredible break from reality that it had taken half an hour to calm my racing heart and clear my head.
“Just tell me.” The look in Juliana’s eyes tore at my heart.
I pulled away from her and moved away from the bed. “Tell you what?”
“Tell me you’re King. Just fucking say, ‘I’m him!’”
I stared at her from across the room as I took a seat. She knew who I was, but she had no idea how hard it was to look her in the eye and admit I was her nightmare.
“I’m Devlin Ward.”
“And Damien is your father. Do you know he was the only person I could identify when I get home? We were able to find out he was an enforcer they called Maniac. It took years to get a name out of anyone, and all we got was a first name. Damien.”
My father was very good at covering his identity. To this day, he was just a handful of dirt floating in the air.
“Do you know how hard it is for me to put you and King together in my mind?”
“Then don’t. Why do you want me to say it so badly? What is it going to change?”
“I need it. I need you to explain so many things, but you can’t until you admit to me you did this.”
“Fuck…” I ran both hands over my face and then stood up. She tried to make eye contact with me as I worked to loosen the ropes that held her down. Once she was free, she rubbed each wrist, slid her legs off the bed, and stood. I expected her to leave quickly, but she stayed. Her body language and the look in her eyes told me she was ready for a face-off.
She made me anxious. I wanted to take a step back, but I wasn’t ready to back down. She crowded me, her body so close that if she swayed forward, we’d touch. She stared into my eyes, daring me to look away.
I wouldn’t.
“Tell me.” Her plea was soft and caused the muscle in my jaw to tighten as I clamped my teeth together. I began counting, but that wasn’t getting me anywhere.
She pushed her body forward until she was plastered against me with her breath dancing across my face.
Her eyes widened and her breaths quickened with her anger. “Just fucking tell me!”
“I did it, okay? I snatched you off the street and fucking made you mine.”
She smacked me. Hard. I saw it coming and stiffened my stance, but didn’t block it. The blow stung, but it wasn’t half of what I deserved. From there, she continued. She pounded on my chest with her closed fist. When I tried to subdue her, she pulled at my hair and scratched my face.
I held her arms down to her side. Tears ran down her cheek and she bit down on her lips as they trembled. I pulled her against me and held her. She sobbed. My heart ached. I wished our story had begun differently. I had no way of knowing when Damien gave me that job to do I’d be standing here years later trying to figure out how to fix her broken heart.
“I hate you,” she mumbled against my chest. My shirt was wet with her tears. I ran my fingers through her hair and kissed the top of her head.
She looked up at me and shook her head. “Why is it so fucking hard to just hate you?”