Page 65 of The Viper's Wife

I almost tumble forward, barely managing not to crumble to my knees. He’s always keeping me off balance. Always trying to fuck with me for his own amusement.

Still facing the wall, I run my hands up and down my waist, my neck, twirling the ends of my hair. “You don’t know me.”

When I turn, he’s got a stack of cash in his hands.

“I know you’re not in this for the money,” he says. “You just wanted to piss me off.”

I squat, running my hands down my thighs, and look up at him. “Two things can be true at once.”

He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He couldn’t possibly understand what it’s like to have moneyrunning through your fingers like grains of sand. There will never be enough to give me the security I want.

His expression grows hard, and when he reaches for me, I flinch. But he only tucks another hundred-dollar bill into my bra strap.

“How badly do you need this money?” He runs a finger along my bra strap.

“So bad,” I whisper.

“Are you a slut, Valeria?”

My mouth moves before my brain does. “Yes.”

Nico strikes out almost faster than I can track to catch my face in his palm. He traps my face against his inner thigh, and I rock from my heels to my knees.

“You’remyslut.”

“I am,” I whisper, and it’s true. He teases out a side of me that I’ve never shown another man before, a side I never knew existed. A part of me I can’t control when I’m around him.

He reaches for his belt buckle. “Is that what will make you stop fighting this? An allowance?”

My heart hammers as he draws out his gun, heavy and dark.

What is he going to do with that?

I realize how vulnerable I’ve made myself, kneeling between his thighs. He could do whatever he wanted to me, and I’d be powerless to stop him.

“We’re not playing with a live gun,” he says, frowning like I’ve made the suggestion out loud, and slides it to the far end of the couch. His thumb rubs my lower lip. “You think I’d put you at risk like that?”

My lip trembles.

I don’t know what I think anymore. He’s too many contradictions at once, and I don’t know which to trust.

Confusion, shame, anxiety, and raging desire swirl through me, battling to make themselves known.

I’m so tired of making decisions. I want a break. I want Nico.

When he finally pulls out his cock and frames it in his tattooed fist, I’m panting with lust.

I’ve never seen it up close in the light like this. His piercing gleams, and at the tip of his perfectly shaped head wells a clear drop of liquid. My mouth waters.

I wait for him to push me forward, to take his frustrations out on my mouth, but he only strokes through my hair.

“What do I do with you?” he murmurs.

Let me go, I think.

“Fuck me,” I whisper.

My swirling thoughts slow to a stop as he feeds the head of his cock into my mouth.