Page 50 of Ash and Poison

Not me, though.

Grunting, I pushed away from him, shame and desire fighting with each other. I wanted to stay, but I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.

“Well, nobody is begging. Sleep tight and hard, Maddox,” I said, pointedly looking at his erection.

He sucked his fingers coated with my arousal, his eyes burning against mine.

It was so hard to maintain my dignity and not beg.

“Well, don’t sleep, because I’ll be coming for you when you least expect it, Sharma, and then…”

“You’ll steal my panties and catch your cum in them, Pussycat?” I asked. “You’re all bark and no fucking bite. Do you want me to teach you how to bite?” I asked, staring pointedly at his erect cock, and he growled like a rabid animal.

“When I come for you, you won’t be gloating.” His eyes turned wild, unhinged, and the darkness in them was beautiful. I heard it serenading me.

It drew me to him, rather than pushing me away.

Bending down, I bit his lower lip, hard. A long, satisfied growl left him when I pulled back.

“That’s how you bite, Maddox.”

He licked his lips, eyes half closed, a smile on his lips. This smile wasn’t cold or calculating. He looked rather harmless now.

“What’s your next move?” I asked.

“Why would I tell you that?”

“You’ll lose either way.”

“We will see, won’t we, Sharma?”

“Night, kitten.”

It didn’t matter he was aroused, it didn’t matter we kissed like we were stranded in a desert, and we held the water between our lips. No. When the time came, Asher wouldn’t hesitate to kill me.

I turned and left.

I was smiling when I reached my cottage.

I loved how good overpowering him made me feel. It had been a while since I enjoyed that rush of adrenaline, the echoes of desire.

Fighting him gave me the sense of exhilaration murder gave me once.

Being a reformed serial killer, trying to stay away from the limelight of law was fucking boring. I needed the hunt, the rush.

And now I have it.

When I crawled under the covers, I was already yawning. It was a rare day when I could sleep without my pills, without the nightmares clinging to my skin to come hunting, to come drag me back into their bottomless embrace.

And I had Asher to thank for that.

13

GHOSTS OF THE PAST

DIYA

When I woke up, I was not on my warm mattress.