Austin chuckles. “Me too. He was much more appealing. She didn’t love him for his looks. She was in love with how he made her feel. Special.”
“Has anyone ever made you feel special?” Lilly asks her.
Austin tilts her head to the side. “No.”
“I’m sorry,” Lilly says softly.
Austin just laughs it off. “You don’t need a man to make you feel special, Lilly. You are already special. All on your own. Don’t forget that.”
Lilly sighs heavily, and they both stare straight ahead at the movie. “What about Frozen?” Lilly asks, unable to stay quiet.
“Easy. There was no love story between princess and prince. Only sister love. And it still had a fantastic ending. It also proved that love could be deceiving.”
“What is deceiving?” Lilly draws out the word, sounding it out.
“It means he lied to her to get what he wanted.”
She nods as if she understands.
Austin pops a piece of popcorn into her mouth. And I find myself backing out of the room to let them finish their movie. Deke’s words run through my mind. Fear is a good motivator but so is seduction.
_______________
Deke and I stand in the kitchen with Celeste. They’re talking about his sister, Shelby, when Lilly enters. “Where’s Austin?” I ask her.
She smiles up at me, not catching my tone. I have a don’t fuck with me attitude today that I can’t hide even if I wanted to. “Upstairs in her room.”
Before anyone can stop me, I make my way back up the stairs, and like last time, I don’t stop to knock. I barge right on in. She sits on her bed but jumps up as I enter. “Jesus Christ, Cole. Don’t you ever knock?”
I round the bed, and she takes a step back. We both stand there, staring at one another. My heart pounds in my chest, and my mind wanders to her and me. And what we could be doing if I wasn’t so fucked up. If I didn’t hate her father so much.
“What do you want, Cole?” she demands. Her face is free of makeup. Her hair down and over her shoulders. She wears a white t-shirt and cotton shorts. She looks like she just rolled out of bed, and I hate that it wasn’t with me. “Cole …”
I take her face in my hands, and I press my lips to hers. Taking what I fucking want as I have always done.
She shoves me away as I knew she would. Now that she is no longer drunk, things are back to normal. That’s why I didn’t take her up on her offer last night. “What do you want from me?” she yells, her anger rising as easily as mine does.
“Isn’t it obvious?”
“No,” she snaps.
“Everything.”
She lifts her right arm. “You want me to bleed for you? You want me to go to jail for you? You want me to fucking kill for you? Jesus, Cole.”
“I want all of those things. And more,” I say with a nod, and her eyes narrow on me like I’m playing some sick game. She’s not wrong. “Don’t you see, Austin? I’m that guy who wants to take everything from you. I want to destroy you. I want to hurt you.”
“You already have,” she says through gritted teeth.
I smile. She’s referring to her stitches from where I cut her. I could make her bleed to death for me without a fucking knife. “You have no idea what I can do to you. You have no idea what I’m capable of. I could make you nothing.” The thought of destroying her and putting her pieces back as crooked as mine is so fucking strong.
Her jaw sharpens, and then she slaps me.
My hands fist down by my sides at the sting on my face. I hate that I like it. I’ve been raised to love a fight. “I dare you to slap me again,” I growl. Testing her.
I expect her to laugh. To call me fucked up but she doesn’t. Instead, she does what I say. It was harder than the first, and I find myself pushing her backward, my fists hitting the wall on either side of her head, but she doesn’t back down. Not her. She has so much fight in her that it makes her dark green eyes shine. And I love it.
“I’ll hit you as many times as you want,” she growls, breathing heavily.
“I wanna hit you back.” I lie. I don’t want to hurt her. Not in the way she thinks. I want to break her from the inside.
She lifts her chin. “Go ahead. I can take a hit.”
“I wanna punish you for burning Jeff’s body. I wanna punish you for fucking up my car. And I wanna punish you for how much you make me want you,” I tell her. My dick is still hard from that kiss we shared in my kitchen. The thought of fucking her is so strong that it’s hard to think about anything else.
“Why?” she asks, her chest rising and falling fast with each breath.
“I told you, sweetheart. I like destroying pretty, innocent things.”
Her eyes look up into mine. She searches as if she’s trying to decipher my words, but they were honest. There was no hidden meaning.
“Why?” she asks again, and her voice wavers. That fear creeping back into her features.
“Because perfect things don’t belong in a fucked-up world.” It’s that simple.
She swallows. “I’m not perfect.”
I lean in, my lips almost touching hers, and her breath hitches. “You are to me.” I’ve never said anything more true to a woman. She is just like me. The fight. The anger. The hate. I see the way she fists her hands when I force her to do something. I see how she rises to every challenge I throw at her. With no warning. And I love that she refuses to back down. Give up. She’ll go head to head with me, and in her mind, she feels she has a chance to win. It turns me on so much. She was built for a man like me—a savage.
“Cole,” she whispers.
I remove my right hand from the wall and cup her face. She whimpers, and it fuels my desire to make her mine. “I wanna watch tears roll down your beautiful face because I think you’re gorgeous when you cry. I wanna see blood on your flawless skin because you look like a priceless work of art. And I wanna look down at you while you’re on your knees because you want to please me.” My thumb runs over her trembling bottom lip. “I wanna make you a beautiful, broken doll, Austin.” Her eyes widen at my confession. “All mine to play with.” I look at her parted lips while licking my own. “All mine to fuck.” She moans. “All mine to destroy.”
She just stares up at me. Her eyes searching mine. When they fall to my lips, I close the small space and kiss her. She doesn’t pull away or push me back. Instead, she opens up for me, and I tilt her head, deepening the kiss, stealing her breath away.
I want to take everything from her. And I know it won’t take much to get it. I pull away, and she slowly opens her eyes. “I’ll be here to pick you up at seven thirty on Thursday morning.”
“What?” she asks, breathlessly.
“You ride with me to and from school,” I tell her. “You may not be mine yet, but to everyone else, you already are.” Then I walk out, not giving her a chance to argue.
“Ready to go?” I ask, entering the kitchen.
Lilly runs to me, and I pick her up. Deke stands from the table. When we walk outside, I say to him. “Post the video.”
AUSTIN
A horn blares outside, and I yank my shirt off the hanger.