I can only imagine what she sees because the sticky blood coating my skin is my warpaint. But she doesn’t recoil. Oh no, Tiger doesn’t cower in the face of fear. She doesn’t recoil—period.
She stands on tippy toes and smashes her lips to mine.
My mouth hinges open, needing a second to get up to speed, but that’s all it needs before I’m kissing the ever-living fuck out of her. Every part of me aches because nothing is gentle about her kisses, but the pain only heightens this depravity within me.
She bites me, clawing at my shirt, while I fist her long hair. Our tongues duel, refusing to surrender to the other because we both want to be alpha. I walk her toward the wall, slamming her against it as I press my chest to hers.
She moans into my mouth, sucking my tongue and biting my bottom lip, and all I taste is bubblegum. The kiss is frenzied and wild, and I can’t stop. I want to fucking eat her alive. Her long hair feels like silk beneath my fingers, which has me remembering I’m touching her with filthy hands.
Breaking the kiss, I stare her in the eye. “Why are you here?”
My blood paints her face, which strokes the caveman within. I’ve fucking marked her, but it’s not enough. With three fingers, I slowly smear my blood across her mouth and cheeks. Now she looks like the fucking warrior that she is.
Tiger licks her lips, no doubt tasting the metallic sting I left behind. “I don’t know,” she finally speaks.
“So you followed me?”
She nods slowly.
“Why? I don’t understand. Help me understand.” I don’t know why she would waste her time on someone like me.
She simply cups my cheek and shrugs. “I don’t have the answers.”
“Then what do you want?”
Her chest pushes against mine as she gasps for breath. And with one simple word, she steals mine. “You.”
I don’t know what to say. Or do. Or…feel.
“Every time I see you with another woman, this…monster comes out of me. And I don’t know why.”
“You’re not the monster. I am. I’m the one covered in another man’s blood.” To prove my point, I raise a bloody fist. “You saw me beat him within an inch of his life. I only stopped because he isn’t why I’m here. I have an end game, and everyone is disposable. Even you,” I add, watching her slender throat dip as she swallows.
This is when she’s supposed to leave the room and never look back. I’ve just given her a get out of jail free card. I don’t expect her to stick around, who would? I have nothing, nothing to offer her. A world full of pain is all I can promise.
I wait calmly for her to leave. But she doesn’t.
With a sigh, she begins to unwrap the tape from around my hands. She won’t meet my eyes, but instead busies herself with ridding the bloody reminder from my skin. Once she’s undone the tape, she hesitantly grips my chin and turns my cheek to look at my injuries.
“Does it hurt?” she asks. I shake my head, unsure what the fuck is going on.
She brushes her thumb over my lips, nursing me softly. She appears to be in thought. Here’s to hoping she realizes what a big fucking mistake this is. “What’s your end game?” she softly asks, her fingers drifting too close to my throat.
Gripping her wrist, I stop her from touching me because this has gone too far. “That’s none of your concern,” I snarl because she can never know—ever.
“Why were you fighting tonight? Why did you cover your face? Your eyes? What are you hiding?” she asks, cementing what I have to do. “What are you running from?”
“Just because you shared something with me doesn’t mean we’re going to have a heart to heart over coffee. And the reason for that is…I don’t have a heart.”
She licks her lips quickly. She’s nervous. Good. “I don’t believe y-you.”
“Well, you should,” I state, inches from her face. “You want to see something in me that’s not there.”
Before she has a chance to reply, I turn her fiercely, so her back is pressed to my front. Our reflections are echoed in the dirty mirror in front of us. She is trembling all over.
“See that?” I snarl, peering at our bloody image in the mirror. “Nothing but an empty shell.”
“What happened to y-you?”
“You don’t want to know,” I counter in warning.
“You’re not bad. I can see it behind your eyes.”
But I cut her off. This has gone too far. The only way to stop this is to hurt her. She is nosy and smart, and sooner or later, she will uncover what I did and what I plan to do. “I am bad, Tiger.” She doesn’t seem to believe me. So it’s time I showed her just how bad I can be.
Fisting her hair, I tilt her head to the side and bite the column of her neck, feeding the devil within me. She cries but doesn’t retreat. While I’m sucking at her soft, delicious flesh, I reach around to the front of her jeans and unsnap the top button.
The sight is almost too much.
A heavy intake of breath fills her lungs, and on her exhale, I slip my fingers into her underwear. Her sex is hot and bare and…wet. With nothing but pure possession, I sink two fingers into her slick pussy. Her mouth parts with the intrusion, and her body seizes around me. She isn’t ready for me, but her pained hiss fuels my darkness. She feels incredible.
“Don’t mistake me for anything but that.” I begin to finger her—in and out, in and out. She wriggles, whimpering, but I suckle on her neck, only burying my fingers deeper.
“Oh, god.” She squeezes her eyes shut.
“I will use you because I can. Because you let me.”
To prove my point, I stretch her wide, ignoring how fucking tight she is. I know I’m hurting her, but this is the only way I can get her to listen.
She moves with me, gently arching into my touch as she pants softly. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say she was enjoying this. But I shove that sick thought aside.
Licking down her throat sluggishly, I pump my fingers, picking up speed. Tiger moans, attempting to move her hips, coaxing me to give her clit some attention, but I’m holding her prisoner in every way possible. My cock is hard, so fucking hard, but this isn’t about gratification. This is about punishment. This is about showing Tiger who I am.
“Are you trying to fill the hole in your little family, is that it?”
Her eyes snap open, the fire consuming the green. Good, she’s angry. I can work with that. “How d-dare you.”
“Maybe Michael didn’t want to be stuck with a needy woman? You don’t have the best track record with people sticking around.”
Finally succumbing to her demands, I rub over her clit, giving her a taste because that’s all she’ll ever get. “You…make…me…sick,” she pants, a sheen of goose bumps covering her skin.
“Good,” I praise, continuing the unforgiving tempo of my fingers. I may not have done this in a very long time, but her body is made for me. Another reason I need this to stop.
She wants to tell me to go to hell, but she can’t. She locks eyes with me and we watch the strangers who wear our faces, staring back at us as I work her pussy passionately.
“Your entire family left. If your own family can’t love you, then what does that say about you?”