“I’m not looking for someone to save, Kyan,” she said darkly, lifting my hand to her lips and touching them to my bloody knuckles.
My heart thundered as she pressed kisses to each of my knuckles in turn, the sight of my blood smearing over her mouth making my whole body ache with a raw and brutal desire to lay claim to her flesh and cast her to ruin.
“Then what do you want from me?” I demanded, because not knowing was driving me to fucking insanity.
She looked up at me, her tongue slowing licking her lower lip as she tasted some of my blood. “I don’t know,” she breathed.
My gaze fixed on her mouth and I caught her neck in my grasp, my fingers locking around her throat as I tilted her chin up and leaned in so close that our lips were almost touching. I wanted to taste my blood on her tongue so badly that I ached for it. It was fucked up and twisted and dark, but I’d never denied being all of those things. I just didn’t want to drag her down to my level when I knew she deserved better.
“You should learn to stay away from me, Tatum Rivers,” I said in a low voice as my grip on her throat tightened a little. It wasn’t a threat, just the truth. “I’m no good for you. And I’m also not good enough to keep warning you. One of these days I’m not going to hold back. I’ll take you up on that offer in your eyes and abuse your flesh in all the dark ways you hunger for. And once I’ve made you mine, I’ll never let go again. And then I’ll never forgive myself for corrupting you.”
I used my grip on her throat to shove her away from me just hard enough to put some distance between us then turned and stalked back towards the light of the bonfires.
But before I could get three steps, a branch hit me square in the back.
“You don’t get to just keep doing that shit to me, Kyan Roscoe,” Tatum shouted and I turned back to find her glaring at me, with eyes full of fire once more and a rock clutched in her fist.
“Do what?” I asked, my skin prickling with anger over the fucking branch.
“Reel me in and then shove me away. Lean in like you’re going to kiss me, then reject me as if I was the one who wanted it in the first place,” she snapped.
“Weren’t you?” I asked cockily. “Because from where I was standing, it looked like you would have let me tie you to that tree and fuck you until you couldn’t walk straight.”
She threw the rock so suddenly that I didn’t even have time to duck aside before it struck me in the shoulder, hitting me hard enough with the sharp edge that it split my skin open and spilled blood.
“Don’t do that,” I warned in a low growl.
“Or what?” she taunted, stooping to retrieve two more rocks from the ground by her feet.
“You don’t want to find out.”
“Maybe I do,” she hissed. “Maybe I want to go up against the great Kyan Roscoe and prove that I could put you on your back and leave you bleeding in the dirt.”
“Don’t make threats you can’t follow through on,” I snarled and she threw another rock.
I managed to twist aside to avoid it, but the third smacked me in the chest, rage blossoming through my blood from the place where it hit.
I stalked towards her, meaning to restrain her, toss her over my shoulder and drag her back to The Temple for some kind of punishment, but she swung at me the moment I got close.
I tasted blood as my head wheeled sideways and something snapped in my brain as she swung at me again.
I let her land the blow, catching me with an uppercut that made my head ring before I shoved her back against the huge oak tree, hard enough to hurt.
“Don’t,” I warned in a low growl but she just lunged at me again, her knuckles slamming into my ribs and sending pain flaring through my body.
I fought to deflect her blows, glaring at her as she shoved me back with a snarl of fury.
“Fuck, baby, you’re so hot when you’re angry,” I purred and the rage in her eyes told me she didn’t fucking like that at all.
“You’re such a prick, Kyan. You act like you think your dick is the Holy Grail and everyone should just line up for a taste of its magical waters.”
“Well we both know you’d be at the front of the queue if I started offering out tickets,” I taunted.
Her palm swung for my face and she slapped me as hard as she could, making my head wheel sideways.
I slapped her back instantly and her lips parted in surprise as the pink print of my hand glowed on her cheek.
“What’s the matter, baby?” I asked. “You can hand it out, but you can’t take it in return? You slap me like a little bitch and you’d better believe I’ll slap you right back.”
“Call me a little bitch again and I’ll fucking destroy you,” she hissed.
“You wanna carry this on with less clothes on?” I asked, licking the blood from my busted lip. “The hate sex between us would be hot enough to start a forest fire.”
“I thought you didn’t fuck girls
