"For a sophisticated woman of the world, you sure can’t see where you’re going," his voice sounds from above me.
"For a billionaire with many business interests, you sure spend too much time stalking me."
His jaw tics; his left eyelid throbs. He releases me so quickly that I stumble back. He shoves my phone into my chest. Before I can reach for it, he’s withdrawn his hand. The device slides down my body; I snatch it up. "Asshole."
He chuckles, "I much prefer, alphahole."
Anger sears my chest and the band around my ribcage tightens. My vision narrows and something inside of me snaps. I hook my leg around his, tug. His gaze widens, then his body arcs back.
23
Saint
"Fuck." My back hits the sidewalk, my head connecting with the concrete.
Stars flash behind my eyes and spots of black crowd my vision. I lay there winded, stare up at the gray London skies. That, at least, is predictable. Shades of darkness envelop this city in wintertime. It’s what I like best about it. Shrouded in mysterious light, it always appears in mourning or about to regret the actions of its past, exactly like my life. I blink and the thought dissipates. Fucking hell, the knock to my head clearly impacted more than my thinking process. It seems to have shaken loose emotions I hadn’t realized I have.
Huge green eyes fill my line of sight, "Saint?"
I scan her gorgeous features—her pale cheeks, the bitten lips that only enhance her fragility. Except she isn’t. It is all an act, this vulnerability that she wears around herself like a cloak, to mask the deviousness that lies inside.
"I know."
Only when I hear the words do I realize that I have spoken aloud.
"Wh…what do you mean?"
"I know why you asked to become my sub."
She purses her lips, adopts an expression of disinterest.
"Don’t you want to know why, Gigi?"
She shakes her head.
"Come on, aren’t you a little bit curious?"
She glances away, "I think you should get up from the ground." She looks around her, "It’s dirty."
"But so are you…"
"What?" She whips her head around.
"Is that why I am attracted to you?" I glare at her.
She trembles. "You…you don’t know what you’re saying."
"Perhaps, for the first time, I do." I hold out my arm.
She stares at my proffered hand, "What…what are you doing?"
"You felled me, you can help me up, hmm?"
She swallows.
"Go on, Gigi, I don’t bite." And I always speak the truth…not. "Don’t keep me waiting."
Footsteps approach us.
She flinches.
"Do it before they get here and I’ll forget this happened."
She looks up at my face, reaches for my hand.
I grab it, then pull back.
She loses her balance. The next second she falls onto me. "The hell?" She sputters, "You tricked me."
"No more than you’re trying to trick me with the lies you’re spinning around me, sweetheart." I bury my fingers in her hair, yank her close. "I am going to show you what happens when you poke the lion in its den."
"Saint, no—"
I smash my mouth to hers, thrust my tongue in between her lips. I devour her, suck on her with such force that our teeth clash. I hold her in place and consume her. Swipe my tongue across the roof her mouth. I am going to punish her for what she’s doing to me. For weaving a spell around me from the first time I’d met her. Enticing me, luring me into her trap. If she thinks I am going into this blindfolded, she is so fucking wrong. I am going to give her a taste of how it will be from now on. Me—the marauder, the destroyer… And she—she’ll bloody well accept everything I give her, and more. I tighten my grip until my fingertips dig into her scalp, and I fucking mouth fuck her.
Her body slackens, then she kisses me back in earnest. She sucks on my tongue, pushes her lips into mine, opens her mouth completely, allowing me to take and take and… My chest lurches; my groin hardens. Blood drains to my cock so fast and so hard that my head spins. Fucking hell.
I tilt my head and she mirrors my action in the opposite way. The yin to my yang. The bloody darkness to everything that is wrong in me. The tempest to my storm. The turbulence to the raging intensity that roils in me, that shoves at my ribcage, that urges me to lean up, until her upper body is curved in sync with mine. We’re not in resonance though. Nothing about us matches. Everything about this is wrong, which is why I must show her exactly how she is going to pay. I tear my mouth from hers, then push up to my feet, taking her with me.
I release her, and she stumbles, then rights herself.
Her features are frozen, her mouth slightly parted, those beautiful lips swollen and throbbing. Only when my breath raises the hair of her forehead, do I realize that I have leaned into her.
I jerk back. Then, pulling out the handkerchief from my breast pocket, I pat at my lips, "Your technique sucks, doll."
She whitens. The hollows under her cheeks throw her features into sharp relief.
"Jerk," she snarls.
I laugh, "I’m just getting started." I pocket the piece of linen, then yawn, "You’d better come in. You don’t want to keep my friends waiting."
She blinks, "Friends? What do you mean?"
"Oh, didn’t I tell you? We’re getting married in…" I look at the watch on my wrist, "...precisely half an hour."
I turn to the hotel as my guards from the hotel arrive. "Are you okay, Sir?" one of them asks.
"I’m fine." I run my fingers through my hair.
The other guard walks past me, "You all right, Ma’am?" he asks Victoria.
She nods, takes a step forward and seems to lose her footing. He steadies her, and something inside of me explodes, "Get away from her!" The next second, I find my hands twisted in his collar. I plant myself between him and Gigi, "Don’t you fucking touch
