Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 78631 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 393(@200wpm)___ 315(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78631 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 393(@200wpm)___ 315(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
“Did they notify your parents?”
“Diana, don’t you get it? I didn’t have parents. They gave me up. Relinquished their rights as parents. I was a ward of the state.”
I nod. Of course, that’s true. I don’t know why I didn’t think of that.
Except I do know why. Because to me, my parents will always be my parents. I can’t think of any reason why they wouldn’t be. Even when they’re no longer with me, they’ll still be my parents.
“So you were never charged.”
“No. Because no one cared about Tully.” He crosses his arms, casts his gaze to the floor. “I sure as hell didn’t.”
I place my quivering hand on his shoulder. “Dragon…”
“So you see, Diana?” He jumps to his feet. “I am evil. I am sin. My parents knew before I ever did. That’s why they got rid of me.”
“Dragon, you know that’s not true. I’m sure you must’ve had a good reason for what you did to Tully.”
He turns around, leers over me. “Are you making excuses for me? Would you make excuses for your own sister—your own brothers—if they did something so heinous?”
I bite my lip. “If any of my siblings took someone’s life, I would know they had a good reason for it. Because I know my siblings, and I know they’re good people.”
“Well, I’m not your siblings.” He turns his back to me and takes a step toward the door to his room.
He’s right, of course. He’s not. He didn’t grow up like Brianna and I did. Wanting for nothing.
But Dale and Donny? They had a rough start in life, and it could’ve easily led to where Dragon ended up. But they weren’t left in some group home. They were adopted by my parents and raised with love and affection and discipline.
And they grew into good upstanding men.
Dragon wasn’t raised with that kind of love.
I know.
I just know that this Tully must’ve done something to deserve what Dragon did to him.
“You have to tell me, Dragon.”
He stops leaving the room but shakes his head without facing me. “I just told you. I took a life. I’m evil. I’m sin. Those things don’t change.”
“No, Dragon.” I get up out of the bed—shit, my ankle still hurts—and walk around to face him. “You need to tell me what Tully did to you.”
He turns his head away from me, dropping his gaze to the floor.
Just as I thought. Tully did something to Dragon. Something bad enough that Dragon wanted to harm him. And he waited until Tully was almost kicked out of the home so that Tully couldn’t retaliate.
That makes Dragon smart.
“Maybe he didn’t do anything,” Dragon says. “Maybe I didn’t like the way he looked at me.”
“I don’t buy it. You wouldn’t knife a seventeen-year-old in the stomach for looking at you the wrong way.”
He returns his gaze to mine, his eyes fiery. “Wouldn’t I?”
With all my heart and soul, I want to yell at him. I’d continue standing to face him, but my ankle is still smarting.
I slink back over to the bed and sit on the edge, sighing. “No, Dragon. You wouldn’t. No matter what you say, you’ll never convince me that that’s what happened. Now you tell me. You tell me what that piece of shit did to you.”
Then he looks at me. His hazel eyes are still full of fire.
But not the kind of fire from when he looks at me in anger or passion.
The kind of fire he must’ve been looking at Tully with that day.
“I’ve never said those words aloud, Diana. I’m sure as hell not going to say them to you.”
And again, his gaze…
That different kind of fire.
Something I’ve never seen before.
Even that first time, when he told me he was sin. That he was pure evil and all he would do was take me to hell…
Even then, his eyes weren’t this ferocious.
I should be frightened.
But instead? I’m squirming. My whole body has become an inferno, and all I want… All I need… Is this man.
Dragon inside me, taking me to the stars as he’s done before.
So that’s what I tell him.
“I need you. I want you. Now.”
He wrinkles his forehead. “You think that’s really what you want, Diana? You, with your sore ankle? With that scratch on your hand?”
“More than I want to live to see another day,” I grit out.
“I told you what I wanted to do to you. I told you I had visions of tying you up, having you lie down for my pleasure. Laying you out like a fucking feast.”
“I’m not stopping you.”
He draws in a breath. “Damn you. Fuck you. Fuck all of this.”
He turns.
“Hey!” I scramble back to my feet, keeping the bulk of my weight on my uninjured foot. “Don’t you dare walk away from me, Dragon. Not after this. You don’t have to tell me you love me. But you will not walk away.”