Page 131 of The Never List
“He threatened me,” she says.
“With what?”
“To put me in the dungeons. Whenever I stepped out of line, whenever he caught me in a city I wasn’t allowed to be in—” Her words stop short.
Reality crashes inside my mind as the buzzing from her lies dissolves.
She’s shaking in my arms now, and I gently spin her around to face me. “Little liar,” I whisper, cupping her cheeks. “Why didn’t you tell me? Tell any one of us?”
Tears fill her eyes, spilling down those black tracks already made on her cheeks. “I was afraid,” she admits on a released breath.
I swipe her tears away with my thumbs, unable to hold back a laugh.
“That’swhat you’re afraid of?” I ask through my laughter. “Where you come from? I don’t give a shit where you were born,” I say. “None of us would. What I care about is your lack of self-preservation when it comes tome.” I shake my head. “Honestly, Rylee, you were afraid of being outed as an Ashlander, but not the actualNightmarewho holds you right now?”
She shakes her head. “You’re not…angry with me? You’re not going to imprison me?”
“No.” I hold her a little more tightly. “I’m not my father. I don’t care about noble titles. You’re already suffering enough by me choosing you.”
Fuck, what she must have been fearing this entire time—
“I’m not afraid ofyou, Jax,” she says, hands sliding over my arms where I hold her, the touch so gentle, so accepting, so…loving.
My instincts flare again, the ones begging me to push her away, to protect her from me.
I release her, taking a step back. Putting a good two feet of distance between us.
“If you’re not afraid of me, you don’t understand me.” Ifinally force out the words, my hands immediately going to my blades. Not in any threat to her, but to protect her fromme. If my hands are empty for much longer, I’ll fill them with that perfect ass of hers, bend her over my desk and fuck her until I’m branded on her skin for life. Until there’s no separating us ever again.
Rylee tilts her head for a moment, shock pulsing from her at the turn in conversation before she folds her arms over her chest, defiant. The little pose pushes up her gorgeous breasts, and the lace top she wears practically begs for me to slice it away.
“Oh, I think I do understand you, Jax,” she says. “You’re the one who is scared.”
My eyes flare, and I flip the blades in my hands. “Me? Afraid of you?”
“Yes!” She motions to the chamber around her. “You dragged me up here after an intense territorial display. You called me yourmate, Jax. But just now, you put a mountain of space between us because you know what will happen if you keep touching me.”
“Is that right?” I fire back, sounding like a petulant child. “And what is that?”
“You’ll break,” she says without a shred of doubt. Goddess, she’s the sexiest, smartest, most powerfully infuriating woman I’ve ever met.
I laugh, full and raw and terrifying. The same laugh that usually has grown men pissing their pants like that fucking enforcer did moments ago.
But not Rylee.
She shivers as if I’ve just blown in her ear.
Goddess fucking damn it.
“You know who my father is,” I say, doing my best to pull any card I can to get her to realize the huge mistake she’s about to make. “You know what I’ll become if I have any more power.” The truth of my deepest fear laces my voice, but I push on, spinning the blades in my hands to keep me grounded. “I’ll use you up. Break you down until you’re a shell of the woman before me. Just like he did to my mother.” I shake my head. “Or I’ll do worse. If you’re mine and something happens to you, someone threatens you…” I drop my head. Can’t believe I’m admitting this to her as I meet her gaze again. “I’ll burn the whole fucking world down and laugh the ash out of my lungs.”
I don’t relish killing, not like everyone says I do. Just because I’m good at something doesn’t mean I love it, but that? That’s inevitable. What I’m capable of turning into when it comes to her. That much was proven moments ago with the fucking enforcer. Even now, knowing what I know…I want to hurt him. I want to make it last. Want to pay back every harm he’s done to her tenfold.
And that scares the living shit out of me—the little scrap of control I have will vanish if I give in to her.
Rylee’s frustration slides off her face, her emotions slipping to empathy in a heartbeat. “You are nothing like Baydel,” she says through her teeth. “You’re nothing like the Nightmare you pretend to be.”
“You don’t know that—”
