Page 45 of Ricochet
Ophelia laid there, the oversized shirt she wore bunched at her hips, and that fucking psychopathic smile on her face. Jake’s blood caked her lips, cascading over her chin and toward her chest. I wanted to fuck her, and I wanted to kill her, and not necessarily in that order. I wanted to fuck her out of my system, out of my blood, so that the only thing I would remember would be the lies she told me. The pain she caused us, and all of the suffering that came from me loving her.
I thought about the kid she used to be, before the darkness took over. What was so bad about the life we had that she had to take the one good thing from us? Our plans, the feeling of her body in my arms, that sweet fucking smell of vanilla… My past had haunted me for so long, and now that it laid in front of me, I didn’t know what to do.
“Don’t you dare fuck this up, Kieran,” my brothers warned me the day before we finally took her.
“Do you still love her?” Cillian asked.
Did I?
Did I still love her? Would I still bleed for her, burn the whole world and stand on the ashes of what I’ve done? Four years ago, I would have.
I would’ve betrayed my whole family for the girl laying on this bed now, but not anymore. My eyes raked over her body, over the bruising at her neck… Jesus fuck, even looking the way she was, she was still the prettiest girl I had ever laid my eyes on. Her hair was splayed over the white pillow beneath her head. If it were up to my brothers, she would be inside the cage like an animal.
Not that she wasn’t one.
The blood made her look feral, unhinged, crazy, and I used to love her crazy. I fucking reveled in it, because I knew that only I could tame her. The nights she would wait for me in our bed, teasing me, goading me, those nights were imprinted in my mind, not even a thousand different women could erase it. I never asked the questions I should’ve asked. She fed me lies, and I ate them like the idiot I was.
I sat next to her, the bare skin of her thigh brushing against my hip. I wanted to devour her, mark her, brand her skin. Make her remember how much I loved her, even though she never loved me. I needed to show her everything she’d lost, because even if she never loved me, I knew that there was a part of her forever connected to me. I wanted her hate more than I wanted her love. Because after all was said and done, the only thing we were left with was the dark abyss of hatred, swallowing us whole.
“Are you going to punish me, Kieran?” Her lashes fluttered against her cheeks, fake innocence transforming her face. But those eyes, those eyes weren’t hiding the demons now. For the first time I could see her for what she was, and I hated what I saw in her. The reflection of myself.
A monster, a murderer, the two people shaped by the factors they had no control of. Fucked over by the family that was supposed to protect them.
I glided my hand over her thigh, stopping at the hem of the shirt.My shirt. Her breath hitched as I moved higher, over her hip, toward her navel, feeling the smooth skin beneath my fingers. The skull tattoo on her thigh pulled at me, bringing flashbacks of a time long lost.
Pax Aeterna.
Eternal Peace.
I touched the letters engraved on her skin, and I could still remember the day she had it done. The darkness I saw in her eyes then, has been haunting me for a very long time. The crown of thorns, the soulless eyes on the piece; I didn’t know it was the representation of who she really was.
Did she ever think about the future we could’ve had together? The things we could’ve done, places we could’ve run to. Was I haunting her the way she was haunting me? She was still in everything. In every breath, in every day, in every memory I had, she was my personal demon.
I had no second thoughts over the plan we had for her. After all, she was the one who chose this. She chose darkness over light, over the opportunity for a better life. We could’ve left all of this behind, but she had to fuck it up.
I gripped her ribcage, the bones there biting into my hand. I wanted her to fear me, but all I got was a wider smile on her face. She licked her lips, removing the remaining blood there.
“Are you going to hurt me?” She squirmed beneath my touch. “Cut me, fuck me...” she trailed off. “Kill me—”
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” I cut her off.
“Yes,” she moaned, closing her eyes, throwing her head back.
“So eager.” I leaned down and pressed a kiss on her collarbone. “You always loved the pain.” I bit down. “Do you crave it now; do you want to escape from your head?”
I pulled the knife from my boot, bringing it between us. Her eyes widened, arousal sparkling in them. My little psycho really wanted this.
“Do you have any idea how many times I’ve imagined this?” I spread her legs, cupping her pussy in my hand. “How many times I’ve dreamed about you, just like this. Tied up, at my mercy.”
Dragging the blade of the knife down her chest, I circled around her nipple, until the tip became visible through the white shirt. Her chest was rising and falling with steady breaths, her eyes focused on my hand. I kneeled between her legs, the heat of her pussy penetrating through the thin layer of cotton that separated my hand from her bare skin. I stroked my fingers through her folds, and the whimper escaped her lips.
“Kieran—”
“Shhh.” I placed the blade on her lips, silencing her. “Just feel, baby girl. Let yourself feel.”
“Please—”
I gathered the fabric of her panties in my hand, pushing them against her clit.
