Page 17 of Equilibrium
“I wanted them to suffer just how I suffered. My family, their family, they all betrayed me. I worked for the Syndicate. I bled for the Syndicate, and my father, the leader of that same organization, he never even looked for me. After everything they did to me, he never tried to help me. I was sleeping on the streets when the Albanians found me. They knew who I was, and they offered me shelter. They gave me clothes, they gave me food, and they gave me purpose again.”
“But—”
“I’m not finished, Storm,” she whispered. “That day I met you, it was the best day of my life. Ava found out she was pregnant, and I thought we would finally be able to run away from our families. But I was so fucking wrong, and weeks later I realized that fairy tales don’t exist. At least they don’t exist for people like me. They are pretty little lies mothers tell their daughters. We grow up with these expectations that things would get better. That the sun will shine again, but it doesn’t. My life was always a thunderstorm. The kind you can never run away from. So, I accepted the Albanians like they were my own family, but I wanted to get out. Kieran’s death was supposed to be my way out.”
She slowed down, tracing the gauze on her arm.
“And I didn’t wanna do it. I didn’t wanna do it because I didn’t want to bring them more pain. He cheated on me, ripped my heart out, yet he didn’t deserve to die. But I was wrong.” She again looked at me. “He raped my sister.”For fuck’s sake. “The same sister I’ve been looking for for years. So now you know why I did it. Why I allowed myself to work for a family that had no morals and didn’t care about anything but themselves. Because they were the only light. They were my sun when I wanted nothing more but to die.”
“I didn’t... Fuck, I didn’t know.”
“I know you didn’t know, but you need to let me go. I need to find Maya.”
She wanted to run away, when I wanted nothing more than to see her running to me. This whole story was giving me a fucking headache, and the idea of dismembering their bodies was more and more appealing with each word she said.
“Will you let me go?” she asked with a hopeful look in her eyes. She thought I was better than them, but I wasn’t.
I was worse. I was so much worse, because I wanted her to myself even if she didn’t want me. Even if she wanted to get away, I wanted her here. Even if it meant that she’d hate me, I couldn’t let her go. I just found her; I couldn’t fucking let her disappear again. And I knew she would.
“No, Ophelia,” I answered. “I won’t let you go.”
“You’re a fucking asshole!” she screamed, like a banshee, throwing a pillow at my face
“Calm down,” I gritted through my teeth. “I won’t let you go, but I will help you find her.”
“You are worse than they were.”
She was angry, furious. Good, so was I. But no matter how furious she was, she wasn’t going to go anywhere.
“Oh, you have no idea, Persephone.”
“That’s not my fucking name,” she screamed, and something inside of me broke down. The dam opened, and before I could think about what I was doing, I climbed on top of her, holding her hands down, sliding between her legs.
Now, this is better.
She quieted down, small huffs coming out of her. Her eyes narrowed, her chest rising and falling rhythmically. I lowered my head, my lips a whisper away from hers.
Her sweet vanilla scent drove me crazy. I looked up and saw the blood darkening the white gauze on her arm, but she didn’t make a sound.
“You need to understand one thing, baby.” I dipped my head toward her neck, my eyes zeroing on the red splatter of blood. “I am never letting you go. So, you can hate me, love me, chill me and thrill me, but you are never getting away from me. You’re mine, Ophelia. Mine to hold, mine to own, and no man or woman will ever take you away from me.”
Embedded into my soul.That’s where she buried herself.
She trembled beneath my body, biting her lower lip, and I wanted it to be my teeth biting down on that sweetness. Her chest rose, grazing her breasts against my chest, and I wanted to do nothing more but to claim her here and now. But she wasn’t ready for me.
Trepidation sunk deep into my skin, waiting for her to say something. I was angry at her, but my need for her overrode all the other feelings, and my dick twitched against my leg at the mere thought of her belonging to me. I lowered my hips to hers, pinning her fully. At the first contact of her body against mine, a groan escaped from my chest, almost leaving me breathless.
Ophelia gazed up at me, her ocean blue eyes wide from desire, lips parted and waiting. I dipped my head toward her neck, nibbling at the soft skin, licking from the column all the way to her ear.
“S-Storm,” she stuttered, her breathing increasing with each passing second. The way she said my name sent a jolt of desire directly to my balls, and I ached to hear more. I was a starving man, and she was the meal I’d been waiting for my entire life. She was calm to the storm brewing inside my chest, and one taste was enough to know that I would never be satisfied until she fully belonged to me.
I released her hands, my own slipping into her hair, as I started leaving kisses along her jaw, seeking her lips. She lifted her ass, and faster than a lightning, wrapped her legs around my waist, bringing me down with her.
My shirt looked heavenly on her, and I wasn’t sure what I wanted more—her in my clothes or her completely naked.
Her plump lips parted, but I wasn’t going to give her what she wanted, even if it pained me to deprive both of us that pleasure. It was obvious to me that Ophelia loved to run away from the things that were chasing her, and I didn’t want her to use us for that. I wanted her to come to me, to seek me because she wanted me just like I wanted her, but those shadows in her eyes were still dancing their tango, and this wasn’t the way.
I didn’t want us to start this way.
