Page 161 of Tempting Venom

---

I almost killed him.

“You fell asleep a couple of hours ago,” Marcus says in a calm, steady voice. “I came to pick up some clothes, and I saw that you were clearly having a nightmare, so I tried to wake you up.”

My lips part as memories flood back in.

I fell asleep in Marcus’s room.

Me, whoneversleeps in unfamiliar places, not even in Kane’s house, fell asleep here? I didn’t even check the locks obsessively like I usually do.

How…?

This doesn’t make any sense.

“Don’t do that again,” I whisper, releasing my knees and forcing myself to sit straighter.

“Do what?”

“Wake me up. I might actually kill you next time.” I jut my chin toward the red fingerprints on his neck and grimace.

He tilts his head to the side, and I notice his thumb stops tapping against his middle finger. “You think that scares me?”

“It will when you’re dead.”

“You can’t kill me, Preston.”

“I could’ve just now.”

“No. I would’ve fought you off. The only reason I didn’t was because I thought it would be a better idea to resort to a gentler approach.”

I narrow my eyes. “Why?”

“I suppose you don’t like being restricted or touched, because you started being violent when I tried to grab yourhands. So I figured countering your violence with violence would only backfire.”

My lips part. How did he even…deduce that so fast?

“But I was choking you,” I whisper.

His lips curl into a playful grin. “Wasn’t the first time. I’m used to you being a menace.”

I stare, dumbfounded, my gulp audible in the silence.

And it hits me. I categoricallycan’tunderstand this man.

At all.

If I were him, I would’ve gotten rid of meagesago. And yet even as he sees me at my lowest, at my most shameful moment, he’s not running away.

If anything, he seems…fascinated.Enamored.

And that look scares the shit out of me.

Because I think I could getused to it.

22

MARCUS

“Preston?”

---