Danny threw me over his shoulder and stalked out of the military ballroom as if I weighed nothing; featherlight, a doll in his massive arms.
Every other sailor in the room started to whistle and chant immaturely as they watched us leave the building. They don’t know Danny just beat the shit out of Kane for cutting my lip open.
I stop thrashing, and instead, I’m trying to focus on getting my world to stop spinning. I hope Kane is okay, and I’m hoping Danny doesn’t go back there and kill him.
Everyone’s chants die down, along with the music, as we get closer to the exit. We’re outside, and I shout at him as I shake out of his arms, but it doesn’t work. He tightens his hold.
“Let me go!”
He slaps my ass. “You only bleed for me,” he snarls as he drops me into the passenger seat of his truck. He swings the door open explosively.
“Danny…” I complain, throwing my legs back outside, tempted to jump out of his vehicle. He stands there tall, holding the door open, ready to slam it shut.
“You’re drunk. And I don’t care that we’re not together. I’ll make sure you get to your bed, in your pajamas, in your house. You’re also going to take Advil for the hangover you’re about to have in the morning.”
Of course, he knows what’s going to happen to me. He’s an expert in hangovers. “But my coat, my purse, my phone…”
I don’t care if anyone can hear me complain. Very few people are in the parking lot because the ball hasn’t ended yet. We’re one of the first people to leave.
He grabs his phone and types away. I cross my arms over my chest like a petulant child being told no after having a tantrum.
“Zeke will take care of it,” he says calmly before looking back at me, shoving his phone into his pants.
I glare daggers at him, but he stares back at me, holding my gaze unphased.
Fuck him for being so irresistibly handsome.
Because even though I’m angry, the hold he has on me is tattooed into my soul permanently, like the ink on his skin.
“Don’t you have another mission to go on? Another deployment? Don’t bother,” I hiss, trying to jump out of his truck again. I look away from him and at the parking lot floor.
I grab onto the door handle for balance. The truck is lifted high, and there’s no way I’ll be able to hop out without holding on to something so I don’t fall.
As soon as my hand touches the door handle, he grips my wrist tight, even painfully. He tightens his hold on me, and I look up to meet darkened, lustful eyes.
I wince at the sudden shock it sends down between my thighs. A familiar sensation that has me devastated, wanting more.
“Did you just sass me, little angel? You know what happens when you act out.” His tone is anything but sweet. His deep, husky voice reverberates with a low growl.
I swallow nervously.
“Seat belt. On.” I do as I say because the way he’s looking at me has me frozen with obedience, and I’m lowkey afraid, excited…yet intrigued about what his punishment will be for me.
I settle back into my seat, securing myself in. The way Danny is so possessive of me has me melting with the reminder of who I fell for.
I haven’t forgotten, but lately, he’s shown me a side of him that I always knew he had. He’s been patient, gentle, kind, but tonight?
He’s grim like the Reaper.
The dark side of him creeps back in.
He’s always been able to keep me in a chokehold with his unpredictable needs.
I’m about to be punished. I know it, and our interactions sober me up entirely. The engine roars after he climbs in and starts his truck.
We don’t say a word to each other; instead, Avenged Sevenfold music fills the dark tension between us.
I don’t ask if he’s taking me to his place or mine. I wait as the throbbing between my thighs doesn’t let up, but gets worse as he turns onto my street.
He’s taking me back to my place, and I’m wishing he took me to his instead. I need to move on. I need to run away…and yet I’m silently hoping I end up in his bed tonight, holding him until his warmth replaces the emptiness. I look out his tinted windows to see the ground covered in only an inch or two of snow. It’s not much, but it’s enough to feel like winter.
The alcohol has worn off, and I’m desperate to run into my house, away from him. I can’t give in to the temptations burning every resentful thought I hold toward him…even though I want to.
But it’s not up to me whether I want to or not… I don’t think I have a choice tonight.
Every single time I sass him, he delivers my “punishment.” My clit pulsates as I wonder how the rest of the night will unfold.
What’s he going to do this time?
He parks the truck, and we sit in silence beside the heavy metal music that plays, vibrating through the doors. It’s completely dark inside his vehicle. The only light we get is from the dashboard. I bounce my leg anxiously as I glance at the handsome man beside me. I can barely catch his profile. He’s looking straight at the woods surrounding my house, his hands relaxed. One is still at the bottom of the wheel, his fingers hooked over it and his other hand on the center console.
My heart is thrashing against my chest.
Maybe he forgot that I sassed him.
Either way, I must remind myself that I ended things. I don’t want to be with a Navy SEAL who’s always gone, even though he madly entrances me. I don’t want a lifestyle where I have to watch him come and go, dreading those same traumatic knocks on my door when my brother passed. I grab the door handle.
My porch light is on. I can see the glow in the corner of my eyes, calling for me like a safehaven from the devil next to me.
“Did I say you can leave?” he asks, low and steady.
“Excuse me?”
Then he looks at me, but there’s no emotion attached.
“You want to leave me? Fine. You want to get out of this truck? You will. But not until after you take your punishment like the bad girl you’ve been.”
I glare at him daringly.
“We’re not together,” I remind him.
He smirks villainously, gives me a thrilling smile, and flashes me his perfect teeth with sharp canines. He looks at my widened, curious eyes before he trails his gaze over my lips, then down to my breasts.
He hums.
“Ari Natalia. You will always be mine.” He clicks his seat belt open, freeing himself, and I watch his every move carefully. He pulls up the center console so there’s nothing between us anymore. There is no wall or border to stop what he’s about to do. “I’m going to punish you for thinking you could ever leave me. You drive me so fucking insane. Do you know what these past few days have been like? They’ve been worse than hell, baby.”
I stop breathing when his large hand gets closer to my throat. My teeth sink hard into my bottom lip as he grabs my cross necklace.
“For having so much faith, you sure do love to sin.”
He lets go of my cross necklace, and the cold chain drops between my collarbones at the center.
His fingers start trailing down the top of my dress. I squeeze my thighs tighter when I realize my body begins to betray me.
Then he yanks down the top of my dress hard with rough aggressive need. I gasp when my breasts pop out. I didn’t wear a bra since the dress had built-in support.
My nipples are exposed, already hardened with salacity. Every hair on my body stands up, and goosebumps erupt everywhere.
“You love to break, don’t you, Ari?” he taunts, palming one breast, and dammit, a moan escapes me when he squeezes it roughly over his calloused hands. Then he slaps my breasts hard, shaking them in response.
“What do you expect me to do when you look like that in the dress I bought you? You expect me not to touch you? Not to kiss you? Not to fuck you?”
I gulp down, closing my eyes, realizing he hasn’t forgotten my drunken, angry outburst earlier.
He hasn’t forgotten at all.
“I see your mouth is still as filthy as ever…” He grips my jaw, forcing my mouth to gape open. “Open wide, baby, because I’m about to cleanse it for you.”
With his other hand, he unhooks his belt.
He holds me like a hostage with one hand on my jaw, still holding it tight. I wince at the pain, yet the skin between my thighs is soaked.
He leans over to me, his face so close I can smell the cigarettes and whiskey on his breath. I pucker my lips through his forceful grip on my jaw, and just when I think he’s about to kiss me, he fixates himself on my tongue and spits into my mouth, then shuts my jaw tight.
“Swallow.” He growls. My eyes bulge, and I do as he tells me. Swallowing his spit, I narrow my eyes at him, pissed off. His tone is dark and sinister, just like the night on the Black Hawk. “My cock and spit will be the only things that touch this dirty mouth of yours tonight. Not my come, not my lips. I won’t even kiss you this time.”
His degradation sends me fuming with resentment, but the throbbing doesn’t let up.
I want him. I want his lips on mine.
He’s not playing fair tonight, and it’s killing me slowly.
He lets me go when his pants have dropped enough to expose his already hardened cock. He’s fucking massive. Every time I see it, it feels like the first time. Fear creeps into every single vein inside me, igniting a fiery need to taste him…and to run from the pain he’s about to inflict. My fingers curl hard at the seat, pissed off that he manages to get me flustered just by hearing his deep voice order me around.
Heavy metal music continues to blast into our ears, and I attempt to avoid getting sucked back into him like a black hole.
He’s like quicksand, and I’m daring to jump back in. And once I do, I feel like I’m giving into this lifestyle… a lifestyle I don’t think I want anymore.
“I’m not—” I want to tell him I’m not his anymore, but he cuts me off.
“Take your punishment, or I’ll force it down your throat.”
He doesn’t have to tell me twice.
Maybe it’s because I miss him…or perhaps it’s because this is part of a dark fantasy I’ve always kept hidden beneath the shell he obliterated when we first met.
Either way, biting my lip, I reach over and get closer to him, inhaling his cologne that radiates sex and rebellion. The leather and his cigarettes are a mixture I never knew went together perfectly. Even his scent alone does everything to me; my heart is throbbing with need, and my drunken fog has completely faded away. Watching Kane and Danny fight sobered me up. And now?
Now, I get to remember my last goodbye to Danny before I cut him off permanently. I hate myself for wanting to drown myself in him.
After everything we’ve been through, I hate the world.
But I want to forget my hate for the world and instead…feel.
I will treasure this moment because I’m determined to make it our last.
I want us both to feel our hatred, let it possess our spirits, and let our bodies do the talking instead.
