Page 10 of Die With Me
“I don’t know, I rather like having you at my mercy,” she lilts as she steps slowly around the chair, dragging her fingers from my mouth to my neck, over my shoulder, and down my arm to slide her palm into mine. “I used to dream about what these hands could do to me. I knew it was wrong to fantasize about the very hands that killed Adam, but that’s what made selling myself so much more bearable—imagining that you were the one touching me. Thinking about all the ways you could make me feelgood. Wondering if you’d take your time, or steal my pleasure quickly.”
Her fingers dance along the marks on my skin from the rope, the edge of her nails digging into the raw flesh. “But you never noticed me. Not then. Not when I arrived at Désirer. Not when I stood right in front of you and asked if you wanted to fuck. You didn’t even recognize the misty-eyed girl you once told had beautiful eyes.”
“I met youonce, Misty. In passing,” I growl as she digs her nails in harder.
She continues, ignoring my pain. “It’s why I picked the name Misty, you know. When you told me the sea would have been your greatest love in another life, I followed you into that next life. I watched silently—waitedpatientlyto become that great love so I could hurt you in the worst way imaginable. Just like you hurt me. I was employed at Désirer long before you even realized it. It was over a year before you finallylookedat me.”
“At Désirer I was–”
“In love with Carmela, I know.” Her tone goes flat and takes on a hint of aggravation. The sounds of her walking away and getting redressed accompany her following words. “I studied her for a long time, trying to figure out what it was about her that kept you so enraptured. Anyone could have told you howthatwould end. It was never going to beyou, yet you still worshiped the ground she walked on.”
“You sound jealous.” I know I shouldn’t irritate her further than she already is at the mention of the woman I used to be in love with—or at least thought I was in love with—but there’s something deep inside me that loves hearing the jealousy seeping into her cadence.
A carnal hunger with the need to fuel her fire.
Her stilettos on the hardwood are loud as she reappears in my vision, fully dressed and flipping the top to a lighter. “I used to be, Luca. But look at where loving her got you.” She gestures down my body with a smirk. “Now, you’re just a pathetic man. Waiting in the shadows until I take pity on you and finally end your life.”
I reel at her sudden change in demeanor. Misty’s no longer playful. No longer full of red-hot rage and desire. She’s upset, and it’s plain as day on her face. It sparks something else in my chest. Something I didn’t even know I was capable of feeling—a long-lost tenderness that tries to burrow its way out.
That wants to protect her—even if it’s me she needs protecting from.
“Misty, I?—”
“We could have been so good together. If you hadn’t murdered my broth?—”
“I didn’t murder him, Misty. He got caught in thecrossfire.” My admission has her eyes growing wide before they fill with outrage.
“Liar!” she screams so harshly that her entire body shakes. So loudly that my bones rattle in my very chest. “And if thatwerethe truth, why didn’t you come back for me?!”
I struggle with the choice that lies before me. Do I tell her I didn’t care then, but I do now? Do I say nothing? Will my silence be worse than the truth?
Will she even believe that my feelings have changed? Will she believe her monster has a heart that now beats only for her?
“Does it matter what I did or didn’t do back then when it comes to you, piccola demone? We’re together now. I didn’t murder your brother, so your revenge plan is meaningless. You’re trying to avenge someone who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I would have never given him a second glance had he not stormed in and convinced my father to give him a chance.”
Her head swings to the side, appraising the air as if someone is talking to her, but there’s no one there. “You’re lying,” she murmurs. It’s quiet, with an uptick at the end, like she’s asking a question but isn’t entirely sure she wants to.
“I’m not. I didn’t come for you that night because that moment was insignificant to me,” I tell her honestly, watching her bristle at my words. “If Iknew then what I know now, I’d have gone back for you. I’d have protected you.”
I don’t tell her that it wouldn’t be the same. That her life experiences led her here, to me, and that we wouldn’t be where we are without what happened hanging over the years it took to get here. I don’t speak about how the things she went through are what shaped her into my little demon, and that I’m not sure I could love her if she were any other way.
I tell her what she wants to hear.
“And I’d burn the fucking world down if it meant I could go back and do things differently.”
She sniffs as a lone tear trails down her cheek. Silently, she steps forward, reaching around to push the lighter into my hand. “Prove it.”
Confusion flickers across my face, but she doesn’t see it as she turns and walks away. “Misty!” I call after her retreating form.
She leaves without another word, the click of the door shutting behind her reverberating throughout my apartment as she leaves me alone to figure out how to escape this mess.
Even if I break the chair, the rope is too tight, and I’m too tall to get my hands in front of me.
Closing my eyes, I breathe deep through my nose as I flip the top of the lighter open, careful not to drop it. My teeth clench together so tightly I swear I hear a molar crack as I anticipate the pain to come.Sweat beads at my forehead, rolling down to mix with the blood smeared at my temple. The searing heat rips a cry from my throat when the flame licks my raw skin. I struggle not to scream out loud, focusing all my pain and rage on the woman who’s made my heart swell so extensively that I fear it may burst from my chest.
And I let the rope burn.
Misty