AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I don’t want to do it.” I flick the lighter shut, then press it to her palm. “You do.”
She does. We both know it. That fire in her soul matches the flame shimmering at the tip of her thumb. She’s definitely thinking about it.
But then she snaps it shut. “No. I’ll lose my job.”
I steady my gaze on her two employers, who are beet red with anxious fury, clustering closer and closer like they think they have any hope at all of stopping me from doing whatever the fuck I want.
But when they look at me, they realize how wrong they are. I am not a man to fuck with.
“If you lose your job,” I say, loud enough for them to hear, “they’ll lose their highest-paying client. The best way to keep my business and my money is to do what I want.”
Daphne swallows. And yet, just as earlier, her fingers don’t betray a single tremor. “What do you want?” she asks me.
That is a loaded question. Mainly because the answer has changed dramatically since I arrived at this godforsaken affair.
“I want to see you smile.”
I have no idea where that came from. But it’s true. Probably one of the truest things I’ve said all evening.
Daphne studies my face.
She sees that I’m serious.
And then she tosses the open lighter onto the painting.
The spilled alcohol helps the flames grow fast and hot. In seconds, it’s an inferno of crackling canvas and burning oil. Daphne’s face is illuminated from below, shadows shifting across the planes of her cheeks.
Then she begins to smile. It’s soft. Tentative. It’s the smile of someone who didn’t know that it could feel so good to win instead of losing again and again and again.
I don’t believe in love at first sight.
I don’t believe in love, period.
But as I stand here, watching this woman revel in the destruction of her enemies’ most valued possession, I feel a sudden euphoria.
Is this what love would feel like?
Then she turns to me, throws her arms around my neck, and pulls me in for an open-mouthed kiss nearly as fiery as her vengeance.
“Thank you,” she breathes.
Somewhere amidst the shouting and the panicking, Ewing sobs and the two dumbasses who run this shithole are screaming at Daphne to leave.
She just smiles. Absorbs the energy of the chaos.
I want her.
Now.
I grab her by the waist and haul her off to the side as the chaos unfurls on every side. “Come with me,” I murmur into her ear as the scent of ash cloaks us both. “I’ll show you something else to light your world on fire.”
4
DAPHNE
I should be mortified by what just happened.
I should be terrified I’m going to lose my job.
