Page 52 of Crucible
The food in my mouth suddenly turns to ash. Across the kitchen, Khalil goes still. The hand he was using to reach for the coffee pot is suspended in the air, and then, as if the slip hadn’t occurred, his fingers wrap around the handle. Blink, and you’d miss it.
Fortunately, my eyes are wide open.
I don’t set down my fork when I turn in my chair to face him. Instead, I hold it like a weapon. “How did you know my last name?”
A soft curse spills from his lips a moment before he calmly lies. “You told us.”
I so did fuckingnot. I shake my head as Khalil pours the black liquid into a tin cup. “No, I didn’t.”
“Yes. You did. You reminded us who you were like a thousand fucking times.”My lips part to argue when he cuts me off. “Eat, Aurelia.”
Khalil’s tone is cold and stern, but what little appetite I had is ash in the wind, so I push the awful food away and say, “No thanks.”
“Suit yourself, but it’s the last free meal you’re getting from us,” he says calmly.
It hits its mark and pisses me off. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means that you’ve used up a lot of resources and racked up quite a tab while you were getting your beauty sleep, Aurelia. It means that you owe us, and healed or not, we plan to collect.”
Lightning flashes down my spine, settling in my lower belly and heating my pussy at the promise of further degradation. But on its heels, racing down that same channel, is the ire that’s been hanging over our heads like a dark cloud, and I explode. My voice is a sharp, thunderous clap as I yell, “Are you fucking kidding me?” Spitefully, I spit out the food he laid for me like a trap and wipe my mouth with the back of my hand. “You won’tlet me leave, and then you tell me I owe you for staying? Just let me go!”
His jaw tightens at that, and then he snatches up the coffee cup and comes at me. I brace myself for his wrath, his fury, but all he does is grab the back of my chair with one hand. The wood underneath his palm groans as he sets the cup down on the table hard enough to make me jump. “No.”
My mouth falls open, and it draws his attention to my lips.
Khalil stares at them for so long that my heart tries to wring free the forbidden want like a dirty wet rag in my chest.
I lick my lips, and it feels like it’s on purpose. It feels like I’m daring him to kiss me.
Khalil’s pupils dilate, and he leans a little closer.
He’s going to kiss me.
Oh, God. Please don’t kiss me.
I don’t think my tenuous alliance with my own sanity can handle that right now. Khalil kissed me that night in the den, but a part of me craves to know what it will be like when it’s for any other reason than to hurt me. Khalil seems like he’d be in a league of his own.
They all do.
I don’t want him to kiss me.
I don’twantto want it.
My thoughts boil over, and I make a sound that seems to snap him out of it. He shoves away from me with a similar sound of disgust, though his voice is rougher, and I feel it vibrate all the way down to my…
No.
This is bad.
It’swrong.
Wanting to kiss him feels like a worse violation than Khalil forcing me to.
“If you’re finished, let’s go,” he orders sharply.
“Where?” I haven’t quite caught my breath from the kiss that didn’t happen, so I’m panting and holding my chest.
Instead of answering, he gives me a look. I roll my eyes as I stand to follow him like his eager new puppy that he’s house training.
