Page 32 of Lilies from Hell

“Fuck! Okay.” He exhales once more. “The lips, the face, the neck, the shoulder…” He pauses, looking at me with panic in his eyes as I raise the knife to his face. I cut his upper lip and toss it aside in a blink before wiping the blade with his T-shirt.

“Anywhere else?” I ask, eager to continue feeling his blood splatter on my skin. He shakes his head slowly. Blood spilled from his mouth everywhere with his sudden movements. “Have you had any kind of sexual relationship?”

“No.”

“No?” I repeat with a crooked smile. I know my little demon is too greedy for that to believe. “You expect me to believe that bullshit?”

“Please. I swear! We never went further than a few kisses.”

“Why did the relationship end? Answer,” I demand when he takes longer than usual to speak.

“She thought I had cheated on her, and we argued.” I rest the piercing against the roof of my mouth as I listen with curious eyes.

“She thought? So it wasn’t true?” The sarcasm in my voice is more than palpable. “No. I remember little. But I loved her…” I slam my fist into his face with such force that his body swings wildly in the air and his teeth come loose. Some end up in his throat, causing the jerk to choke on them.

“That’s not nice, man,” Denis blurts out as if the words personally offended him.

I free him from his chains and climb on top of him. He’s barely breathing, but I don’t care as I unleash my rage on him. The last thing he said was the last straw. I don’t stop until he closes his eyes, almost unconscious.

“Now go home and thank your daddy for being alive,” I whisper close to his ear.

I will sure as hell take advantage of every perk that comes with negotiating with the mayor of the city. Until I tire of his fucking son buzzing around her like a stinking fly.

Ty ochen’ krasivaya¹: you are very beautiful.

Kak ya lyublyu tvoyu krov’²: how I adore your blood.

13

Something cold touches my nose. I shift my head aside, wishing to shake off that sensation, but the odor of tobacco causes me to abandon my intentions, and I tuck myself beneath the covers. I let his scent envelop me and make me call his name with a silent whisper. The smell becomes more intense and that coldness returns to my nose, this time with a slight sting, causing me to open my eyes.

“Alek…” I murmur as I find his face lit by the faint moonlight coming through the window, illuminating the raindrops on the glass. I think it’s all just another stupid dream, but when I try to sit up in bed, my wrists seem to be trapped and that option is out of the question.

I lift my head to see what is keeping me trapped to the headboard. It’s chains.

“Hello,” he says in an amused tone that is far from reaching his eyes. “You called me…” His lips curve into a chilling smile just as the sky rumbles with new flashes of lightning. That feeling I know all too well takes hold of my stomach, making me forget the situation completely.

The sheet lies on the floor, but instead of feeling discomfort, my legs tremble with desire. My fingers burn to touch him, but I know full well that he won’t let me do it.

“And here I am.” His hoarse voice is another reflection of his anger, and I think I know why he's that pissed.

His eyes move to something shiny between the sheets. Mine follow the movement with a heat rising to my cheeks. That’s when I notice the blade of the knife he had used to caress the bridge of my nose.

I don’t move. I don’t even blink. My head is too busy filling with images of how he could use his weapon to realize the gravity of the situation. Fuck. I think all these years of wanting him in my bed have made me more depraved.

“We have a pending conversation.”

“You wanna talk again? Like this?” I point to the chains with my head.

“If you run away from a simple kiss, I can’t imagine what you’ll do when I do worse things.” The desire I’ve been trying to hide finally comes to light, reflected in the rapid movements of my chest as I breathe.

“What things…?” My hesitation hangs in the air.

“What the hell were you doing kissing that jerk at the mall?”

“Have you been following me?” I whisper in a thin voice. My cheeks flush slightly when his silence and hardened features confirm it, and my lips immediately tremble with a smile that shouldn’t be there.

“I’m the one asking the questions here, and I’m getting impatient.”