Page 87 of Alluring Darkness
Murder flashes in Kaden’s eyes as he stalks towards me.
“What the fuck is going on?” Eli demands, crossing his arms over his muscular chest as he watches his brother advance on me.
“I’m going to skin Raina alive,” Kaden announces in a terrifyingly casual voice as he casts a glance at Eli. “Wanna watch?”
Confusion pulses across Eli’s features, but he steps out into the hallway and raises his arm to block Kaden’s advance. “Why?”
Kaden grinds to a halt and works his jaw, his cold rage-filled eyes locked firmly on me, before he presses out, “She stole one of my knives. Again.”
Raising the blade I took from his holster when I slipped past him downstairs, I flash him a smile brimming with challenge and arch my eyebrows. “It’s not my fault that you’re so easy to pickpocket.”
Disbelief flickers in Eli’s eyes as he turns to stare at me. Then he gives his head a quick shake, as if to compose himself, before snapping his fingers and holding out a hand. I shrug and hand him the knife. Eli quickly gives it back to Kaden, who flexes his fingers on the hilt as if he is trying very hard to stop himself from gutting me with it. Which is probably the case.
“She—” Kaden begins.
“I know,” Eli interrupts. “I’ll deal with it.”
For a few seconds, it looks like Kaden is going to barge past his brother and murder me anyway. But then he just clenches his jaw and flexes his fingers on the blade again before abruptly spinning around and stalking back down the hall.
As soon as he is gone, Eli grabs me by the arm and throws me into his bedroom before slamming the door shut behind us. I stumble a few steps before managing to right myself. While shooting him an annoyed look, I unsling the duffel bag filled with clothes and toiletries and drop it on the floor.
“What was—” I begin, but he immediately cuts me off.
“You do know that Kaden kills people who touch his blades without permission, right?”
I lift my shoulders in a nonchalant shrug. “I guessed as much.”
“And still you decided that stealing one of them,again, was a good idea?”
“But it’s so much fun seeing that cold mask on his face shatter as that beast beneath it appears.” A grin lifts my lips as I wiggle my eyebrows at Eli. “Oh come on, you can’t tell me you don’t also love to rile him up.”
Light dances in his eyes. It looks like he is trying very hard not to smile or chuckle or show any sort of approval. But I can still read it in his eyes, clear as day. He’simpressedby my actions.
With what looks like great effort, he forces those emotions down and instead lets an imperial mask descend on his features as he jerks his chin towards the large desk by the wall. “Bend over and pull up your skirt.”
I snort and raise my eyebrows. “How about no?”
“We can do this the easy way or the hard way. Your choice. But for your sake, I would suggest picking the easy way.”
A wicked grin spreads across my lips. “Oh, but what would be the fun in that?”
Excitement flares up in his eyes, and a matching grin spreads across his lips as he takes a step towards me.
This is what I love about the bastard Eli Hunter. I love how he is when he’s with me. He never looks at me as if I’m crazy or unstable. He just meets me with the same chaotic and thrillingly destructive energy. I have never felt so understood by anyone as I do when I’m with him.
He lunges at me, and I leap back to avoid his right arm. But as I slip towards the other side, his left hand shoots out as if he was expecting me to go that way all along. A yelp slips past my lips as his fingers lock around my forearm. I try to yank my arm out of his grip, but he just forces my hand up behind my back before yanking me towards him. My back slams against his hard chest a second before he wraps his other hand around my throat from behind.
With an iron grip on me, he marches me over to the dark wooden desk by the wall. I try to fight him as he bends me over it, but I soon find my cheek pressed against the cool wood.
“Stay down,” he warns as he takes his hands off me. “Or this—”
The moment his hands are gone, I try to slip away.
I only make it half a step before I’m jerked to a halt by a brutal hand in my hair.
“Fucking hell,” Eli grumbles.
With his fist buried in my hair, he drags me over to one of the drawers. I stumble along while trying to bend his fingers back and force him to release my hair.