“Please don’t make me go back in there. The water is too hot.”

“It’s not hot anymore. I changed it back.”

“Changed?” Confusion replaced panic as I stared at him through the dim light of the hallway. What did he mean by changing it back? As soon as the question formed in my mind, the answer followed.

Not only had Keenan sought to punish me, but he had purposely made the water boiling hot to hurt me in yet another way that would cause irreparable damage. It must have been what he’d done when he messed with the handle.

“Yes, Shelly. I did it. Now come.”

“No.” I anchored myself against the wall as if it would really save me from him. Keenan was stronger and in control. How could I compete against that?

“The water isn’t hot.”

“Why should I trust you? What you did was sick.” With a careless shrug, he forced me up from the floor.

“It was necessary.”

“You have no right to be jealous of someone who doesn’t exist,” I snapped and prayed that he didn’t hear the lie in my voice.

“Jealous? I’m merely taking back what’s mine. How can I be jealous of that?”

He pushed me a little harder than necessary inside the bathroom. My attention was so fixated on the tub that I didn’t notice his silence behind me until his next words made my blood turn cold.

“You had my name removed,” he growled.

I whirled around to face him. Not only did the hatred in his voice make my spine feel as if it retreated to my body, but he was also blocking the exit.

The fire dancing within his dark irises should have made me back down, but Keenan would know the moment I did and then he would pounce.

The smile that graced my face couldn’t be stopped even if I wanted. Never mind the fact that I stood before an angry Keenan in my birthday suit. No, it wasn’t enough. I had to bait him. “Yeah. So?”

“Why?”

“I may be stuck in this hell hole with you, but that doesn’t mean I answer to you anymore.”

“Wrong, Shelly. You never stopped answering to me. That’s why you could never seal the deal with your golden boy, isn’t it?”

“You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.” He spoke as if he knew about Eric, but I knew there could be no way unless Lake told him, and I made her promise not to ever tell.

“Oh, I know plenty. I know when you’re hot and ready to fuck and, baby, you were always ready to fuck. But when you look at him, I bet there was no passion and there was no lust. I bet he has never even tasted your pretty little pussy, has he?” His hand slid up my leg slowly and softly. So softly that had I not been so in tune with his touch even four years later, I might not have noticed. “I remember how much you liked that.”

“I don’t want you to touch me.”

“Then why are your thighs quaking?”

I tried to still the trembling of my legs and fight the memory of how he would wrap them around his neck and spending what felt like hours tasting me… but all that was tarnished by the reminder of the cruel, sadistic person he had become.

“If you beg me, I’ll do it for you, right here and now. But if you don’t…”

He stopped speaking to lead me to the tub with a tight grip on my wrist.

“If I don’t?” I hated that my voice sounded breathless and my body responded to the pure unadulterated promise of sex. Knowing he wouldn’t go easy on me didn’t make me want him less. Knowing what he could and would do made me want him more.

“I’ll do it anyway. At least, if you beg, you will feel like you have a choice.”

Because I was left without a choice, I lifted and lowered my foot into the water, which was shockingly cool and served as a balm to my skin. I was more grateful that the water would hide my true reaction to his promise.

“You can do what you want to me, but I won’t be begging.”

He lowered to his knee until he was eye level with me. The heat in his dark eyes was unmistakable. “Beg now or beg later, but you will beg.” Without warning, he stole my lips but not to kiss. He clamped down on my upper lip until I cried out. When he retreated, I lifted a tentative hand to my lip just before I tasted a drop of blood.

“I think I like the taste of your blood just as much as your pussy,” he chuckled before rising to his feet to tower over me.

At the same time, I shuddered with revulsion, my tongue unconsciously flicked over my lips, curious of the taste. When I recognized the familiar copper tang of blood, I glared up at him.