Twisted Hate (Twisted, #3)

by Ana Huang

To everyone who’s ever felt like they weren’t enough.

Bed. Singular. As in, there was only one. And I had to share it with Jules Ambrose. Kill me now.

It’s just the mountain air. Get yourself together. “Jules,” he said softly. “Yeah?” The word stuck in my throat before it came out all wrong. Weird and raspy and not at all like my normal voice. “On a scale of one to ten, how badly do you want to fuck me right now?”

“You want someone who can challenge you. Excite you. Keep you on your toes. And as for what you need…” His whiskey-scented breath gusted across my skin, peppering it with a thousand goosebumps. “You need someone to bend you over and fuck that attitude right out of you.”

He had some nerve, approaching me like that. Then again, men possessed nothing if not audacity.

“I don’t need to wish, Red.” His voice turned dark. Smoky. It slithered past my defenses and kindled a heat in my lower belly that had both nothing and everything to do with my anger. “I could fuck your brains out right now. Make you take back every word you said and have you begging for more by the end of it.”

“You know what they say about men who talk a big game.” Anticipation climbed up my spine at the danger swirling in the air. We were one step away from crossing a line we couldn’t come back from, and I was riding high enough I didn’t care. “They’re overcompensating for the smallest packages.” A smile slashed across Josh’s face, vicious enough it introduced a seed of trepidation. “Oh, Red. You’re about to find out just how untrue that is,” he said softly.

And my world as I knew it shattered into a million pieces.

“Get on your hands and knees.” My skin pebbled with goosebumps at Josh’s rough command, but instead of obeying, I lifted my chin in defiance. “Make me.”

“Beg for it, Red.” He curled his finger and hit my most sensitive spot, eliciting another moan, before he slowly dragged it out and shoved it back in. His breathing harshened. “Beg me to fuck you. To make you come all over my cock like you so desperately crave.” “You wish.” My nails dug into my palms. “My vibrator does a better job than you. On its lowest speed.”

Josh’s body could serve as the mold for a Greek god statue. Broad shoulders, perfectly carved abs, sculpted arms…and a long, thick cock that looked like it could wreck me with little effort.

“One of these days,” he said. “That mouth of yours is going to get you into trouble.”

“What was that?” Josh’s breath grazed my cheek. “You always have so much to say. Where are your words now, hmm?” “Go. To. Hell,” I panted.

“You’re my personal hell, Red.” He gave my hair another sharp tug. “And God help me, I don’t want to fucking leave.”

“You feel so fucking good,” he growled. “You love my cock wrecking that tight little pussy, don’t you?”

Jules had unlocked a darker version of me than I thought myself capable of, and now that it was out, I wasn’t sure I could ever put it back in. It should’ve been terrifying, but it was liberating. The greatest high I’d ever experienced.

“You’re lucky I didn’t bite your dick off.” “But then you wouldn’t have been able to come so hard around it. Multiple times,” I said silkily. “That would’ve been a damn shame. Your screams are so sweet.” I smiled at her snarl.

“You trying to provoke me, Red?” His dark warning snaked through me.

“You were enjoying your punishment a little too much, Red. We can’t have that.”

“You look so beautiful like this.” His gentle voice was at complete odds with the feral way he’d fucked me, but it settled over my skin like a warm blanket.

“For someone who claims to hate me so much, you sure scream a lot for me.” I lifted my head and rubbed my thumb over her blossoming hickey with satisfaction. The primal, territorial part of me loved that I’d marked her. I wanted to shove it in her old friend’s face and declare her off-limits unless he wanted a highly unpleasant meeting with my fist.

“I’m not done yet, Red.” I gave her clit another languorous lick. “You don’t want to interrupt a man before he’s finished eating, do you?”

“You liked my mouth just fine in the library.” Josh’s silky response sent flames licking over my skin. “It was okay.” I sucked in a gasp when he tugged me to his side, his whisper a dark warning in my ear. “Don’t provoke me, Red, or I’ll spread you out on the picnic table and tongue fuck you until you have to fucking crawl home because your legs don’t work anymore.”

She pressed her face against my shoulder, her body shaking with her silent release. “Good girl,” I whispered. “Keep those screams in, Red. I’m the only person who gets to hear how much you love my cock in that tight little cunt.”

When I’m not with her, I wish she were there. When I am with her, I want that moment to last forever.

Jules lifted her chin, but I detected a tiny tremble in her voice. “It means we should date other people. Our arrangement is non-exclusive. It’s time we take advantage of that clause.” A dark, ugly beast reared its head and snarled in my chest. “The fuck we will.”

“What are you so afraid of, Red?” My breath ghosted across her skin.

“Because you’re mine,” I said against her mouth. “Let another man touch you, Jules, and you’ll find out just how easily I can take a man’s life as I can save one.”

What are you so afraid of, Red? Everything. I’d always been the good-time girl, the one who stuck to casual flings and pushed guys away before they got too close. Scared that if they looked too closely, they would see the real me, and the real me wouldn’t be enough. It hadn’t been enough for my mom

Before, Jules was beautiful in the way grass was green and oceans were deep. It was a fact of life, but not something that particularly touched me. Now, she was beautiful in a way that made me want to drown in her, to let her fill every inch of my soul until she fucking consumed me. It didn’t matter if it killed me, because in a world where I was surrounded by death, she was the only thing that made me feel alive.

“You’re insufferable.” “So you keep saying, yet you missed me and you’re on a date with me. What does that say about you?” “That I’m a glutton for a beautiful punishment.”

“I appreciate all you did for me as a kid.” My hands formed white-knuckled fists under the table. “But being a parent is about more than providing basic necessities. It’s about trust and love.

I would’ve given you anything you wanted.

I don’t give a flying fuck. I don’t share. Not when it comes to you.

“I don’t know what you did to me, Red. But somehow, I went from wanting to kill you…to willing to kill for you.”

“There’s no letting you go, Red. It would be easier if you asked me to tear my heart out with my own fucking hands.”

“Because you’re it for me. Whether it’s today, tomorrow, a year, or decades from now, that’ll never change.” Josh’s lips brushed against my skin before he pulled back, his face taut with emotion. “I’m human, Red. I’ve made mistakes in the past, and I’ll make many more in the future. But one mistake I’ll never make is letting you go, not when there’s even a sliver of a chance left for us. Because the possibility of you is better than the reality of anyone else.” Saltiness trickled down my cheeks. “So, like I said…” Josh brushed away my tear. “I’ll wait. For as long as it takes.”

“Are you stalking me, Josh Chen?” “Are you trying to forget me, Jules Ambrose?” I gulped at his dark tone. “Because if you are…” Josh took another step toward me. “It’s not going to work.”

“My heart. My soul. My dignity. What do you want me to do, Jules?” His voice splintered into something jagged and painful. “Do you want me to fucking beg? Say the word, and I’ll be on my knees.”

I was terrified—of being hurt, of not being enough, and of actually being loved when I didn’t deserve it.

After a lifetime of being unwanted, I had no clue how to handle someone who wasn’t willing to walk away.

“You’re the only thing that could make me happy forever.” I choked out a half laugh, half sob. “Careful, Chen. Keep saying things like that, and I might never let you go,” I said, mirroring his words from our first date.

“In case it’s not clear, I fucking love you, Jules Ambrose, even when you drive me crazy. Especially when you drive me crazy.”