“Slap me,” I tell him, and just saying it makes me wetter. Fear erupts, smothering me from within, but the darkness is stealing more and more control from me and the fear doesn't matter. I’m so close to coming I can taste it. All he has to do is listen to me. I just need him to get over himself and hit me. I need him to hit me hard enough to knock stars into my vision and I know I will explode all over him. I will make an absolute mess on this couch, but he has to hit me, and he has to do it now.

“Alina,” Vance says.

“Slap me, Vance!” I bark, losing all control. “Fucking hit me! Hurt me! I’m about to—”

Before I can get the rest of the words out, I’m suddenly lifted up and pushed over to the side. I land on my shoulder and roll onto my back just in time to see Vance getting up from the couch, his dick still rock hard, but the look on his face is anything but turned on.

“What the hell has gotten into you?” he snips, frowning as he glares at me and places his hands on his hips.

“What the fuck?” I bellow as I realize he just threw me off of him like I was nothing.

“Choke you?” he says with a furrow in his brow so deep it looks painful. “Slap you? Hurt you? You want me to hurt you? Since when are you into that kind of shit?”

Oh shit. I knew it. I said too much. I let the darkness show itself for too long, and it scared the shit out of him.

“Vance,” I call to him, but he’s not having it. He cuts me off again, and my darkness recedes, leaving me to deal with this all on my own.

“We don’t do that type of stuff, Alina! This isn’t one of your smutty books!” he yells, pointing a finger at me like I’m a teenager being scolded by my overbearing parents. “I swear, I don’t even know who the hell you are anymore.”

I gasp as Vance bends over to pick up his clothes off the floor and storms into the bedroom, leaving me in the living room all alone, with fucking Evil Dead still blaring on the TV.

Chapter Five

Last night was a total train wreck. After having a decent time during dinner, I’m shocked by the way things ended between Vance and me. It’s exactly what I feared would happen if I let my darkness show. I tried to tame the beast by letting it out a little, but it was still too much. All I wanted to do was be more open about my needs and sexual desires, and it turned into this whole fiasco.