In Too Deep

Three

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"The Devil is real. And he's not a little red man with horns and a tail. He can be beautiful."

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Green.

His eyes were green. The brightest green she had ever seen. It spoke of nothing, but trouble. Ghost was awake, and somehow, she preferred him when he was unconscious. He was awake and everything looked intimidating. His cheekbones looked sharper, his eyes were more intimidating than his body and nothing rolled of him more than the dangerous scent that clings to him, the menace, and ruggedness.

He was like an apocalypse. Meant to terrorize. To inflict fear inside you. Cruelty was in his eyes. In the way, he was staring at her like he could snap her into half without breaking a sweat. That he could be the most terrifying monster if he wished to be. Those scary stories you tell kids to make them behave, Ghost was it.

It took him more than fifteen seconds; each breath he released was like a promise of violence. He blinked twice before he looked down at the ropes that were tied around his body, and he wiggled and struggled at first; then, he looked up.

"What the fuck?" His voice was quiet and dry. His eyes? Fuming.

Nova gulped, and she did what any prey would do in the face of a predator; she shrank back in fear. Trouble was staring at her in the face. Maybe she shouldn't have done this, maybe she should have thought about it. But she couldn't bring herself to feel regret. She told herself that he was tied up, that he could only get to her if she chose it. She would not let him intimidate her into silence.

"I said..." he dragged the words, his eyes shooting daggers at her and burning whatever skin he could find on her. "what the fuck?"

There was no easy way to deal with a man like him. Untamed. Wild. Aggressive. The best way she could handle him was by relaxing and letting him see that she didn't pose any threat to him.

"You need to calm d–"

"Un-fucking- tie me." His jaw ticked and his voice was laced with venom enough to kill an elephant. "Unless I'm speaking in an accent you don't understand, bitch, I said untie me right now before I get pissed?"

Before he got pissed off? This wasn't him pissed off?

"You can't talk to me that way," Nova choked on her words. She had never been a scaredy-cat. She was always the brave one. But she didn't feel so brave at that moment. Not while Ghost's eyes felt like a sniper aimed at her.

And really? Calling her a bitch while she had done nothing but be civilized to him. Yes, she tied him up but for a very good reason. Maybe if he stopped acting like he was freaking King Kong, she might tell him why she did what she did. What an ungrateful little ass. But there was nothing little about him.

Ghost's eyes were dead, and his expression revealed zero emotion. "Oh, I apologize to you. I didn't receive a manual on how to talk to you. Please, overlook my mistake," his mouth rolled over the words, his red, full lips more distracting than his killer expression.

And when she realized that she had been staring at his lips, her cheeks blossomed into crimson, and it hit her hard how sick it was because the man looked like he wanted to choke her and cut off her oxygen.

"You don't sound apologetic," Nova notified him, one eyebrow arching. If anything, there was nothing but sarcasm and impatience behind his apology. And a good dose of contained fury.