Free SOULLESS (Black Thorns, #2) by Franca Storm Page A

get to do that…pretend like you know me now,” she says. She pulls away from Runner and stumbles off her stool, only just managing not to fall. “You left me!” she yells, her voice echoing right through the room.
    This ain’t the time or place for this conversation.
    “Rox—”
    “And now you hate me, because I fucked a guy who turns out to be an enemy of yours…from years ago.”
    “I don’t hate you.”
    “Yes, you do! You couldn’t look at me! You’re disgusted by me.” She staggers over to me and gets in my face. “It’s okay for you to stick your dick in hundreds of whores, but if I’ve been with another man, you can’t handle it? Are you threatened? Worried he has a bigger dick than you? That he knows how to use it better than you? That he can make me come better than you can? Is that it? Some pissing contest?”
    “Babe,” I growl in warning.
    “Ax,” I hear Smiter call to me. “She’s just drunk, yeah. Don’t mean it.”
    He knows what her words are doing to me. Cuz they’d be doing the same to him and Runner. Jesus fuck.
    Before I can stop myself, I grab her arms and pin her against the bar. “There ain’t no way he’s fucked you as good as I have. You were starving for a good fuck when I came along. That’s how I know.”
    “Get off me!” she cries, tryin’ to squirm outta my grip.
    I lean into her. “You wanna know why I hate him?”
    She tries to push me off her again, but I press my body weight against her.
    “He tortured me. Sadistic, brutal, merciless shit. For days. Yeah? So now you know.”
    She’s so shocked she can’t even speak. Pain flashes in her eyes. Pain for me.
    And then she hangs her head and whispers, “I want to go to bed.”
    I step back and she hurries away in a state.
    Fuck. I can hear her sniffling and crying as she runs outta the room.
    “Her and Kent?” Smiter asks.
    “Yeah.”
    “Shit.”
    As I watch her rush off down the corridor, I pinch the bridge of my nose. “I fucked up.”
    “You think?” Runner says. “Jesus, Ax. You gotta tone down the intensity. I ain’t no relationship expert, but I don’t think it’s gonna sit well, you leaving things like that. Better go talk to her.”
    “She ain’t usually this sensitive.”
    “She’s lost,” Smiter says quietly.
    My gaze snaps to his. He’s right. That’s exactly what’s happened with her. It’s why she’s not herself.
    She’s lost.
    Problem is; how do I bring her back?

Chapter 11
    ~Ax~
     
    I push open the door to the spare room that I had one of the prospects set up for Rox. It’s dark inside. I walk over and sit down on the edge of the bed.
    “Rox? You awake?” I whisper, reaching out to her.
    She stirs as my hand strokes her back.
    “Neil?” she murmurs sleepily.
    “Yeah, babe.”
    I’m expecting the next words outta her mouth to be something along the lines of “fuck off” , so I’m more than a little surprised when she reaches out and grabs my hand. Squeezing it, she says softly, “Closer.”
    “Yeah?” I ask, not sure what’s actually happening here. If I’d spoken to her the way I had downstairs a few months back, she woulda ripped me a new one. But now…what...she’s just over it? That ain’t like her. Hell, it ain’t like no woman. They hold onto shit and Rox weren’t no exception.
    “Yes,” she says, releasing my hand and shifting onto her side, her back to me.
    She pulls back the covers and my dick jerks as I catch sight of her in nothing but a pair of black lacy panties and a matching bra, just as fucking sexy.
    I slide in next to her and pull the covers up over us.
    Instantly, she turns to face me and comes to me, burying her face in my chest. I wrap my arms ‘round her.
    It shocks me. She’s so…vulnerable.
    “Are you going to sleep in your jeans and t-shirt?” she asks, her voice muffled against my chest.
    “You want me to sleep with you?”
    “Please,” she answers, in a pleading voice.
    Goddamn. She’s really lost her spark.
    And