Chapter 28

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Ellery

“You’ll stay away from him,” Ryker stated.

“No, I won’t. You don’t get to dictate who my friends are. My father didn’t do that, and an ex-lover definitely won’t.”

“Not an ex.”

I pulled my finger out of his chest and crossed my arms. “You could have fooled me. Half the time you can barely stand to be around me. Why would I want to be with you?”

“Because you love me, or at least that’s what you claimed.”

I glared at him. He didn’t get to use my words or emotions against me. “Just because I love you doesn’t mean I’m going to sit around and let you use me and toss me aside over and over again. And you don’t get to dictate who I’m with while you’re out there screwing every woman who will spread her legs for you. If I want to talk to Callan, I will. If I want to fuck Callan, I will. You will not tell me what I can and can’t do.”

Something snapped in him as lightning spread across his entire eye to encompass it as bolts danced higher. I felt the storm in him building to impossible levels that could consume us.

But I would not back down from him. “You better get yourself under control before someone finds us in here.”

He bared his teeth at me. “You think you can tell me what to do?”

“I’m trying to keep myself and my mother alive. If that doesn’t concern you, then keep acting like an asshole.”

A muscle twitched in his jaw, but he reined in his lightning, and some of it eased from his eyes. “If he touches you again, I’ll kill him.”

“You’ll do no such thing.”

“You’re not going to be with another man.”

The idea of having sex with anyone else repulsed me, but I’d never let him know that. “I’ll do whatever I want and be with whoever I want.”

“Ellery….”

The low rumble of his voice caused the hair on my nape to rise as lightning filled his eyes again. He wouldn’t hurt me, but I felt his control slipping, and nothing good could come of that.

“Get out of my way, Ryker.”

“If he touches you again, I’ll tear off his hands and shove them down his throat. If you care for him, you’ll tell him to keep his hands to himself.”

“Get. Out. Of. My. Way.”

We glared at each other. When he went to grasp my arm, I pushed his hand away.

“No!” I said sharply. “You don’t get to touch me either.”

He stepped closer as he tried to use his size to dominate me, but I refused to back away. Standing chest to chest in the small four-by-four space, neither of us gave an inch.

His small bands of lightning crackled against my skin. Unlike what it would do to others, it didn’t harm me. My body ached to claim some of it for myself, but I suppressed my desire to do so.

When our lightning-bearer powers combined, they became a destructive force that could level everything around us as they drew us together. I recalled the last time it happened and the mindless sex that followed; I couldn’t let it happen again.

“Stay away from him, Ellery.”

“No. You don’t get to dictate my life. He’s my friend, and you’re not going to change that.”

“Don’t push me on this.”

Instead of responding to his bullshit anymore, I lowered my shoulder to push past him. Before I could escape, he grasped my wrist, halting me.

For a second, lightning shot across my fingertips. I had no idea if I’d drawn it from him or somehow managed to dredge it up from the earth and through the stone, but I quickly buried it. If we both lost control, it would be a disaster.

“Let. Me. Go,” I snarled.

“Or what? What are you going to do?”

Maybe if I wasn’t so irate over his high-handed, ogrish behavior, I wouldn’t have reacted like I did, but something inside me broke over his taunt. I was so tired of everyone and everything. So tired of having no control over my life and of everyone trying to take something from me.

I’d lost my father, my sense of safety, and so many precious things in my life. I wasn’t going to lose what little freedom I had left. And I certainly wasn’t going to let Ryker take it from me.

Without thinking, I spun into him, lifted my knee, and smashed it into his balls. Unprepared for the attack, Ryker didn’t have a chance to protect himself.

His breath exploded out of him as he released my wrist and bent over to grasp his nuts. Straightening my shoulders, I smoothed the front of my dress and lifted my chin as I prepared to rejoin the party.

I pulled back a piece of tapestry and checked to make sure no one was watching before I glanced back at where Ryker remained bent over in the shadows. His eyes still fired with lightning, but I’d knocked the rest of it out of him.

“ Everyone is determined to take something from me; I won’t let you do it too.”

With those final words, I slipped out of the hidden space and glided away. As I walked, the music shifted into something more upbeat as the dancers swung around the floor.