Chapter 363/Certified Psychopath

Chapter 363:

Jake’s POV

My entire frame locked up like stone, and the blood instantly curdled in my veins the exact goddamn second the cold, lethal edge of that sharp metal blade pressed against the warm skin of my neck. I stayed pinned to the spot, my nerves completely frayed and pulled tight, forcing myself not to make a single sudden movement that might push her frantic hand into doing something incredibly stupid.

Holding my breath, I kept my voice flat, wrapping it in a thick layer of biting mockery to mask the intense spike of tension shooting through my chest. "Well, look at you, Julie... did you fall in love with playing the villain this quickly? The blade seems to suit you."

I could feel her shallow, burning breaths teasing the curve of my neck and my earlobe, her voice dropping into a stubborn, unyielding density that completely melted the chill in the air. "I’m absolutely loving the show. And honestly, it feels incredibly powerful to witness the edge of a knife resting against your throat while you sit there in total submission and weakness, Jake."

I twisted my mouth into a cold, arrogant smirk, channeling the absolute confidence of a predator as I answered in a low, dangerous baritone, "But your massive ego made you forget one highly critical, fatal fact, sweetheart... I’m not tied down right now. I’m completely free."

She leaned in even closer, her whisper dripping with blatant defiance and an underlying threat. "And what the hell are you going to do about it just because you’re free? Do you actually dare to move against me?"

I extended my massive hand with excruciating slowness, calculating my movements with quiet tactics.

Then, with a sudden, definitive lurch, my grip clamped down with crushing force over her slender hand where it held the handle of the knife.

"Enough playing around with sharp objects, girl," I growled, the raspy tone tearing straight from the depths of my chest. "Because at the end of the day, it’s only going to slice you open. It won’t have a single shred of mercy for that soft skin of yours."

A short, sharp, and highly provoking laugh escaped her lips, her pride swelling through the small space.

"You’re the only one who’s going to get cut by blades around here tonight, not me." She slowly and deliberately dragged the metal edge away from my skin, her green eyes remaining locked onto mine with absolute finality. "Every single time you lie straight to my face instead of giving me the absolute truth... this is exactly what I’m going to do to you. I’ll make you taste what it feels like to die."

In a fraction of a second with a velocity that completely bypassed the human eye I spun my entire frame around like lightning. My hand aggressively clamped onto her slender arm, pulling her toward me with a sudden, violent force that dragged her straight onto my lap.

Her pupils instantly dilated with sheer shock and bewilderment as my iron grip locked tightly around her waist, completely paralyzing her movements.

"I really had no idea," I hissed in a low, predatory murmur, a deep, buried hunger bleeding into my words, "that you loved playing with knives and throwing out lethal threats with such a highly intoxicating passion."

She carelessly tossed the metal knife onto the wooden table, the blade hitting the surface with a dry, heavy clatter. Despite being completely trapped between my thighs, she shot me a defiant, fearless look. "I discovered this highly entertaining, bloody side of myself entirely because of you. You’re the one who woke up my inner monster."

I ran a slow, scrutinizing gaze over the sharp lines of her face and her enticing features, letting out a mocking scoff just to twist her wire. "Does your dear older brother Steve actually know that his little sister is a certified, borderline sadistic psycho who belongs in a goddamn asylum?"

She curled her cherry lips with a stone-cold indifference that completely shattered the tension of the moment. "Honestly, I don’t know. He probably sees my unhinged behavior with his own two eyes, but he simply prefers to keep them closed. He doesn’t want to face the reality of it."

I lifted my broad hand toward the silky strands of her rich brown hair as it cascaded loosely over her shoulders. I began to slowly wind the soft locks around my fingers, a strange, quiet focus consuming me as I murmured, "Your hair is absolutely stunning, Julie... it’s so infuriatingly soft it drives my mind into absolute madness."

Instead of flinching away, she leaned her torso back against my chest with total feminine confidence. "I’m well aware of that. I don’t need your pathetic, useless flattery to tell me."

I leaned my face closer to hers until our burning breaths violently collided in the narrow space, my tone dropping into a rough, heavily laced threat. "What do you think would happen if I grabbed that knife right now and hacked it all off straight from the roots? Wouldn’t that be a spectacular piece of revenge? A perfectly fitting punishment for your filthy mouth?"

She fixed her green eyes deep into mine, refusing to show even a micro-expression of fear or hesitation. "Maybe you need this long hair of mine..." she breathed, her voice dropping into a shallow whisper that shook my very core, "...a hell of a lot more than I do, Jake."

An unbidden smirk widened across my face, a strange, electric spark violently jolting through my chest. "You always have a sharp, poisonous comeback ready to go," I murmured, a hidden trace of admiration flashing through my eyes. "You never shut the hell up, do you?"

"It brings me absolute joy to keep you guessing and slam your jaw shut," she answered, a distinct vanity painting her features.

I firmly pressed my large palm against her lower back, aggressively hauling her slender frame even tighter against my bare chest until there wasn’t a single millimeter of space left between us. I could feel the rapid, frantic thudding of her pulse against my ribs. Bringing my lips so close to hers that the air between us completely vanished, I whispered with an intense, tangled mixture of pure malice and heavy lust, "I hate you... I hate you so fucking much you can’t even begin to comprehend the depth of it."

In a chaotic, sudden blur, her hands shot out, firmly clamping around my jawline to pin my face in place. Before my brain could even process the movement, her warm lips violently collided with mine for a fraction of a second with a scalding, scorching intensity that threatened to melt my composure. But before I could even recover from the sheer shock of the kiss or attempt to push back, she aggressively yanked my face to the side and hissed with that exact same deep-seated malice, "And I hate you a hell of a lot more!"