Instead my nails dig into the sides of his pale, smooth throat where ink crawls up from the edge of his jacket. I feel him swallow, and I ram my hand into his Adam’s apple hard enough that he gasps, and his grip on my throat loosens just enough that I’m able to slip free of him.
“Maybe you need practice,” I sneer, with my hand massaging my own neck. I pant in the chilly air, making my abused lungs burn. “Don’t you think that’s kind of pathetic?”
“You tell me,” he replies, his voice a little hoarse. “You’re the one trying to piggyback off my work up here.” When my face falls, he snorts and steps forward, leaping on my surprise with another scoff. “What? You think I’m stupid? You didn’t pick this place for any other reason than I put my last project up here.”
His last project?
My eyes narrow, and I glance at the water like I’ll find the answers there. “You’re bluffing,” I challenge finally. “You think I’ll believe some whining, grudge holding?—”
He’s so fast that it feels unfair. I try to slip away but he tackles me to the ground, my back hitting the rocky ground hard closer to the water. The ocean roars in my ears and I shove my hands between us, trying to roll him off of me.
Preferably right off the fucking cliff.
“Get off of me!” I snarl, voice softer than I intend.
“Whiny? Nah. Grudge-holding?” Larkin stops to consider that after he slams my hands down into the ground above my head. He transfers my wrists to one hand and reaches for my neck again, though either by accident or design, his thumb finds my lower lip and he grips my jaw hard enough to make my bones ache.
“Absolutely you little fucking monster.” His words end in a snarl after I find the pad of his thumb and bite, my teeth sinking into flesh and muscle. Larkin hisses out a sound that doesn’t sound quite like pain, and he jerks down suddenly, simultaneously ripping his thumb free.
Somehow, due to some fuckup of physics or maybe it’s intentional on his part, as I surge upward to bite at him again, he inclines his headjust soour mouths slide together.
It isn’t a kiss.
It couldneverbe that.
It’s a fight of teeth, of bloody lips, of soft curses and snarls swallowed between us. It’s my teeth in his bottom lip, bitingdown until I taste blood, and him attacking my tongue until flesh parts under his canines.
I cry out at the sharpness of the pain. When I try to sit up further, Larkin snarls out a feral, predatory sound and uses his free hand to grip my throat andslamme back to the rocks.
“I’m not done with you yet, little monster,” he purrs. “You’re not getting up until I let you.IfI let you. You took my first from me.”
“Seems like you did fine without him.” I bare bloody teeth and he does the same, showing me our combined blood on his lips and teeth. “I don’t know why you’re still pissed about this—” His grip tightens and I realize he’s going to do something quickly enough to worm a leg between us. In his surprise I kick him off of me, sending him onto his side.
But instead of scrambling to my feet, I pounce, never once getting off my knees as I straddle him with my fingers wrapped around his pale, pretty throat with its spiraling ink. So much of me wants to peel away his shirt to see the designs underneath, but somehow, I hold myself back.This time.
“You underestimate me,” I taunt, pressing his chin back so he realizes just how close to the edge of the cliff he is. Panting with exertion, I grab at his hand not held by my knee, shoving it down to the rocky earth and pinning it there with my fingers tangled with his. “I took your first?I’ll take your fucking life next.”
That makes him laugh. A true, amused laugh that sends a shiver down my spine at its intent. “Oh, silly girl,” Larkin purrs. “You’re not going to take anything else from me.” Without warning he rolls his hips upward, pressing his lower body between my thighs. “But I’m going to take everything from you.”
He barely seems to notice my tightening fingers or my nails biting into his hand. He rocks his body into me, making it impossible for me to pin him further, and I’m forced to finally stumble to my feet, jerking away from him as I do.
“You can try,” I offer, finding my box cutter nearby on the ground and grabbing it. With the distance between us, I’m able to slide the blade free of its casing, holding it ready at my side. “I invite you to try. But I’m not going to end up as one of yourprojectshanging in the woods.”
I have to bite my tongue not to compliment his work or ask him my questions on who else he’s killed, or his exact body count. I refuse to seem like Iadmirehim in any way.
His chuckle makes me sneer, though he doesn’t try to follow me this time. He stands up and brushes off his dark jeans, before looking back over his shoulder at the water of the bay below. “I guess we’ll see, won’t we? But Tova?”
I stop, already half turned to make my escape back down the trail.
“I won’t make you one of my projects.” As I watch, he runs a finger along his bloody lip before sliding the digit into his mouth to lick it clean.
“I’ll do much worse than that.I promise.
Chapter
Eight
“Fuck!” I hit my hand against the steering wheel of my car and slam my head back against the headrest. Somehow, it didn’t occur to me untiltodaythat I have no idea what Larkin fucking wants.
