“Where’s Ayaz?” I asked, noticing he was no longer in the doorway.
“He has to get something,” Trey muttered. He moved around the kitchen, slamming cupboards and banging crockery on the counter. Each clatter sent a shuddering headache through my temple.
I hurled my body up again and leaned over the counter. “What the fuck crawled up your ass and died?” I demanded. “Among other things, tonight I found out you’re undead and you and your secret club have been torturing me so you can sacrifice me to ademon. When I wrap my head around it fully, I’m going to unleash a serious amount of pain on your ass, and you’ll deserve every bit of it.”
Trey slammed one of his uber-fancy ready-to-eat meals on the counter. He shoved a bowl across at me so hard I had to lunge at it to stop it from careening over the edge and smashing on the tiles.
“Dish yourself some of that,” he barked. “You need strength.”
“Don’t order me around,” I shot back. “I don’t need food. I need answers and I’m still waiting. What’s got your goat?”
Trey popped the top off a bottle of beer with such force it dented the ceiling. “You shouldn’t have made that deal.”
“What’s it matter to you? You’re already dead. You’ve got nothing to lose. It’s me whose life is on the line here. Me and my friends.”
“Exactly,” Trey growled. He emptied half the container into the bowl and shoved it into the microwave, slamming the door so hard the machine slid a few inches across the counter.
“No. Not exactly. My life, my deal. I thought you’d be happy, since feeding me to this demon was exactly what you were trying to do in the first place. And why do you have all this food and drink, anyway? If you’re dead, you don’t need to eat.”
Trey grunted in reply. The microwave beeped. He didn’t even bother sliding on an oven mitt, just picked up the steaming bowl and slammed it on the counter. I touched the rim, then jerked my finger away. Piping hot.How are his hands not in agony right now?
Because he’s dead,duh.
But that also didn’t make any sense. Quinn was dead too, and he’d howled with pain when Trey threw the itching powder into his eyes. And Quinn’s eye had swollen from where his dad had hit him. So why…
No, I can’t think about all this now. I need to sleep. And eat.Spicy meat smells wafted from the bowl.Damn, that looks good.
“Fine, whatever.” I picked up the spoon and used it to hook the edge of the bowl and bring it closer. “Don’t answer me. But don’t expect things to be the same anymore. You’ve made it clear that you hate me and Greg and Andre, but—”
“Is that what you think?” In a second, Trey swung around the island and leaned over the chair. His muscled legs pressed up against the inside of my thighs. A fire curled in my core. Those ice eyes stared me down, challenging me. The tension between us sung with a rumbling note, like the string over a violin pulled taut.
Fuck you, Trey Bloomberg. You don’t intimidate me.
I planted my hand on his chest, shoving him away. Fire rushed up my arm, spreading across my chest, warming my whole core. Just touching Trey made heat burn in all the dark and dangerous places inside me.
Trey’s eyes smoldered. He slid back between my legs, reaching up with a cruel finger to pull at my bottom lip. My breath hitched as my heart raced ahead. I no longer wanted to shove him away. My fingers curled into my palm, nails digging into my flesh. The scar on my wrist buzzed with fire.
Trey pressed his finger into my bottom lip. “I’ve been taught to hate everything you are and everything you stand for. But I can’t get you out of my fucking head.”
He closed the distance between us in a moment. Our mouths crashed together as a wave of heat engulfed my body.
Trey’s kiss sizzled with all the same desperation of our last one – a restless need that he’d stamped down and buttoned up and hidden deep within his heart of stone. He wrapped his arm around my waist, pushing me hard against him. His body was the only thing preventing me from melting into a puddle on the floor.
The fire inside me roared to life. Trey’s hardness ground against my inner thigh and a moan escaped my lips.I shouldn’t be kissing this guy. He tormented me. He wanted to sacrifice me to a demon.And yet I couldn’t tear my lips from his. I knew there was so much more going on inside Trey’s head than what he was showing to Ms. West. With his lips and tongue he gave me the tiniest taste of it, and I was ready to fall into him and lose myself.
The door slammed. I jumped so high that the chair toppled backward. Trey leaned over to steady it, smashing his forehead against mine.
“Ow!”
“Fuck!” Trey growled.
“Did I interrupt something?” Ayaz dumped a battered box on the counter. “I found it. You’re lucky – the ink is still in good condition.”
Trey backed around the other side of the counter. Probably for the best. I think even if there was an entire football field between us, this tension would still sizzle, trying to draw us together.
Ayaz unpacked the contents of the box onto the counter, handing Trey a cable from a power unit to plug in. Surprised, I picked up the tattoo machine and a packet of needles still in their packets. Flashes of memories I didn’t want to face tugged at my battered mind.
“Why do you have a tattoo machine?” I demanded.
