He was so out of it last night. My skin breaks out in goose bumps just thinking about what would have happened if I hadn’t arrived in time. Was he really trying to kill himself? Whether he was or wasn’t, I fear gravity would have done the rest of the work for him. What the hell did he mean when he saidwhat she did to me?
His body is so warm and comfortable, and it feels so right to have him here. I’m not sure how long I slept, but I know it was more than I did since… since goddamn Hadrian was drugging me. I graze his knuckles with the pad of my thumb and breathe in his scent. This is so fucking comfortable it’s unfair.
“You’re real,” he says, his voice heavy with sleep, making me smile. I turn in his arms and face him.
“As much as I enjoyed being called Fantasy Sable, I’m afraid I’m real.”
His eyes trace my features, and I see fear stamped there. Not many people are scared of me. I feel very powerful for a minute, but it all falls apart when his hands shake while holding me.
“What did she do, Soren?” I ask a question he once told me I wouldn’t believe the answer to, but I’m ready now. My voice is low and soft, as if I don’t want to spook a wild animal. Soren’s eyes close, and his whole body hardens.
“There’s nothing to say,” he lies, trying all of a sudden to avoid looking at me. He tries to put space between us, but I don’t let him. When he rolls away, I go with him, straddling his body.
“I knew something was going on. You were trying too hard to keep me away,” I say from above him. I grab his wrists, and he’s strong enough to fight me off if he really wanted, but he doesn’t.
“Let me go,” he says instead. “I promised to stay away from you.”
I laugh, settling over his hard cock and feeling my pussy light up in response. “Change of plans. You stay where you are and tell me what really happened.”
“You deserve better than hearing my excuses,” he grits out.
“I agree. No excuses, just tell me what happened that day. You texted Arabella? You went over to hook up? You?—”
He explodes. His hands grip my waist, and he flips us both over, shoving me into the mattress and getting the upper hand on me in an instant. If I thought I was wet a moment ago, that was nothing. Shallow breaths move his chest too fast. His eyes are too bright, wild with some pain I can’t understand if he won’t fucking tell me. “I didn’t doanyof that.”
He pushes off me, immediately rising from the bed and patting down his pockets. One hand sinks into his thick dark hair as if he’s ready to pull it all out, and the other grabs a pill bottle from his pocket. He pops it open quickly and drops a few into hishand. Before he can swallow the three pills he has in his palm, I spring into action and slap them away.
“That’s why you were fucking high last night?”
“What the fuck?” He kneels in desperation, eyes scanning the floor for the pills. I step on one, forcing him to raise his head and look at me.
“Forget the pills and start talking.”
His hands ball into a fist, and he stands up at his full height, angrily eyeing me. He’s much taller and stronger than I am, yet I don’t step away from the stare down. I want answers, and I want them now.
“What difference does it make if I tell you she drugged me, Sable?”
I suck in a breath, but I don’t dare to make a face. I barely move as I ask. “Did she rape you?”
The word triggers him. He shakes and doesn’t answer right away, but I know better than to think silence is a negative answer. He simply can’t say it. I step forward. My chest brushes against his, but I don’t touch him otherwise.
“That bitch drugged you and raped you, and you think it doesn’t make any difference to me?” I ask, a new type of pain I’ve never experienced ripping me open. Fuck, this is worse than thinking he ran back to her.
His nostrils flare, and his jaw sets. “You saw what happened. The whole school did.”
“What?” I ask. I know what he means about what I saw. I literally saw the assault happening and didn’t know how to stop it. “What do you mean the whole school?” I insist, tears made of pain and hatred gathering on my lashes.
Soren lets out a groan and steps away from me, heels of his palms pushing against his eyes. He knows better than to think I’m going to just step away and not ask questions. If Nina was right about anything, it was this. I have never asked enoughquestions about the guys or Bellthorn. No. The season of me being quiet, complacent, and asking too few questions is over.
“Soren? You need to tell me what you mean.” My tone is firm, nearly the same one I’ve used on the other guys when practicing my new dominant role with them. In exactly the same way, Soren responds to it immediately.
“The whole school got a video of it.” His admission is tinged with pain, and I have to work to modulate my own rage. I’m not trying to make anything worse for him, but it’s hard to breathe. I’m so angry.I could have stopped it, and I ran away.
“She recorded her own crime?” My eyebrows rise.
“The angle… it was someone else. Maybe a tripod, I guess, but the camera zooms at different points. I think someone was operating it.”
“She’s working with someone. That’s obvious from the fact she got herself assigned as the Offering.” Too many things have been going her way lately, and I’m going to personally put a stop to her winning streak.
