A hole the size of the damn Grand Canyon ripped open in my chest. I didn’t regret a single thing we did, but I felt a small amount of remorse for lying to her.
“I can explain everything, Av. Just give me a chance.”
She didn’t know it yet, but this would work;wecould work. I just had to show her, prove to her she couldn’t live without me any more than I could without her. I’d already imprinted myself on her body, mind, and soul. It was time to test how deep my hold on her was, to gain control of the situation before she spiraled and pushed me away.
Not that she even could.
She could try running from me, but I’d always find her, always bring her back. There was no escaping me.
My feet closed the distance with ease, stealing her chance to retreat. I put my hands on either side of her body,caging her against the wall. She looked everywhere but at me, searching for a way out, only to find none.
She was shaking when she met my eyes, looking terrified, but there was something else there, something dark, something twisted.
While she was understandably pissed, there was a depraved part of her that needed this, needed me,knewme.
I just needed to coax that part of her out and show her what we could be.
My eyes lowered to her lips, andgoddamnit,I wanted to kiss her, but I held myself back, keeping us a breath away, making her wait, noticing the way she leaned in ever so slightly. I wrenched the mask from her hand and pulled it over my face, trapping her back between me and the wall before she could bolt.
I leaned in close, her sweet smell filling my nostrils as I took a deep breath, watching her carefully for her reaction.
Her breath hitched, lips parting slightly, a silent invitation she probably wasn’t aware she was giving. She even pushed her chest forwardjust enoughfor me to notice.
She wanted this.
Maybe she didn’t know it yet, or maybe she just wasn’t ready to admit it, but her beautiful body was betraying her, andfuck me, it was captivating to witness.
I leaned down to her ear, brushing it with my mask, making her shiver.
“Let’s play a game.”
“I don’t want to play your stupid games,Rowen,” she said through clenched teeth. “I want you to leave. Go home. Go anywhere else but here.”
“You don’t mean that,” I dragged, taunting my prey, loving the way her eyes lit up with the fierce fire of emotion.
“I really do. You’re a sick fucking bastard. Does anyone else know about this? I should tell my mom how much of a freak her stepson is. Tell your dad he has a psycho son. How he pret—”
I clapped my hand over her mouth and pressed my body against hers, letting her feel how hard I was for her, howfucked upI really was. “You’re going to stop right there, sis. You’re not telling anyone a damn thing.”
Her body betrayed her again, pushing into me, needy and desperate. She pushed my hand away from her mouth.
“This is some twisted joke, right? Did you see Michael sneaking into my window and decide to play a prank? Fuck with me because you hadn’t ruined enough for me?”
“Avery…” I said with restraint, losing my patience with her denial. “IamMichael.”
Her face fell, having lost the last explanation she was holding onto, anything to explain why Icouldn’tbe the man she’d given herself to.
“No… no, no, no, no, no…” Her eyes were glistening with tears. “This isn’t funny. Stop this. Let me go. I don’t want anything to do with you now, not ever.”
I chuckled and slapped the wall beside her head, making her jump. I was so close to losing my control with her. She was putting on a show, trying to convince herself she didn’t want this, didn’t want me.
“Liar,” I teased in a dark voice, my body taut with restraint. “I bet if I reached between your legs and dragged my fingers through your cunt, they’d be soaked.”
“You're sick,” she replied, not refusing the truth I’d spoken.
“Yet your body is covered with goosebumps, and your breath catches every time I get close,” I said as I leaned toward her face, proving my point when she inhaled. “Have you even noticed the way you keep pressing back into me? Your body is mine, Av. Accept it.”
She stared back, her jaw clenching, refusing to give in to me, making me work for it. “You’re my stepbrother.”
