My mouth goes dry, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. “I haven’t…” I clear my throat. “I didn’t…”
Neo’s low chuckle sends shivers down my spine, and my stomach twists. “Sure you didn’t.”
He removes his hand from me, and I pretend I don’t still feel the searing heat of his fingers pressed against me. Nor the cold that creeps in a few seconds later as my body protests his absence.
It doesn’t mean anything. Neo’s attempts to get under my skin are working, that’s all.
That’s all it can be.
All I’ll allow it to be.
4
WYLDER
“Did you find the gift I left for you?”
I ignore Neo’s question, just as I’ve been ignoring him since I entered the kitchen. He’s sitting on the counter again, his supple legs casually kicking. He knows I hate it when he does that, which is probably why he’s up there in the first place. Kitchen counters are for food prep, not Neo’s ass. Lord knows where that thing has been or what he’s shoved into it recently.
Aside from Kyle’s cock, you mean?
My nostrils flare as I shove the porta filter into the machine with more force than necessary. Coffee is needed. Maybe that’ll help quell the fury that’s been swimming through my veins since I woke to the sight of Neo’s latest “gift.” My dagger, covered in what I hoped was chocolate sauce, stabbed through a picture of Candace.
After game night, Neo upped his antics to a new extreme. It’s like he’s taken my claim of being straight as a challenge.
A challenge to see how far he can push me before I snap.
“I’m taking your silence to mean you did see it,” he says smugly, his feet continuing to swing, his eyes twinkling. “I tried to find an uglier picture of her, but she’s annoyingly photogenic.”
Once again, I don’t bother to reply. There’s little point. It was hardly like I could miss it, given how he’d pinned it to my ceiling, right above my bed.
The act itself doesn’t bother me. If anything, I might say it’s almost amusing. What does bother me is the fact that it was my dagger he used.
The dagger I sleep with under my pillow.
The one that no one is meant to know is there.
Somehow, Neo knows. Worse, he was able to slip it free without waking me. Evidently, I slept throughout the entire stunt.
That’s what’s bothering me. Someone was in my space while I was at my most vulnerable, and I didn’t so much as stir.
It’s just Neo,my monster whispers.He won’t hurt us.
No, he won’t physically hurt us. My sanity, though? That’s apparently fair game.
The machine beeps to let me know my espresso is ready. Without so much as looking at Neo, I pick up my cup and move past him. Or, at least, I try to. Neo’s too quick for me, his foot shooting out. It catches on the side of my knee, making me freeze. “Let go.”
“No,” Neo says conversationally. “Why should I?”
I slowly turn my head. His eyes are bright with mischief, the smile on his lips driving me crazy. I want to erase it. I need to smother it somehow. To mash my mouth against his until…
My mind screeches to a halt, my breath hitching.
Where the fuck did that come from?
I shake the thought away. I don’t have time for…whatever that was.
“Because it’s rude,” I say flatly, keeping my expression clear. These errant thoughts are nothing more than that—thoughts. Ones I’ll be keeping to myself. No one can ever know I thought that.
