“Say it,” he whispers. “Tell me they’re disgusting.”
“Well, they’re dead?—”
He tightens his hold on my neck, cutting off my words.
Now, it’s a little harder to breathe.
“Tell me, North.”
Fuck.My eyes flutter closed, and I obey him. “They’re disgusting.” A whisper, but I did what he wanted.
“Good girl.” His lips bump mine. “Now tell me you want to sleep here, Neve.”
I don’t open my eyes. I want to give into the moment. Cyn will kill me herself, but maybe not, because this gives her all night with her football player. And if Cyn is sleeping with him, even just entertaining him over night, it means something to her.
So I nod once, without thinking it through, but then when I do, the panic starts to bleed in.
“I don’t have clothes or?—”
“You can wear mine.”
“Skincare or?—”
“I have products you can try.”
At that, my eyes fly open. “What?” I wonder how many other girls he’s seduced, all over again, but he frowns at me.
“Don’t I have nice skin?” he asks, very seriously, his grip on my neck loosening again.
I laugh a little as he pulls back so I can take in his entire face. “Well, yeah, I just assumed…”
“That since I’m a hockey bro, I don’t take care of my skin?”
A giggle slips past my lips and I blush hot. “Well. Yes.”
“Jesus.” He blows out a breath. But then the small smile he had slips from his face and he’s staring at me again. “Stay tonight. Tell me aboutthem.”His eyes narrow a fraction. “We won’t sleep together. I’ll take you home in the morning.”
I try to make it a joke when I ask, “Why do you keep rejecting me before I’ve even done anything?” But it comes out kind of pathetic.
He strokes his thumb down my windpipe, then curls the fingers of his other hand against my side, digging in, like he’s trying to be nice but he can’t hide his possessiveness, either.
“I don’t want to ruin this,” he says softly. “And despite what you may have heard, I don’t sleep with just anyone.”
It’s my turn to glare now. “Are you saying I’mjust anyone?”
He rolls his eyes and it’s so cute I want to pinch him, but I keep my hands by my sides. “No.” He lets me go, all at once, and it’s enough to send me pitching back, just a little before I catch my balance. “Not at all. Not even close.”
TWENTY-FOUR
FAUST
“Jackson was at a party I went to with Cynthia.”
“Your roommate.” I say it out loud just to confirm to myself, so I remember the people in her life.
She smiles, as if I’m trying to charm her, and really, I’m not. But I like her smile, how her teeth are white but crooked, the way she seems to think giving away a smile is akin to giving away her power.
It’s like she has no idea that with me, she holds all of that.
