My phone dings with an email notification.
Guy at the reception desk is a huge fan. Don’t make me take advantage of that.
Fucker.
Sighing, I trudge down the short hallway to the door and take a moment to pause before it. My heart is pounding harder than it ever has, but I refuse to set it free. If I have to stay here and face a very angry beast of a man, then so do all my goddamn organs.
I attempt to inhale but fail miserably when my chest tightens, and it whooshes back out of me in a shuddery wheeze.
He knocks again, slow and ominous. I’m not proud of the tiny whimper that escapes my throat.
Before I lose any more courage, I unlock the door and swing it open, a sour look on my face.
He’s casually leaning against the doorjamb, arms crossed, head down as he looks at his phone. He wears a black snapback hat backward, a few strands creeping out on the sides, curling around his temple.
When he lifts his stare to meet mine,waymore of his face is visible than I’m used to, and I forget the entire concept of linguistics. The butterflies in my stomach take flight, wanting out of his vicinity just as desperately while I try to recall a singular letter in the alphabet. Even if I do, I don’t know where the fuck to begin pronouncing it. And phonetics? Never heard of her.
He keeps his expression carefully blank as he drags his eyes down my form and then slowly back up again. By the time they return to my face, flames melt the ice within them and subsequently light me on fire.
I’m fucking burning up inside.
He’spissed.
Probably turned on, too.
And that’s already proven to be a really fucking dangerous combo.
I work to swallow and silently step back to let him pass. The gears in my brain turn at a breakneck speed, calculating the velocity with which I can move my body out of this fucking door and the probability of itbeing faster than him.
Ultimately, my hypothesis isnot a fucking chance, so I keep my feet glued.
His bottom lip curls between his teeth, and he keeps his gaze locked on me until he can’t anymore as he passes, an intense, suffocating, soul-sucking energy radiating from him. It’s so visceral, it might as well be a goddamn demonic entity of its own, possessing his body as needed.
I watch him emerge into the main room, my gaze frozen on the backpack casually hanging on his shoulder.
Yeah… See, I don’t like that shit. Because what the fuck does he need a backpack for? He’s not staying the fucking night, and he’d sooner drag me back to his dorm anyway.
Fuck.
Heart in my throat, I close the door behind him, pausing there for a moment while I try—and epically fail—at gathering my wits.
I kind of want to cry, but instead, I force myself to spin on my toes and slowly walk into the main room, kicking up my heels sheepishly and suctioning air through my pursed lips, feeling very much like a kid in trouble.
Not that I’ve done anything wrong. I don’t owe him a single goddamn thing.
But I have to tread lightly, because whether I like it or not, there’s only one apex predator in this room, and it’s unfortunately not me.
He stands on the left side of the bed, closest to the wall, the backpack on the mattress in front of him. He’s staring at me intently, his lips parted as he rolls his tongue along his inner cheek, as if he’s trying to decide what to do with me.
I’ve been in a lot of tense situations with Dread, but this is different. It’s charged, like the room is full of methane, and one flick of a lighter, we goboom.
I feel it in my tight lungs, my racing pulse, the pit of my stomach… and deep in my core.
“Let me guess,” I start brazenly, forcing bravado into my tone that Idefinitelydon't feel. “You tell me you own me, that I’m a very naughty girl for running away and blocking you. I tell you to fuck off. You punish me by… Hmm…” I look up, pursing my lips again and feigning contemplation. “Fucking me. Maybe even making me suck your dick. I know spanking me was on the table, of course, but I imagine it wouldn’t endthere, no?”
He looks down at his feet with a dark chuckle before lifting his burning stare to me again. “I think we both know if I spanked you, you would beg me for more, darling.”
