“No.”
“Oh yeah.” His smile widened cruelly while he unlocked the screen. “I kept everything.”
Panic detonated violently in my chest because Luke documented things. Photos, videos, even old voicemails from when I thought he loved me.
None of it was because I wanted him to.
Humiliation turned him on.
“You remember that little blue set I bought you?” he asked softly, eyes locked on my face while he scrolled. “I have the video from that night. The one where you cried after because you said it hurt?” He tilted his head slightly. “Pretty sure your brothers would love seeing that.”
My vision blurred instantly with rage and horror and disgust. “You sick fucking creep.”
“Careful.” His fingers dug harder against my neck. “You’re forgetting who owns those videos.”
Owns.
The word made me physically nauseous.
“You bring Cade Mercer again,” Luke continued quietly, “and maybe I accidentally send a few things around campus.” His eyes dragged slowly down my body. “Wouldn’t want everybody realizing how depraved their sweet little Bliss Bennett actually is.”
My chest heaved hard with fury. Suddenly all I could think about was Cade outside laughing with my brothers while Luke stood here trying to poison everything good I touched.
And something inside me finally snapped.
I shoved against him again, harder this time. “You don’t own me.”
Luke’s entire face changed as cold rage flooded in instantly.
His hand clamped brutally against the back of my neck again before slamming me harder into the wall, pain bursting sharply behind my eyes.
“You really wanna test me today?”
Fear flashed hot through me then.
Real fear.
Not because of me either. Because Cade was here. My family was here. And Luke suddenly looked unstable enough to burn every good thing in my life straight to the ground if I pushed him too far.
Voices drifted faintly through the house then, closer now. Someone laughed near the kitchen while floorboards creaked softly beneath moving footsteps, the sound carrying down thenarrow hallway alongside music and the smell of barbecue smoke drifting in through the screened back door.
Luke heard it too.
I watched the change happen in real time. One second rage twisted his face hard and ugly, fingers bruising against the back of my neck while his breathing came rough through clenched teeth. The next second his entire expression smoothed over almost unnaturally fast, like watching something monstrous pull human skin back over itself before anybody else could see what lived underneath.
That switch always terrified me most.
Not the yelling. Not even the violence.
It was the ease.
The way he could go from cruel to calm in the span of a heartbeat if somebody else might walk in.
His grip loosened slightly against my neck, but not enough to let me go. Just enough to lean closer until I could feel his breath against my cheek while my pulse slammed violently against my ribs.
“That’s what I thought,” he murmured softly.
Then he kissed me with such hate it was like he was trying to leave fingerprints somewhere deeper than skin.
