Page 23 of Wreck Me

“Vanilla.”

“What?”

“I don’t like vanilla. In any sense.” His hand tightened around my throat and he looked me over, eating me up in my leather pants and open blue leather jacket with the embellishments and studs, dropping to my black scoop neck top and the layered silver chains of my necklace. “But you’re not vanilla, are you, Skylar?” My jacket had been pushed half off my right shoulder in the scuffle and his gaze zoned in there. And then he peeled it away further to reveal part of my tattoo. A blue lotus flower and leaves that extended all the way down my upper outer arm. “Hmm, very nice.” He traced his fingers over it gently and way too sensually, a rush of heat rolling through me and making me grit my teeth in a bid to force down the reaction. “So intricate. Yet edgy at the same time.”

I jerked my shoulder and his fingers left it. “Why are you so fascinated by a tattoo? You’re clearly no stranger to them,” I said, gesturing with my eyes at the black roses and thorns all over his neck, all the way down his chest, of which a lot was visible, including the outline of the top of his abs in his white dress shirt only buttoned at the middle. He had a lighter shade of ripped blue jeans on this time, the same black leather jacket. And a gray hoodie beneath.

Up so close, I could smell his cologne again, something woodsy, like the refreshing scent of cedar. And then a clean, freshly-showered scent thrown into the appetizing mix.

Damn him.

There was something else that caught my attention too.

His eyes weren’t exactly like his brother’s after all. They were a similar amber shade, yes, but in Sebastian’s there were golden flecks. That combined with the amber and the way they were drilling into mine had them looking like hellfire sparking beneath, threatening to rage at any moment.

I swallowed it down, feeling the growing tension that I couldn’t allow to take hold any more than it already was, and I snapped, “If you have something to say and pulled me in here for a reason, get to it. I don’t have time for this bullshit.”

And I couldn’t risk him being this close to me for much longer. He was… affecting me.

He was hot as hell, no doubt. But it took much more than that for me. And he had that in spades. I’d felt it during our first encounter in the parking lot. An otherworldly presence. So commanding and all-encompassing. The fucker had one hell of an allure about him, almost hypnotic really. There was something there just beneath the surface and the golden boy smile that he showed the rest of the city, something that called to me in a way I couldn’t quite decipher. Actually, a way I couldn’t let myself decipher, because I knew, I just knew, that what it was calling to was that former me, the one I was trying so hard to deny breath.

“You have the next two hours free between classes.”

“So you’re stalking me now? Got a hold of my schedule?”

“Stalking is such a negative term. Let’s just say I’m taking an interest.”

Spoken like a psychopath in the making.

Or, maybe he was already there.

“I don’t want your interest.”

“That’s non-negotiable.”

“Get the fuck off me,” I spat, ripping his hand from my throat and making his eyes spark at the brutal force and swift moves I’d used to dislodge his grip so easily.

Dammit. He’d liked that too much.

He didn’t put his hand back, but he didn’t move his weight off me either.

“Move,” I ordered.

“Not yet.”

“Why?” I demanded. “Why did you just manhandle me and drag me in here?”

“You know why, Onyx.”

I blew out a breath. “I thought we were done with this?”

“Because I’ve left you alone for the remainder of the week?”

Pretty much. “Yes.”

“Maybe I was lulling you into a false sense of security so I could catch you off guard.” He leaned in, his hot breath fanning over the side of my neck. “Or, maybe I was giving you time to come to your senses and forgo this ridiculous denial and attempt to be somebody you’re not.”

I scoffed. “You don’t know who I am.”

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