Page 248 of Hateful Games

Fingers ghost over my spine and I scream in both surprise and fear, my gait faltering. I feel him hot on my heels and his warm body heat. He toys with me for his own amusement. Brushing his hand against my arm, pulling at my wrist.

Each time, I shrug him off.

Dodge him when he tries again.

He’s not even out of breath, while my chest feels tight. Goosebumps dance on my skin. Ducking into a room, I hide in a corner and bend slightly. Willing my heart to calm down.

I don’t hear him come in.

Until his black boots fill my vision.

I flit my panicked gaze to his hollow dark eyes. He eats the small distance and throws me over his shoulder. I punch his back to no avail, only to earn a stinging smack on my bare ass.

I’m in the air for mere seconds before I’m seated on a cold wooden desk.

Was it here?

My momentary distraction costs me my top as Nova tears it down the middle, baring my see-through lace bra underneath. With a flick of his wrist, it’s gone.

I wish I could see his face.

The way his eyes darken at the sight of my bare breasts.

Desperate, I lift my hand to do just that. He slaps my hand away and growls, “Ask me in the soft innocent way you asked the first time?”

I frown at the demand. What is he saying? I’ve never asked him in the past.

“Can’t remember?” His tone is vicious.

“I’ve never…”

He cuts me off. “Why would you? To you, I was Malcolm.”

I blink, lurching away from his touch. When the enormity of his confession sinks in, my limbs paralyze. My mind replaying the night of his graduation in a kaleidoscope of emotions while Nova silently studies me.

I push at his chest for a whole other reason.

For the second time tonight, he’s dropped a bomb on me, shattering my reality. Painstakingly slow, it all falls into place. The mystifying details I kept ignoring. As if my subconscious knew the man wasn’t Malcolm. I just chose to believe it, because accepting the truth was much more fatal.

“You were my first!” I yell it both as an accusation and a question.

“My naïve little Rose,” he taunts savagely, catching a single tear on his thumb. “No one was stealing your virginity but me.”

Everything I missed that night comes into clarity.

Nova, not Malcolm, never uttering a word.

Denying to remove his mask as I pleaded.

Even my actions were misleading him. When I asked if he was making up to me, Nova must’ve thought I was referring to him posting our picture. His torment over the week.

I should’ve fought harder to unmask him, dammit.

Even as I screamed his friend’s name, Nova said nothing.

“How could you, Nova?” I hit his brick-like chest and push away his mask. He doesn’t stop this time.

“Do you really think I’ll willingly allow another man to put his cock inside you?”

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