Page 32 of Pretty Little Psycho

He flashes me a devilish smile. “I want to show you something. Don’t be scared.”

Butterflies flutter my belly. I want to melt inside his voice, his chiseled arms, his thick thighs… Fuck. Not again. I need to stop bending over for these fuckboys. But I can’t make myself leave. I’m captivated, drawn in, by all that he is.

I blow out a deep breath. “It takes a lot to scare me, Atlas.”

He holds out his hand. “Is that a challenge? Nothing gets me more excited than making pretty girls scream.”

I swallow hard and take his hand. “It’s a fact.”

As soon as our fingers touch, he laces them and pulls me through the gates. It feels ceremonious like I’m crossing a sacred threshold.

“You’re turned on. Also a fact,” he whispers.

I clench my thighs together as his scent envelops me. It’s fresh and earthy like rain. “Don’t flatter yourself,” I quip back. The smirk on his face lets me know he’s not buying my attempts to seem disinterested.

“This way, Firecracker.” I let him lead me to a massive greenhouse behind the mansion.

“Plants? This is what you want to show me?” I scoff.

Atlas takes a vial from his pocket, pops the cap, and waves it under my nose. I wince as the pungent scent burns my nostrils. “What the fuck?”

“Foxglove.” Without hesitating, he downs the whole thing.

“Are you crazy?” Oh, fuck. Did this asshole just off himself in front of me? Fuck.

Atlas rubs his lips. “Mmm. So good. I bet your pussy tastes like poison too.”

I’m dumbfounded. Is this a joke? No, it couldn’t be. I smelled it. He fucking just drank Foxglove and is not even breaking a sweat.

I hug my arms to my chest. “How are you not dead after drinking that?”

“You have a lot to learn, Firecracker.” He brushes his finger across my chest, and I quiver. “And I’m going to teach you.”

I clench my thighs together. His voice is deeper, raspier, more feral than the others. “I don’t trust you,” I murmur.

He runs the pad of his thumb up and down my collarbone. “Good. It’s more fun when you don’t.”

I take the empty vial from him and smell it again. The fumes instantly send a searing pain through my head. He really fucking drank poison. “How are you immune?”

He inches his thumb up my neck and across my lips. I fight the urge to lick it. “I can make you powerful, Firecracker. Say yes, and I’ll show you a world better than any fucking wet dream you’ve ever had.”

I was close to passing out from tension and anticipation. There’s no way in hell I can trust him but where’s the harm in learning a few new tricks?

Besides, these plants grow all over the campus. I need to learn how to breathe around them.

I swat his hand away from my face. “What are you getting at, Atlas?”

He opens the door to the greenhouse and gestures for me to go inside. “I’ll teach you how to be like me. Immune to all types of poison. But you have to do everything I say. Understand?”

My eyes dart between him and the door. “How do I know you’re not just trying to kill me?”

Atlas laughs but it’s not malicious. “Listen, pretty girl, if I wanted to kill you, you would have keeled over the second you took a sip of that caramel latte today. This isn’t a trick. It’s an invitation.”

Fuck. Of course, he knew I was at the teachers’ café today. He even knows what I fucking ordered. It’s impossible to do anything discreet around here. That makes me really fucking nervous.

“Fuck it. Teach me.” I instantly regret it as soon as I say it because I know this just pulls me in deeper with them. But I also can’t pass up an opportunity to learn more about Nocturnus and the Blackwells. He thinks he’ll be teaching me about poison while I’ll be watching his every move. Sooner rather than later, I need to get some leverage on them.

Atlas

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