Page 76 of Darkest Deception

“Today you have a board meeting to update everyone on how everything is going within the company.” As I detail his day, I feel him watching me from his position.

My eyes slide to his, and I catch him looking. Shamelessly. He doesn’t look away, either.

His head is tilted. Just like the stalker in my dream.

God. I need this dream to vanish from my memories.

“Is there something you need to tell me, Ambrose?” There is something about the way he asks this sentence. It’s as if he knows what I am thinking, but I shake my head.

“Why? Did I forget something?” I am never this civil with him.

Helia narrows his eyes and leans forward.

Then he stands up to his full, towering height. A creature of the night that feeds on the fear of people, smiling with bloody lips as he breaks you in two pieces for his own maddening thirst.

“No. But you keep looking at me like you are hiding something.”

I scoff, moving away, only for him to grab my wrist and turn me around, smashing me against his chest.

“I don’t like liars, Ambrose.” His voice drops an octave.

I try to free my wrist, but he holds it tighter.

“Let go, Helia.”

He brings his face closer to mine. “Not until you tell me what you are hiding.”

“It’s nothing,”

He lifts a brow, clearly not believing my lies. He turns me around until my front is against the table, then bends me forward with his hand clasped at the back of my neck until my cheek touches the table.

“W-What are you doing?” I stutter, like a child.

I need help. I need serious, serious help.

He steps into me, letting me feel every single thick inch of his warm body.

“I don’t want lies, Ambrose. I won’t stop until you tell me.”

“How would you know? What if I was lying about not poisoning your coffee?”

He chuckles against my ear, his chin resting on my shoulder, the strong grip on my neck still not letting me look back at him.

“Oh, I know. The way you have been looking at me all morning? That’s not the look of a poisoner. It’s the look of someone who is desperately begging for a fuck. Do you want me to fuck you, Ambrose?”

My breath catches in my throat, my body going still.

He presses harder against me, but I don’t admit anything.

Was I that obvious?

Neither of us has admitted anything, despite what has happened between us in the past. In the office. The night of Aurora’s birthday.

How could I ever hope for anything when Helia is not my final destination? How could we ever believe anything would come from hot, poisonous flames?

We’d only get burned in the end.

“Why would I want you to fuck me when I hate the very sight of you?”