Page 5 of Raven

Every time we’re in the same room, his eyes are on me. My skin prickles. My heartbeat spikes. I feel him. It’s unsettling yet so different and peculiar that I crave more of it, trying to figure out that feeling.

My heart does a warning thud, hard against my chest, my stomach tightening. Here it is again—a tingle of curiosity, growing stronger by the second as I hold his gaze across the room.

He’s watching. Why does it excite me?

Our gazes don’t stay locked for long, but nothing has ever unnerved me so much. My poker face is great, but my body wants to break out in shivers.

Someone blocks my view of him, but the feeling stays.

“I’m gonna go,” I say to Kat and Marlow.

I say my goodbyes and walk out into the warm Ayana night, the sound of the buzzing crowd fading as I walk down the dark road toward the medical center.

And I feel him again. It’s not paranoia, rather some unexplainable fated bond to a stranger.

Excitement tingles in my nerves. At being caught. At being chased. Cornered. Pinned against the wall. I’ve been tame, quiet Maddy for so long I forgot how to be Milena, wild and daring, careless and deviant.

“Maddy…” His voice behind me is soft but commanding.

I halt and turn. My heartbeat spikes. I was waiting for this, wanted this.

“How are you?” he asks, stepping out of the shadows and slowly approaching me.

Closer, closer yet, too close.

My body tenses up with his every step. He’s testing me. His chest is almost against mine as he steps into me.

I don’t budge.

Wanna play this game, Raven?

He takes a tiny step back, giving me room.

“I’m good, Raven. How are you?” I say as calmly as I can. Let’s play.

“I’m great,” he says.

My common sense tells me to stay away from him, but I like this dare.

Welcome back, Milena.

“What makes this evening great?” I ask.

The dangerous sparkle in his eyes is somehow humorous.

“I watched you in the restaurant, Maddy.”

I know. “You did.”

Is that a flicker of a smile on his lips?

The night is quiet. The sounds of the party at the restaurant are barely audible. I like being alone with him, on a dark street, in the middle of the resort. He’s dressed in all black, as usual, blending with the dark night. The brightest part of him are his eyes, the color of steel, reflecting every little light.

“Wondered what you were laughing about with Katura and Marlow,” he says.

“Just a joke.”

He reaches toward my face, and I hold my breath but don’t move, keeping my eyes locked with his.

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