Page 57 of Snitches and Serpents

Alarm pounds inside my skull. Because she’s right. She so fucking right. I don’t even know why I’m drawn to her. To this new version of her. I wasn’t attracted to her back in high school. She was always too artificially perfect. But now, here at Bercester U, I’m drawn to her like a fucking moth to a flame. Maybe because of the flames. Because of the fire and fierceness that she has showed me for the first time these past few weeks.

This messy and wild version of her is hot as fuck.

But I can never admit that. Never. It would be the end of me.

So I fix her with a hard stare and simply declare, “You’re a rat.”

Rising up onto her toes, she gets right into my face and slants her lips over mine, just a breath away from touching. “And you’re a snake.”

Lightning shoots through me when her breath caresses my lips, and my cock aches with need.

Raising my hands, I shove her back before I can do something really fucking stupid.

She loses her balance and topples backwards, landing on the smooth bed behind her.

“Yeah,” I reply, while desperately trying to calm my pounding heart. “But you’ve forgotten something.”

The previously perfect sheets get slightly rumpled as she pushes herself up into a sitting position and tosses her hair out of her face before raising her eyebrows at me and fixing me with a taunting look. “And what’s that?”

“Snakes eat rats.”

Her eyes glint and a wicked grin settles on her mouth as she spreads her legs wide. “Then start eating.”

21

ELLE

Dark desire flares up in Tristan’s eyes. And for a second, I don’t know if he’s going to fuck me or kill me. Then a wicked smirk curls his lips as he advances on me.

“You think I’ve been pining for you, huh?” he demands, his voice low and dark. “You think I’m the one who wants you? Hate to break it to you, sweetheart, but it’s the other way around. Allow me to demonstrate.”

Before I can even open my mouth to retort, he places one hand against my collarbones and shoves me down on the mattress. My back hits the soft surface with enough force to make my body bounce slightly on the sheets. I try to push myself back up into a sitting position, but before I can lift more than my shoulder blades, Tristan shoves me back down again.

“Stay down,” he commands.

I’m about to snap back at him, but then he pushes my short black dress up to my waist in one smooth move. Lightning skitters across my skin at the feeling of his hands on my bare thighs. Then my mind malfunctions as he curls his fingers over the top of my lace panties. Oh God, is he actually?—

He rips them in two.

I gasp as the sound of tearing fabric fills the room.

The torn panties scrape against my skin as he yanks them off me and tosses them to the floor. I try to sit up once again, but he just shoves me back down against the mattress and then grabs the back of my knees.

With one firm pull, he yanks my body closer to the edge of the bed so that only my back and ass are resting on it.

The moment his hands disappear from the back of my knees, I instinctively try to close my legs. I was just baiting him, just trying to provoke him, with that ‘then start eating’ comment. What was I thinking? It’s not as if he actually wants to?—

His hands land on the inside of my thighs.

“Do not fucking close your legs unless I tell you to,” he snaps as he shoves my legs wide open again.

Electricity shoots up my spine at the power pulsing in his voice and the feeling of his commanding hands on my body.

A thud sounds.

I lift my head to find that Tristan has dropped to his knees between my legs. My heart stalls. Then starts back up, pounding three times as hard to make up for it.

“You fucking infuriating, presumptuous little princess,” he grinds out while planting his palms on the inside of my thighs again, keeping my legs spread wide. “Always assuming that everyone is pining for you when you’re the one who gets all hot and horny every time I push you up against a wall.”

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