Page 83 of Snitches and Serpents

I want to draw my hands up her sides. I want to caress every one of her curves. I want to?—

Reality snaps back into me. Vicious as a slap.

Fuck. What am I doing? I shouldn’t have fucked her. Again. I shouldn’t have let her touch me. Because every time she does, I lose my fucking mind. And I can’t?—

Elle shoots upright and scrambles out of bed as if she has just remembered something.

I frown at her, yanked out of my own tangled thoughts.

“I just need to go to the bathroom,” she says, still sounding breathless.

Before I can reply, she hurries towards the door to the bathroom. I shake my head at her and lie back down on the bed.

God damn it, I need to get my head back on straight. I hate Elle and I’m supposed to be ruining her life. That’s what matters. That’s why I kidnapped her and brought her here in the first place. I need to keep my distance from her from now on so that something like this doesn’t happen again.

Across the room, clothes rustle faintly.

Without turning my head, I glance towards the soft sound.

Surprise flits through me.

Elle is crouched by my discarded clothes, and her hands move quickly as she searches through them.

At first, I don’t understand what she’s doing.

Then understanding cracks into me.

Oh. The key. She’s looking for the key to her manacle.

I blink. Then coldness starts spreading through my chest as I follow that thought all the way down. She wanted the key. Is that why she fucked me? Is that the real reason why she touched me and kissed me like that? Because she simply wanted me to take my clothes off so that she could search through them.

The realization makes an unexpected wave of disappointment crash over me.

It’s so intense that I almost forget to breathe.

Was none of it real? The way she gasped and moaned and begged as I made her come? Was it all an act?

Frustration rips through me.

Why do I even care if it was real or not? It doesn’t fucking matter if she was faking it. Doesn’t matter if she only did it to distract me. The only thing that matters is that I have her chained up in my basement, that her life is in my hands, and that I’m going to use this opportunity to finally get her kicked out of Bercester U so that I never have to see her again.

Swinging my legs over the side of the bed, I sit up and look straight at Elle.

She starts in surprise, and alarm flickers across her features. Her hands move faster, searching frantically for the key.

“Did you really think that I would be stupid enough to bring it?” I say, raising my eyebrows and giving her a pointed stare.

She fumbles with her hands in the pocket of my pants. “What?”

“The key. Did you really think I would bring it with me?”

Her eyes narrow.

“Go ahead.” I sweep out a hand, motioning towards my scattered clothes. “Search them all.”

She does. Which honestly impresses me a little. She’s nothing if not tenacious and stubborn.

While she finishes checking my t-shirt, I put on my underwear and my pants. Then she even searches my boots. I shake my head at her while grabbing my shirt and pulling it on. Once she’s done with the boots, I put those on as well.

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