Page 65 of Possess Me! (I Want You To)

“I’m going to fuck you as many times as I can before I die.”

“Okay,” I croaked. Because what the fuck else was I supposed to say? “Do you mean like—fuck-me, fuck-me? Or?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” His smile turned mean again, the sweet downturned grin gone as he released my lip, with a quiet thwap, and rose up on his toes to claim my mouth in another bruising kiss.

He hadn’t actually answered the question but…I found it didn’t matter. Later, I caught him slipping my still full bottle of lube into the front pocket of the backpack he was packing. I didn’t know how I felt about the way he arched his brow at me in challenge for the second time that day, his eyes fiery, his movements purposeful and powerful.

All I knew was that I would take whatever scraps of attention he gave me.

Maybe he was taking advantage of me.

If that was the case, was it really such a bad thing?

To his credit Luca was surprisingly good at lying. Slipping back inside his body for the first time in days felt like melting into a vat of butter. I didn’t mind it—not in the way I did with my sisters—or Lydia. Weirdly enough, despite being made of cotton candy and sadness, Luca was the least annoying person I’d been attached to.

I didn’t dislike him.

Which was…hard for me to admit.

Not because I wasn’t at peace with my bitterness—I was. but because it had been so long since I’d met a person that valued kindness above everything else. Amanda had been like that, and look where it had gotten her. Six feet under, without even a tombstone to remember her by. His fate would hopefully be less disastrous.

The juxtaposition between Luca’s kindness and his desperation for money was interesting.

Why did he need it so badly?

Usually greed and selfless-ness didn’t go hand in hand.

There was something he wasn’t telling me. A family problem. Maybe something to do with the ex everyone kept bringing up. The money had to be connected. There was a reason behind his tears. A reason he’d walked straight into traffic that day all those weeks ago—so blinded by emotion he hadn’t noticed the oncoming vehicle. He’d been lucky I’d been there. He’d been even luckier that I had the strength to separate from him long enough to pull him out of harm’s way.

Did he know that I saved him?

Even if he did, it didn’t really matter.

At the time I hadn’t been doing it for him.

I just…hadn’t wanted to find a new host. That was all. Obviously.

Throughout dinner with Violet, Luca had played it cool. He revealed nothing. He laughed at all the right jokes. His compliments to the chef were free flowing. Every gesture, every smile manipulated his roommate into believing all was forgiven.

I couldn’t help but begrudgingly respect that about him.

How had he gotten so good at lying?

Why?

For a man that was so overwhelmingly positive, it was kind of sexy to see him fall whole-heartedly into his role as a doting roommate when in reality he was seething on the inside.

I couldn’t always feel his emotions when I was occupying his body. It took focused effort for us to communicate. Tonight though, his anger was so loud I almost had to cover my ears.

Fury, betrayal, distrust.

Pain.

Heartbreak.

He passed a bottle of parmesan. Long fingers trailed over the edge of the table. His laughter spilled like summer through the room as the sun grew heavy outside the single window above the sink. All the while, he smiled, chatting away like he wasn’t boiling from the inside out.

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