They both shake their heads, only the skinny one finding the courage to say. “W-we don’t want to.”
Chris nods, pretending to be half-impressed. “I want you to remember how you’re feeling right now. The next time you see Ella, think about that fear running through you. Whenever you’re in the same room as her, breathe the same air, whenever she crosses your mind, I want you to dig into your memory and remember this very night. And I want you to know that if she mentions either of you to me, you’ll both end up in a state where you’ll be alive and well enough to remember your mistake, but with a wish for death so great you’ll be begging your own mothers to end your lives.” He tsks. “Poor mothers.”
He dusts off the white shirt he’s wearing, adjusts the collar, and rolls his shoulders. “Sound good?”
They both nod so many times I wonder if their heads are about to unscrew from their shoulders.
“I prefer words.”
“Yes,” they reply in unison. “Crystal clear,” the skinny one adds.
“Good. Good. I’m glad we had this discussion. You may leave.”
I’ve never seen anyone run so fast.
Chris finally turns to me, and I only now realize I’m still keeping myself flat against the wall.
“Are you okay, Sweets?”
“Don’t call me that.” It comes out as a reflex. Sweets was the stupid girl he dated. But I have to admit that my words don’t have much punch with the predicament I’m in.
I hate Chris. I really do. But I couldn’t be more grateful for his intervention tonight.
Stepping closer, he places a hand above my head on the wall and looks down at me.
As a breathy “thank you” leaves my lips from his proximity, I want to slap myself.
“You don’t have to thank me. You know I would never let anything happen to you.”
His face is close enough that I could kiss him with the slightest lift of my chin. And for a moment that isn’t brief enough to my liking, I want to. His warm body against mine is familiar, the protection he’s always cast over me is reassuring. The danger that hides within him excites me to no end.
I blink up at him, feeling a need I can barely control surging through my veins.
“You want to kiss me, don’t you?”
I find it hard to swallow past my dry throat. “Not even in your dreams do I want to kiss you.” It’s hard to sound condescending with the electricity crackling between us, making me weak at the knees.
“You know I want a second chance, Sweets. It would be so easy to just give in.”
“And you know I’m over you. There’s nothing to give into.”
He chuckles, his forehead now practically touching mine as I crane my neck.
“It’s going to be very, very hard to resist me now that I’m back. I know all the buttons I need to press to make you melt.”
Even as my stomach swoops traitorously, I narrow my gaze at him. “Try your fucking worst.”
My knee to his crotch is the only way I find to get out of this situation without throwing myself at him.
I can’t be weak around Chris. He’ll jump on the occasion to make me his. And being his isn’t safe for me.
Chapter Eight
Ella
Food Poisoning - Chri$tian Gate$
Idon’t hear from Chris for almost two weeks. My dad’s funeral was packed with people I had never heard of before, and Chris stayed far back, respecting the time me and my family needed. He wasn’t assisting in the last criminal law classes I attended either. Rose was.