Page 12 of Above All Else

He pressed into me, his hips grinding against my belly, his knees sagging the bed on either side of me.

He’s going to kill me, too.

The muscle memory I’d worked months to achieve hit the vacation button as his hand sank from my chin and skimmed down my breasts.

Oh God.

I squeezed my eyes closed and breathed in through my nose.

His thumb plunged into my solar plexus, causing a burst of white-hot shock.

My eyes exploded open, and I let loose a scream straight from my toes.

“Do you know how many points on the body there are that inflict the most amount of pain without so much as leaving a mark?”

“Please.“ I gasped, my lungs breathless as he dug deeper.

My mouth gaped open in a silent cry.

The beast flipped the black goat mask off his face—the metalclattering against the floor as my lids snapped shut.

He’s letting me see his face?

Oh my God.

He has no intentions of letting me go.

Of course he wouldn’t...

Why would he?

“I didn’t see your face. You can let me—ahhhh.“ He curved his thumb inward, the piercing pain plundering my words.

“Open your eyes, June.”

I squeezed my lids tighter and shook my head, my teeth scraping against one another as I stomached through the pain, inhaling harsh breaths through my nose. His hand on my wrists tightened, his fingers digging into the fragile bones.

It didn’t take much to break a wrist. I’d done it as a child, hyper-extending it after falling off the monkey bars.

Could he crush my wrists?

Does he have the power?

“Look at me, June.”

I shook my head, and the agony in my chest subsided as he removed his touch.

Tears dribbled down my temples. My heart rate hit my breastbone with each exerted beat.

“I could cut off your eyelids and make you see everything.” He slid his tongue along my temples, lapping up my tears.

A muted sob slipped through my crushed lips.

“Do you want that?”

I shook his touch offof my face. “No.”

“Then look at me.”

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