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13

Jolie

I lay in bed,wide awake, staring at the ceiling.

It was well after midnight. Everyone else had gone to bed at least two hours ago, but try as I might, I couldn’t sleep. My whole body felt electrified. I couldn’t stop thinking about Mason and the things he said and did to me in the Penance Room earlier.

In fact, I couldn’t stop thinking about everything. My mind was constantly racing, and everything around me seemed brighter and clearer. It felt like I’d just stepped out of an enormous rolling fog. I was more alert. More awake.

Was Elena right about the vitamin pills? Or was it something else that set my mind and body aflame? Could it somehow be both?

I groaned and squeezed my thighs together, trying to relieve the throbbing, tingling sensation between my legs. I’d come so close to giving in earlier. So darn close. I wasn’t sure how much longer I would last around Mason. Especially when he called me ‘baby’ and kissed me like that.

Oh, the kiss…

When his lips pressed over mine for those sweet, hot seconds, I lost my mind and forgot where I was. I forgot all about the threat of punishment looming over us. What good was that threat against the reality of Mason’s kisses, anyway? He destroyed my control with those lips. Made me forget all my objections and excuses. Turned my willpower to a quivering mass of jelly.

The memories stirred the ache within me, and I let out another frustrated groan. Then I rolled over and reached up to my pillowcase, feeling around for my illicit book. If I couldn’t let Mason do all those forbidden things to me, I could at least read the sinful scenes of lust in the book and touch myself to bring some relief from the hot pressure building deep within.

A sudden coldness bit at my core. The book wasn’t there.

My heart pounding with terror, I sat up and pulled the pillow onto my lap, feeling around it again before tipping it downward, praying the little book would fall out. It didn’t. Someone else must’ve come into my quarters and found it.

I swallowed the hard lump of fear in my throat as I leapt out of bed and started searching every crevice of my dim room. No one had said anything to me yet, and I hadn’t been dragged off to a disciplinary meeting with the Elders. So perhaps no one had found it. Perhaps I hid the book somewhere else a while ago, and I simply forgot. Or maybe it slipped out of the pillowcase and lodged itself under the bed somewhere.

“Looking for something?”

I jumped and turned, a flush of adrenaline tingling through my body. Mason was in the doorway.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, my voice a strangled whisper. He was lucky I hadn’t reflexively screamed and inadvertently attracted everyone’s attention.

He quietly closed the door behind him. “I wanted to see you. I couldn’t wait.”

I shook my head. “You can’t be here. The door doesn’t lock. Anyone could walk in at any moment,” I said, my heartbeat more frenzied than ever.

“I’m well aware of that.” In the darkness, there was a flash of white. He was smiling, even though this wasn’t amusing at all.

He stepped over to the small table on the far side of my room, picked it up, and placed it in front of the door. “I used to do stuff like this as a teenager, so I didn’t get caught with girls in my bedroom,” he said with a low chuckle.

“That won’t stop anyone from coming in,” I hissed. “It’s not heavy enough.”

“It’ll give us fair warning,” he replied, stepping right over to me. His eyes glinted in the dark. “We’ll hear a scraping sound if someone tries to open the door, and I can hide in the cupboard or something. But I don’t think anyone’s awake. I didn’t see or hear anyone on my way here.”

I hugged my arms around myself. “What are you doing here?” I asked again.

“I thought you might be freaking out, wondering where this was.” He pulled something out of his back pocket and held it up. I knew what it was in an instant.

My book.

I fell to my knees, tears immediately spilling from my eyes. “Please don’t report me, Mason. I can’t… we aren’t allowed to read things like that.” The words rushed out of me in a jumble. “They’ll cut off my fingers. They’ll…”

“Jolie.” Mason’s deep voice echoed right by my ear. He’d stooped down to my level, and one heavy hand was on my shoulder. “I’m not going to report you. I thought I made it clear earlier. We’re a team. You and me. Partners, remember?”

I looked up at him, eyes wide. “You really won’t tell?”

“Of course not. You think I wanna see them cut my girl’s fingers off?”

I swallowed my sob. “How did you get the book?”

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