Page 25 of Soul of a Psycho

My cheeks start to lift at how nervous he is, somehow the fumble making him hotter. He wanted to see me? The idea of Cade getting out of bed in the middle of the night and sneaking across campus to see me suddenly has me all types of softened.

“You really—” I start, but Ruby twists, whimpering. “Shit.” I tug on Cade’s sleeve and quickly pull him out of the room. I don’t need Ruby having something over on me before I know if I can really trust her.

The hall is even colder than my room, and I shiver in my shorts as I pull the door shut. The chill slaps some sense into me.

“You can’t be here,” I say. “If Martha catches you, we are both in trouble, and I already have to deal with the fallout of missing classes.”

“Fallout?” He raises his brows and leans against the wall, like he doesn’t have the slightest qualm about getting caught.

“Yes!” I hiss as quietly as possible. “Some of us have to worry about repercussions.”

He rolls his eyes. “What, you won’t get your monthly allowance?”

The steam that fills my skull at his assumption makes me see red. You would think that someone like him wouldn’t be so quick to judge.

“No, you dick. I’ll get my lip split.”

I gasp.

Oh, no.

I did not just say that.

Cade’s eyes narrow, and I can see the gears churning. Damn it.

“What do you mean—”

“Nothing,” I cut him off. “Just forget it. It’s late.” I try to take a step back from him, as if I can put distance between me and my mistake. But he steps forward, closing the space. Heat radiates off his body, penetrating through the uniform he’s still wearing, and I swallow, trying to raise my chin, to not be intimidated.

“Sky, what do you mean ‘split’?” His voice is a mixture of depth and grit, like sandpaper I want to ruin my skin against.

I open my mouth to speak, to lie, but he doesn’t stop advancing, and I’m slowly being backed into the opposite wall. I can’t formulate words, don’t even know how to breathe all of a sudden. He’s so back and forth that my head is swirling. He basically just called me a spoiled brat, and before that, he told me he wanted to see me. And now he’s stuck on this? I don’t know what to make of him, but I do know one thing.

I want him.

I don’t know if I’m still heady from what I thought was a dream or if I like the way heknows—knows without any explanation what my words meant, but I want him and all his nonconformity, want him so desperately I ache for it.

I bump into the wall, and he locks an arm over my head.

“Cade,” I breathe. It’s the only thing I can get out as he leans over me, piercing me with those forbidding eyes that take the air out of my lungs.

“Tell me,” he demands, and I swallow against his force.

“Cade…” I try again. I don’t want to say it. I don’t want to be seen like that. Maybe I’m more of a Lyons than I thought.

“Tell me.”

“No.” I bite my lip, afraid of what refusing him will get me.

His gaze snaps to my lips and his chest starts to rise and fall.

“Sky,” his voice is a warning, but I like the way my name falls from that mouth of his, aware that his tongue is just behind those sharp teeth. And I want it behind mine instead. I want him to kiss me. I want to know what it feels like to be kissed by a real demon, not one that parades around in a friendly costume like Chase.

Metal suddenly rattles down the hall, sending my heart into a spasm.

“Fuck,” Cade whips his head to the left, where the iron staircase is.

“You can’t be here.” I start to panic. Missing class is one thing, getting hurt, another, but having a guy here after hours? I don’t evenwantto know my fate if this gets back to my father. “Oh, god,” I squeak.

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