Page 154 of Mud

It wasn’t a question.

My eyes opened a little wider, alarms ringing in my head so suddenly, chasing away the pleasure for a moment. Letting me think a bit clearer.

“Ihavebeen touched,” I lied because there was no way I’d let him know exactly how pathetic I had been since he was imprisoned. No way.

But he pressed himself to me harder, grabbed my pussy with his whole hand and said, “You haven’t, and you never will be.Your body is marked. You belong to me, sweetness.”

Those words messed with my head.

I could hardly believe it, but they cooled down my body instantly. Not all the way, but enough so that I could see exactly what the hell I’d been doing.

Enough to make me want to wiggle free from his grip and turn around, at least.

He let me.

“I don’t belong to anybody. My body is mine—I do with it whatever I want.”

The asshole grinned. “So why haven’t you?” His lips were raw red—my favorite color on him. It looked perfect with his dark eyes and darker hair.

“Ihave,” I insisted.

“Liar.” He rested his hand on the wall next to my head and came in for a kiss.

I turned my head away at the last second, but when his lips connected with my cheek, I felt the electricity all the way to my toes.

“I’m not lying. Ihavebeen with other people.”

“You haven’t.” He said it with such ease it only infuriated me more.

And what the hell had I been thinking,notbeing with other people, anyway? What the hell was the matter with me? All those times guys had asked me out, and I’d always said no. Never even considered it. Never wanted to see a male person who was interested in me romantically, let alone do something more.

Not Taland, not Taland, not Taland—that’s all I’d been able to think about, but maybe that was the whole point!Not Talandshould have been a good thing.

I stepped to the side, desperate for air now the way I’d been for his lips just moments ago.

“Fuck you, Taland. You have no idea who I am or what I’ve done.”

At that, the smile dropped from his face. “I do, unfortunately,” was what he said, and he straightened his jacket. “That still doesn’t change the fact that you’ll die in this game without me.”

I raised my chin and prepared the words that were at the tip of my tongue—I won’t. I’ll be just fine. I don’t need you!

But I did, and that was always the problem. Always the thing that got in my way.

When everyone went out and had fun and lived life, I stayed home and cried. I stayed home and daydreamed with my eyes open. I stayed home and wrote about him—endless pages.

I never even gave anybody a chance—just so he could stand there, the cocky bastard, and use that against me as if it were a weapon?

Not for long,I said to myself in my head. And I swore on my life that the very moment I walked out of the Roe,ifI ever did, I was going to fuck the first guy who talked to me, just because. No reason, no thinking, no excuse—I was just going to do it, Taland Tivoux be damned.

“You’re right, Taland,” I finally said. “You killed that man in the alley and you took care of me for hours. I can’t protect myself no matter how many bullets and blades I have on my person.”

He was actually surprised, even though he tried to hide it.

“Nothing I haven’t been telling you since the get-go,” he said.

“And, yes, I could really use some help with getting the keys or just staying alive until this game is over, but I will not help you break into the IDD vault. I will not stand by and let you do it, either. Whatever else I can do to pay for your help, I will, but those are a no. A definite no.”

Because he would die. If he tried to get in the vault in any way with or without my knowing about it, he was going to die. They’d kill him on the spot, and I was never going to let that happen.

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