Page 34 of Tell Me You Like It

I back up a little as he approaches. When he’s within a couple of feet, he reaches out with his large hand and snatches me by the elbow. “We’re leaving.”

I don’t know what comes over me–now is not the time to argue with him, but that guy Ash might have actualinformation about Bree. I try to pull my arm out of his iron grip, but he just squeezes tighter, painfully tight. “I’m staying,” I protest, digging my heels into the sand. “That guy said he might have seen Bree.”

I’m desperate for some good news. After what happened with Tyler, I’m beginning to wonder how safe this fucking town is. And I need a safe town. I can’t handle another year of fear and uncertainty. So when a scholarship came through for ExU, I jumped at it. And Bree followed. I figured an area as obscenely wealthy as this would be safe. I guess safety is just an illusion—no matter where you go, or how wealthy the community is, there’s always risk.

I try to mentally shake myself, though. I don’t know that Bree is in any danger. I found her phone in the sand, but maybe she was drunk and lost it. That happens. It doesn’t mean anything sinister has happened.

But I just can’t shake the feeling in my gut. The feeling of darkness that surrounds this place and Bree is somehow caught up in it.

Roman just ignores my protests and continues to pull me across the beach, away from the party. We get further and further away until the bonfire is just a spec in the darkness.

Finally, he stops and whips around to face me. “You’re a brave bitch, you know that. No one fucking talks to me that way, especially in front of other people. You won’t do that again.”

I snicker at the audacity of this guy. “The fuck I won’t,” I spit back at him, yanking my arm out of his grasp. I’m only successful because he allows it. I take a step back, my heels sinking into the soft sand. “If you wanted some simpering, eye-lash-fluttering slave, then you should have pickedsomeone else at the Preference ceremony. It’s not too late, we can call this all off now.”

The second the words are out, I regret them though. The words flew past my lips in the heat of anger, but the truth is, I need his help. At least until I find Bree. But thesecondI see the whites of her eyes, Roman Rush can go fuck himself.

It’s dark, and I can’t see Roman’s face, but his body is rigid, and when he stalks toward me, his movements are stiff. But I don’t retreat, I don’t back down. The only way to deal with guys like Roman Rush is to call their bluff. Assholes like him love to see fear in another person’s eyes. They thrive on it.

I won’t give that to him. I’ve felt like the victim so much in the last year, and I’m fucking sick of it. Irefuseto live in that place. At some point, you have to start fighting back.

“But I didn’t pick someone else,” he says. “I picked you. And, Little Rabbit, I always get what I fucking want. Always.”

I straighten my spine and call on all the strength I have. “Well, you can’t haveme.”

He approaches slowly—I can only see his silhouette, but his large frame inches closer. “Is that right?” I shiver, but it’s from the cold. It’s definitely not from the deep timbre of his voice that somehow reaches inside my very soul. Goddamn. “Why don’t I show you just how much I own you, Lux?”

And before I can even pull away, his hand is under my tank top and brushing up my ribcage, his warm hand making me shiver. In three seconds flat, he has my bra unhooked, and his palm is cupping my breast.

Holy fuck.

He nips at my throat as his thumb flicks my nipple, pinching it a little, too. I grip his shirt, my hands fisting in thesoft cotton fabric. My mind is in chaos right now—flipping between white-hot desire, and disgust that my body has betrayed me so quickly.

A protest bubbles up in my throat, but I can’t manage to get it out. He smells so damn good, and the heat of his body lures me in. It’s all I can do not to melt into him.

His hand leaves my shirt and finds the button of my jeans. Unbuttoning and unzipping them, he slips a hand into my pants, under my panties, until he finds the curls shielding my sex. I immediately stiffen, my entire body going rigid.

I swallow. “Roman…”

His free hand finds my throat, and he squeezes. Not painfully, but enough to let me know he’s the one in control here. “Shhhh.”

I clamp my mouth shut and squeeze my eyes shut, the air slowly leaking from my lips. All I can hear is my own breath, quick and harsh, waves crashing violently in the distance.

One long finger finds my clit, and I almost launch out of my skin. I haven’t been touched this way in a long time, and the sensation is both blissful and strange all at once.

With my hands flat on his hard chest, I try pushing him off me. But he’s too strong. He’s immovable, and it’s clear he isn’t going to move unless he chooses to.

I hate that my body is responding to him. I hate that with one flick of his wrist, he has me on the brink of climaxing. But, again, it’s been a while.

Tilting his head, he whispers in my ear. “You like that, Little Rabbit?”

I don’t say anything, because, honestly, anything I say is going to come out as a moan, at this point. I’m beyond allrational thought. So I just clamp my jaw shut and swallow back the moan that bubbles up in my throat.

My clit is throbbing when he pushes one long digit inside me. For fuck’s sake. My entire body is trembling. From desire. From fear. From the anger that he can do this to me, touch me in the most intimate way, and I’m powerless to stop him.

His thumb gently rubs my clit as his finger pumps inside me. I’m so wet, he’s having trouble finding traction.

“You’re drenched for me,” he says, a smile in his voice. He’s pleased that I’m responding exactly as he expected me to. The fucker.

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