Page 19 of Say It Slowly

A deep, husky groan escapes his throat, and that’s it. That’s all I can withstand. I should just take the hint and leave, but now I’mpissed.

Storming up to the shower, I wrench the glass door open. Even that doesn’t get him to look at me, which converts my anger to rage. How can he be eating me out one minute, and then completely ignoring me the next?

I want to believe this is all just a game, as is usually the case with him. But there’s something about how he said, “I can’t do this,” that has me wondering. It didn’t feel like a manipulation. It felt like an abrupt realization on his part, and I’m confused, hurt, angry, all of the emotions.

Fuck him.

He continues to stroke himself slowly as I step into the shower with him, closing the glass door behind me. This is an old house, but it’s clear the bathroom had been renovated at some point recently because the shower itself is huge. It’s easily as big as half my dorm room.

I step into the warm stream of water until I’m practically toe-to-toe with him. Only then does his gaze shift to me. His eyes travel from my toes, upward, catching on my breasts for a second before traveling the rest of the way to my face.

When he speaks, his tone is hard. “You need to leave.”

Yeah, I probably should. But my body is still hungry for the release he just denied me. And seeing him like this…wet, and naked, pleasuring himself, is affecting my judgment.

“I’m not leaving.”

In the flash of a millisecond, he lunges at me, hand clamped around my jaw as he slams me against the shower wall. Thebreath is knocked out of me, and it happens so quickly, I’m gasping.

His face is nearly touching mine, his head tilted, and his voice is demonic. It doesn’t even sound like him. “I told you to leave,” he says harshly. “You never fucking listen.”

Every single cell in my body instantly switches into panic mode. My heart is racing, and I’m clawing at his hand, desperately trying to get him to release me.

He shifts his body, so the hard ridge of his cock is pressing lengthwise against my mound, biting in painfully. I’m completely surrounded by him. Trapped yet again, but this feels different, more sinister, like a dark shadow has come over him.

“You think you’re so smart,” he says. “But you don’t know shit. I’ve tried to warn you about the darkness inside me, and yet here you are, begging me to fuck you.”

Okay,beggingis a bit harsh. But I’m too afraid to say that, so I just shake my head. “You’ve been chasingme,”I point out. “You’re the one who dragged me up to your room.”

I mean, seriously, who dragged who into all of this shit? From the beginning, it’s beenhimpursuingme—and now he’s acting like I’m the one falling at his feet, begging for his attention, like every other girl on campus. That, more than anything, sends a wave of shame crashing over me.

He ignores my statement, though, and the way he’s looking at me…damn, I’ve really fucked up. He looks like the devil, staring into me like he wants to rip me apart. His grip tightens on my jaw a fraction more, and it’s more than I can take. I wince, and a tear rolls down my cheek. “I’ll leave,” I choke out.

If I expected my tears to soften him, then I was dead wrong. His lips curl up into a demonic smile, and he leans in closer, brushing his bottom lip across mine. “Nah, you had your chance to escape,” he says. “Now I think I’ll introduce you to every dark crevice in my twisted mind.”

Initially, I’m not really sure what he means by that, but a breath later, his hand slides down to my throat, and he holds me against the wall like that, water pouring down on us both. I can still breathe, but the pressure is a stark reminder that I’m breathing only because he’s allowing it.

Fear careens through me, and I suddenly feel dizzy. I know what that means. It means a panic attack is coming on, and I’m in real danger of passing out. I blink rapidly and try to calm my breathing, but it’s almost impossible considering Roman is triggering every single trauma response I have.

“Please,” I say, swallowing, shifting on my feet. “Just let me leave.”

A sardonic chuckle emerges from those cruel lips. “You know, all this time, I’ve been keeping myself in check.” With his hand still around my throat, he uses his thumb to lift my chin. “Playing nice. But I’m tormented by you. I’m tormented by the things I want to do to you.”

I swallow, pressing my lips together. The panic is getting stronger, and my heart is racing so fast that I know it’s only a matter of seconds before I’ll be fighting off a full-blown panic attack. “Please,” I say again, trying to plead with him. It’s all I can think to do. My usual fight is gone. “This was a mistake. I’m sorry.”

With his left hand, he reaches over and turns the shower off. As soon as the water is turned off, silence engulfs us, and I consider screaming. But he’s the one in control as his hand on my throat reminds me. So I stay silent, and just pray he’ll come to his senses and release me.

“Yeah,” he says. “You and I have always been a mistake. But it’s too late now. You’ve infected me. You slither through my veins like a virus, and now, all I can think about isyou.”

I’ve heard something similar before, from someone else, and that didn’t end well. I can’t believe I’ve put myself in this situationagain.

He releases my throat, and I sag against the wall, pulling in gulps of air, still trying to fight off that impending panic attack. That’s not happening, though, because he grabs a fistful of my hair, and pulls me out of the shower, into the bedroom.

I’m soaking wet—we both are—and the cold air makes me shiver.

“On the bed,” he orders me.

I glance at it, but I don’t climb onto it. Tears are streaming down my face, and I’m trying to work out how I’m going to escape this. Roman has always been a dark horse, but this side of him terrifies me.

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