Page 43 of Rot

“Get in the car,” Elias spoke darkly. “I’ll take care of this.”

I didn’t doubt that he would, but I didn’t move. I stood there, gazing up at him and wanting to say more, so much more. But, I supposed, there would be a time and a place for that, and here wasn’t it.

So, like a good little girl, I got in the car and waited, watched Elias stalk off while wishing I could go with him and watch. To see what he was going to do. Would he hurt Jordan? How would he get my clothes back, or did he not so much care about that as he did simply inflicting pain onto Jordan? Would he try to talk to Dana and make her get the clothes?

No. He’d go for Jordan, who was still probably at the lake, wondering what his next step would be.

My head bent and I looked down at the shirt I wore. It was warm with Elias’s heat. I pinched the chest part of the shirt and lifted it to my chest, inhaling the scent. Musky, manly in ways Jordan wasn’t. It was definitely Elias’s scent, and breathing it in calmed me in ways nothing else could.

I closed my eyes and breathed out a sigh, the urge to hurt something lessening in me until it completely faded away. Jordan and Dana thought they could play childish games with me? They’d find out I didn’t play like that. I never had.

Minutes ticked by, and I only opened my eyes once I heard Elias get in the driver’s seat. He set a pile of clothes on my lap. My clothes. My boots, my leggings, my shirt, and my phone. He said not a word as he started the ignition, but when the radio light flickered on in the car, I saw the red on his knuckles and his hands.

Blood.

He peeled us out, still irate.

“What did you do?” I asked quietly, unable to take my eyes off him. Now that we were away from the party, just the two of us, I let my gaze drop to his bare arms. His chest, his stomach… the muscles on him were nothing more than promises of violence, and I loved it.

“Let’s just say Dana found your clothes after I made her see how helpless her brother really is.” He tossed a glimpse at me, the fire still alive and burning in him, the adrenaline still racing through his veins, I bet.

“I would’ve loved to see that.” The words left me before I could think better of them, and they earned me a double-take from Elias. A little bit of shock on his part, but the shock settled into aggravation soon enough.

“I told you to stay away from Jordan.”

“You did.”

His hands gripped the wheel so tightly I thought he might pull the entire wheel off the car. “Then why didn’t you? Why didn’t you fucking listen to me?” He was speeding down the dirt path, driving a bit crazy. “If you would’ve listened, none of this wouldn’t have happened. Those assholes wouldn’t have seen you naked—”

“Is that all you care about? That other people saw me naked?”

Elias growled out, “You like getting under my skin, don’t you?” He pulled us out onto the road with no edge lines with a jerk of his arms, though it looked like we were heading in the wrong direction.

“You already know the answer to that,” I whispered. I waited a beat before asking, “Did you kill him?”

“Who? Jordan? No, he’ll be fine… eventually. He deserved everything he got for doing what he did to you.” Elias glared at me. “You didn’t fuck him, did you?”

“And if I did?”

Elias slammed on the break, jerking the car to a stop, in the middle of the road. We hadn’t passed any other vehicles on the road; my guess was, it had no lines painted on it because it was pretty narrow and didn’t see much use.

“Did you fuck him?” he asked again, the hard timbre of his voice making my inner thighs squeeze together of their own accord. When I did nothing but smile at him, he angrily put the car in park and got out.

I watched Elias storm around the car, stop at my door, and yank it open. He pulled me out, my clothes tumbling off my lap and onto the floor of the car in the process. My bare feet hit the asphalt below as my back was slammed against the car. He breathed heavily as he leaned over me, curling a single hand around my neck as he once again whispered, “Did you fuck him?”

He wasn’t choking me, so I could easily answer him. But instead of giving him the answer he so desperately wanted, I posed my own question: “Did you fuck Dana tonight? I’ll tell you if you tell me.”

“And why should that matter to you?”

“If I belong to you, then you’re mine, too. Dana doesn’t get to have you. No girl does.” I licked my lips, smiling as I said, “No, I didn’t fuck Jordan tonight.”

Elias labored to breathe. Staying calm was a wasted effort, so I didn’t know why he tried. “Then why go with him to a party tonight? Why go skinny dipping with him, Sloane? Were you trying to piss me off?”

“Yes,” I breathed out the word, lifting a hand to Elias’s bare chest and running my fingertips along his muscles. The hand around my neck loosened in response, his lower half starting to lean closer against me, pinning certain parts of me harder upon the car.

“Why?”

“I wanted to see what you’d do, if you’d run to Dana or if you’d run to me. I wanted you to react.” My fingertip grazed the side of his abs, tracing the outline of them as I told him the truth. There was no point in lying anymore. “I wanted to see the real you tonight, and I’m so glad I did.”

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