Page 49 of As the World Falls

My phone ringing in my purse blasts through the silent tension between us, and I jump, looking down at my purse where the noise is coming from. James doesn’t let go of me, though. I didn’t realize until now that his other hand had dropped from my face and was resting on my hip as his other hand remained entangled in my hair.

The sensation immediately made me hot and slightly panicked, so I decided to fish my phone out of my purse to distract myself from the whirlwind of emotions I was feeling.

“It’s my brother,” I panic when I see his name on my screen.

“Answer it,” James says lowly.

My eyes snap to his. “What? I thought you said he didn’t know we were together?” I don’t mean fortogetherto come out like it does, but I’m hoping he knows what I mean.

He smirked at me and licked his lips, and I swallowed hard as I watched the motion. “Answer it,” he demands.

I slowly hit the answer button and bring my phone to my ear. “Hello,” I answer hesitantly. My brother's voice filters through the phone, but I can’t hear anything he’s saying because James’s hand is now falling through my hair, tugging on the ends of it as he does. “Oh…I’m at work,” I tell Tobias after he asks where I am. James' smirk intensifies as his other hand tightens on my waist, and a horrible yet pleasurable feeling ignites in my stomach as he does. “You stopped at the library?” I squeak as his hand falls from my hair and slowly traces down my arm. I look up at James, feeling panicked and slightly dizzy from his sudden affection.

“Lie to him,” he whispers.

“Uh…I must have been out getting lunch,” I tell Tobias hesitantly. My stomach flips at the way James appears pleased, and then his hand traces back up my arm and slowly tickles over my collarbone. It feels as if he’s slowly pulling the oxygen from my lungs. He picks up the charm of my necklace in his fingers, eyeing it more carefully now. “Yeah…I’ll call you when I’m home tonight,” I rush out, quickly ending the call with my brother.

Neither of us says anything now that it’s just us again. His hand feels like hot coal resting over my chest, and for some reason, I don’t want him to pull away.

“I wonder what you’d look like draped in my finest crystals,” he murmurs, eyeing my necklace.

“I don’t think I’d like it,” I admit.

“I would,” he replies as he lets go of me and steps back. It’s like I’m suddenly wrapped in an arctic chill now that he’s not close. “Follow this way. We have more stuff to check in on,” he says, putting his back to me and walking back down the aisle. I’m left too rattled for the rest of our time here to gain a single ounce of evidence against him.

Chapter Sixteen

James

I was late for work.

I was never late for work. Not once.

But everything took longer now. Working out took longer. Showering took longer. Driving took longer. All because I was slowed down with thoughts of Cecilia, like a fucking disease taking over me, and there wasn’t shit I could do about it.

All I could think about while I worked out this morning was what could’ve happened if I hadn’t let go of her yesterday. I would have gone further if her brother hadn’t called and broken the trance. I craved to feel more of her bare skin under my fingertips. Wanted to hear the sound of her breath when she felt it.

It was madly distracting, and I couldn’t take it anymore. She was nothing but a nuisance to me, and I’d do well not to forget that. I found it funny that she always seemed to think I was playing her because surely it was I who was being played. She was manipulative in the way that she relaxed around me or talked to me as if she wasn’t trying to destroy my very life. In the quiet, calm moments, she treats me as if I’m just a person. Ihated it because she was the only one ever to treat me that way, and yet, she was the one who made it perfectly clear she was not to be trusted.

I had to remind myself that no matter how she made me feel at times, she had a darkness inside of her, one that I recognized. She didn’t care about me. She was on a quest for destruction and had my name forged in the path. Darkness was an ugly thing. I would know.

I walk out of the elevator to my office floor, and all eyes are on me like I am some kind of phenomenon. It felt like I was today. I was never late, and everyone here knew that. I’m sure everyone was wracking their brains on the reason for this, and it pisses me off even more, but not as much as when I see the door to my office cracked open, which tells me Cecilia is already there waiting for me.

She was inside my office alone, one place she didn’t need to be by herself since she was also a little snoop on top of other things.

I pick up speed, striding straight into my office, expecting to catch her in the act again. But instead of being behind my desk with drawers open, caught red-handed, she is bent over the front of it, her hands placed on each corner as she scours the top of it.

My jaw tightens in unwanted restraint. I wanted to tear into the room and scream at her for snooping around again. But my body couldn’t move. It was hypnotized by hers bent over the desk, her round ass facing me, clad in a tight pencil skirt. Her long legs were firm and accentuated. Her long hair fell over her shoulder, all over my desk.

My fists tighten as the urge to pin her chest to my desk races through me like hot lightning. To fist her hair in my hand and make her tell me every bad thing she wants to do to me while I spank her for it. While I make her feel so good for it.

I swallow away the dryness in my throat and clear it loudly, grabbing her attention. When I think she will freeze or whip around and spew excuses my way, she does neither. She looked over her shoulder quickly, her eyes wide and filled with a kind of emotion I’d never seen on her before. It looked unpleasant.

“Thank god you’re here,” she rattles off. “What took you so long? Do you have anything sharp on your stupid desk? I need tweezers or...or a letter opener. Hell, even a pocket knife.”

My face wrinkles in confusion, and I walk toward her to see what the fuss is about. She was talking way too fast. “Are you planning on finally killing me, babe?”

She makes a frustrated noise and leans up now, turning her wide eyes to me, which freezes me at the sight of them with what looks like unshed tears. Then, she holds her hand up directly in front of my face, lifting her index finger. I look down at it, instantly finding it beat red and bloody under her fingernail.

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