Page 52 of The Secrets of Roan Island

I shake my head and attempt to step around him. “I’m not staying here.”

He blocks me with a step and lifts his nose as if catching a new scent. He smiles, revealing his fangs. “Yes, you are.”

“You can’t just lock me up, Noah. I’m not your prisoner.” Tears leap to my eyes, and I sniff to keep them contained. I don’t want to feel weak. Not right now. Then I realize I know his secret, his family’s secret. My eyes jump to his face. “I won’t tell anyone. You have my word.”

“This isn’t about that.” He stalks forward, forcing me backward until I bump up against the little doors that line the far wall. A latch digs into my shoulder blades. He leans forward, his nose in the crook of my neck, his warm breath a promise of what could happen if he bites me. I’m suddenly very aware that I’m not wearing a shred of clothing beneath this blanket. My body heats, and I grow wet with needy anticipation. But now, it just makes me angry.

“You’re not going anywhere, Professor. You do something to me I can’t explain. You quench a thirst you gave me. I’m desperate for you. Ruined for all others. I can’t eat. I can’t sleep. I can’t do my damn work. All I think about is you. All I want is your cunt around my cock and my teeth in your veins.”

He’s so close I can feel his breath on my lips. His hips against mine. He’s solid. Imposing. Taking up the space in a way that steals my breath for more reasons than one.

He growls. “I can smell you, Professor. You like when I play the big bad wolf, the monster in the dark.”

I shouldn’t. “I don’t.”

He laughs. “Valiant effort.”

Shaking with anger, with lust, with frustration, I pull back and slap his face as hard as I can.

But he just smiles, grabs my wrist, and pins it to the metal behind me as the blanket falls to pool around my feet.

“You want it rough?” He grips my other wrist and brings it to meet the one above my head, holding them in one large handwhile his other slides down my side. “I’m more than happy to oblige.” His hips rock against mine.

“Get. Off. Me.”

He immediately pulls back, brow wrinkled. “What? Why?”

A manic laugh leaps from my lips. “You locked me in a cell! You kidnapped me!”

He shakes his head, drops my hands, and steps back.

I scramble for the blanket, pulling it up to cover my nudity. When I look at Noah, he looks as if I’ve plunged a knife into his heart.

“I’m protecting you,” he says, then swallows. “I thought we were having fun.”

My jumbled emotions explode in tears and laughter. “Protecting me? Protecting me!”

“Yes!” he shouts. “My father will end you.”

“So you’re locking me up?”

“Yes!” He shoves a hand into his dark hair.

“And this is the only thing you could think to do?” I turn away, unable to look at him, all the fight going out of me in a puff of breath as I realize the hopelessness of my situation. He’s stronger, faster, tougher. And I’m at his mercy. “You’re no better than David.”

He spins me, gripping my chin, eyes narrowing. “I may be a monster, but I’m nothing like that low-life filth. I would never hurtyou, Ruby.”

The shattered pieces of my heart thump in my throat. I take a deep breath and return his stare, putting on a braver face than I feel. “You areexactlylike him.”

Noah recoils, dropping my chin like it burns. Without a word, he tears out of the room, slams the door, and locks the latch.

In a fit of rage, I search the room for something to throw, see the tray, and hurl it at the door. It crashes and breaks. Howcould I have been so wrong about Noah? I can’t believe I trusted him, gave myself to him.

Despite my wounded heart, my will is just as strong. I need a way out. My eyes land on the little metal doors I bumped into moments before. Perhaps they lead somewhere. They’re just big enough that I could crawl through. Or maybe there’s something in there I can use.

I open the one closest to me.

Look inside.

---