Page 220 of Forbidden Lessons

Rooke grasps the back of my neck again and drags me close.

“Do. You. Love. Her?”

Jesus, is he going to kiss me?

My body stiffens, my heart thundering inside my chest.

Why the fuck am I not stopping him?

With our faces an inch apart, I’m treated to a sliver of something insane, something psychotic, something dark and depraved, flickering in his eyes.

Cruelty.

A cruelty that survives, thatthrives,on crushing anything beautiful in the world.

But it can’t crush what it doesn’t know exists.

And I refuse to let it crushus.

“No.” The word puffs out of me past trembling lips.

“Good,” he murmurs, his lips barely moving but still drawing my eyes. There’s alcohol on his breath, and my eyes dart to the bottle of bourbon beside his bed.

Coke. Booze.

I should be pushing him away and getting the fuck out of this head trip of a house before shit goes down…because it’s going down.

I can feel it prickling in the air like static.

See it in his eyes, how hooded they are.

But I’m locked in place by my own treacherous muscles. My mind begging me to quench its curiosity.

It’s why I approached Haven that first day I saw her in the woods. She’d been alone, dancing and skipping through a small patch of wildflowers in what soon became our favorite clearing.

I’d never seen someone so happy.

So carefree.

It made me angry, how easy it was for her.

Until I knew her better. Until I knew that the rest of her day was a miserable suck-fest, and this was a version of herself she climbed into to escape reality.

Bastian slides a hand onto my shoulder and pushes me down on the edge of the bed.

Again, I don’t resist.

Again, curiosity wraps around me, binding me to him.

“Stay here. I’m going to fetch Haven.”

My heart gives one hard thump in my chest. “You won’t hurt her, will you?”

He studies my face, spending so much time on my mouth that my lips start to tingle. I flinch when he drags a knuckle over my jawline.

“No,” he drawls. Such a stark contrast to my pathetic little lie.

Creases appear at the corner of Rooke’s eyes. “You will.”

---