Page 172 of Tis the Season to be Bullied

“Strip, or I’ll cut it off.” He runs the tip of his blade over my shirt, leaving a small tear in the fabric.

He was wrong. This wasn’t going to go one oftwoways. He’s going to get whatever the fuck he wants from me, and it’ll leave me scarred and humiliated.

Again.

But what fucking choice do I have? I know what he’s capable of. What any of them are. He could just as easily slide that blade over my throat and leave me out here to rot.How long would it take them to find my body, even if Romi ever got up the courage to tell them that Silas had kidnapped me?

Trying to make my hands stop shaking doesn’t work, so I stop trying. Who knows, maybe he’ll feel sorry for me if he seeshow scared I am. To that end, I don’t even bother trying to bottle up the fear worming its way through me.

What worries me the most is how calm he is. Like pointing a knife at someone and telling them to strip happens every day.

His eyes drop to watch my hands, but they flicker back up to my face every few seconds as if to make sure I’m still appropriately terrified. I try to think of a way to escape, but I’d first have to get out of this car. That, or get into the driver’s seat. I’m not fooling myself—I know I won’t be able to drive this car more than a yard or two before hitting a tree. The biggest vehicle I ever drove was Peggy’s Toyota. This thing is twice its size.

“I don’t have all day, princess,” Silas says, when I hesitate to take off my bra, although he says it in a voice that suggests he’s lying.

I swallow, force my hands behind me, and unlatch my bra. I shrug it off and quickly wrap my arm around my breasts. Silas doesn’t seem as interested in my naked body as he does in the clothes he takes from me and neatly folds up before placing them on the driver’s seat in front.

He also knows I’m going nowhere near there.

“Are you going to rape me?” I ask, a tremor in my voice. “Because it’s a bit cramped in here for that.”

The side of his mouth twitches. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”

I don’t know what he’s referring to, but then his eyes dart down to my panties. “Everything.”

Fuck.

I lift my hips and shimmy out of my underwear, but instead of handing it to him, I toss it in his face. On instinct, he makes a grab for it with both hands, and the knife leaves my throat.

Forcing my terrified body to respond, I surge forward, aiming straight for the driver’s seat. Silas grabs at me, but now that I’m naked there’s nothing for him to hold onto. His handsslide over my ass, down my thigh. Only when he reaches my ankle does he manage to latch on.

But by then I’ve hit the door lock release button I saw him press earlier, and my hand is already on the handle. I turn and kick him in the face, but I miss his nose and get him on the jaw instead. There’s a click of teeth, and he recoils just long enough for me to yank my ankle out of his grip.

I yell when I fall onto the forest floor, dried pine needles piercing my hands and knees. I struggle to get my balance, but surge forward regardless, trying to get as much distance between Silas and me as possible.

It’s chilly out here without any clothes on, but I try not to think about that. Or about the fact that I can hear sneakers hitting the forest floorveryclose behind me.

I just keep hurtling forward, my legs barely scrambling fast enough. I’m not sure if I’m actually running as much as just taking a long time to fall down. It doesn’t matter—I’m getting away.

Panting, naked, I press on trying to ignore the sounds of pursuit ever closer behind me. I have to split my attention between the tangled forest floor and the way ahead as I avoid impenetrable patches of foliage and exposed roots while forcing myself not to whimper in fear.

At first, I think I’m imagining it, but when I dart around a tree I see it again.

There’s a building up ahead. At first I think it might even be the Academy. Same dark stone, same rearing architecture. But it’s not. It’s just a narrow, multi-level building in the middle of nowhere.

It doesn’t matter. There might be people in there. Maybe even a teacher. And I’m sorry, but if they see a naked girl running screaming through the woods chased by a guy with aknife, there’s no wayin hell they can just brush that under the fucking carpet.

But I never get to find out because a second later, something massive streaks through the trees and slams into me from the side.

“Again?” I yell to the world at large.

Mason twists, landing on his shoulder, my body slamming into his as we collide with the forest floor. We skid for a yard before the dead leaves and pine needles eventually slow us down to a stop.

I’m so shocked that I just lay there curled up on top of him, his arms wrapped around me, for all the world like we’re having a quick cuddle in the middle of the fucking woods.

“Fuck,” he mumbles, the arm around my waist tightening as he pushes into a sit with the other. He closes his eyes, his head bobbing forward before he stiffens his neck. When those amber eyes open again, there’s a touch of frustration in them.

“They said no strenuous activity,” he mumbles. Then his eyes rake down my body, taking in my breasts before I can slap my arm around them. There’s a sudden lustful sparkle in his eyes. “But fuck it, baby girl, you’re worth it.”

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