Page 47 of Drift

“Finally admit it to yourself: you were born to play enticement with me, and you bloody love it.”

Drift jerked around, his first instinct at seeing Ava cut off to the right of the pallet by Stella, a girl a few years older than him. Then to the left, Skin stepped in, his bulk besting Leon’s.

Fuck.

Ava.

She sat on a stack of film-wrapped beer, made visible by a sliver of moonlight breaking through the window, and she took a bite of something before throwing it Drift’s way. The apple tapped him in the chest, then hit the floor and rolled away. Drift didn’t make a move to touch it.

“Not hungry now, little… bro?” Ava smiled his way. “What can I say? I have that effect on people.”

Drift lowered his look. “Not yourfuckingbrother. Not your fucking anything.”

“Yeah?” The look in near-black eyes looked so, so… old, like she’d lived through a thousand scenarios and sat back knowing the way anyone would take before they did, mostly because she’d picked the locks to certain doors long before the game started, loving herding the sheep. The long metal claw wrapping herindex finger, all Japanese intricacy, saw she was one bitch no one should ever feed from. Not with the array of poisons she liked to try out on people. But it wasn’t that kind of humoured hunger that set in her eyes.

She got off the box and came over. “Still trying to convince yourself of that, hm? That you’re not my… fucking anything?” She looked him up and down, settling on his cock with a half a smile. “How’s that, well… going for you, bro?”

Drift shifted stance, almost blocking where her gaze lingered….

“Lost all your lip and attitude?” Ava came in lip-to-lip close. A naginata hung over her shoulder, the iconic weapon of the onna-musha, female warriors of Japanese nobility. She’d always fought for her identity, and that fight never was an empty threat. Watching him for a moment, she let her hand brush his jaw, the fingertip touch rough… distorted, connecting them back to shared… horrors, to grains of sand lived in the same hourglass that counted down the threat of heavy footsteps found only in the night….

It had taken so long to see that it was always Ava’s touch that controlled the turn of the hourglass.

Drift went to jerk back, but a grip in his hood and hair kept him still off Skin as Ava tutted, smiled.

“Fear… disgust…” She shrugged. “It’s just another part of you I get to hold. So you keep hating, baby boy. You keep hating me.”

Drift hissed as Ava traced her claw over his jaw, down his throat, over his abs, all to rest flat half in, half out of the undone clasp to his jeans she’d eased open.

His grip at Ava’s jaw made sure she kept her distance, stilled her touch.

A cock of brow came, then a rougher push into his grip before her kiss crushed hard against his lips despite the skull scarf trying to keep a barrier between them.

And in her eyes, that split second before the kiss…. Black ink strands turned her eyes night-black without any stars to lead him safely out of it.

Giving a snarl, Drift twisted her around, forcing her down onto the pallet, the grip in her hairkeepingher still.

Skin backed off, and into the quiet, Ava tutted and stroked a fine poisoned finger along the V of Drift’s abs.

“Yeah, there you really are, little bro.” Her body arched up into his. “But, hm…” She flashed night-black eyes. “What to do…. What to do with… this.” The sharp tip of her claw stroked through the soft material of his boxers, running the fine point along the hardness of his cock. “I’m your longest drug. You know that.” She eased beneath his boxers. “Always did love those… bad habits of yours….” A flash of eye came. “Love being your… bad habit.”

With a hiss, Drift pushed her off, giving her a wide berth but not taking his look off her as he turned away, fastening his jeans. Hiding… he was always back to hiding, to shying away from her seeing his hard push of cock against the tight confines of his jeans when she was around.

Ava chuckled as she eased up. Coming in close, she shaped him from behind and drifted her touch along the hard outline of his cock.

“Liked you watching me the other day.” Her breath sent shivers down his ear and neck. “Another bad habit of yours, you going all grown up and… watching me the way you do. Never did impress our Grant with that, did you? Hm? His little… voyeur.”

Drift shrugged her off, elbowing her hard enough in the shoulder that Skin did step in.

Ava tutted and distractedly waved Skin off. “You’re getting salty in your young age.” Her eyes cooled, but that blackness didn’t retreat. “Stop it.” She headed back over to her crate. “Or don’t.” She winked back over her shoulder. “Like I said: love, hate, the need to fuck… to hate, fight… I own you. So you pull the trigger. Let’s see who walks out of the dark. I mean….” She looked around the storeroom. “I’m kind of feeling the Russian-Roulette bitch-itch now.”

On her sharp whistle, the light snapped on, forcing Drift to wince and look away for a moment. The roller doors came up, and two guards padded through, completely by-passing Ava even though she stood closest, carrying a blade.

Drift gave them the once-over, for a moment staring longer than he needed to, then he looked back at Ava.

Right. The bitch and her paid bitches.

“Well go on, then. Your silence is boring me.” Ava waved him away. “Show me why else I keep you trapped in my maze to play with.”

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