Page 75 of Switching Graves

I don’t answer.

The emptiness remains, even when she abandons her assault on my pecs and reaches further, unbuckling my belt before repeating the process on my pants. Tugging the neatly tucked hem out of the way, she hungrily gropes my half-erection from atop my briefs.

And then, the most peculiar thing happens.

As if my thoughts conjured her, the Ellery girl appears in the open doorway like an apparition, cheeks flushed. Somehow, among Abigail’s heady words and my distracted thoughts, we missed the warning sounds of her climbing the steps.

“I’m so sorry,” she sputters, staggering to a halt.

Abigail quickly rips her hands out of my slacks to take a step back and button the front of her dress, and I smirk at the little nightmare as she gapes at me, frozen in place.

Finally. It’s like my internal systems have returned to their usual working order. My soul has been sucked back into my body.

“I didn’t mean to interrupt. I’ll come back tomorrow,” she rushes out again, already turning to leave.

Blood surges down to my groin. The view of her standing there in dingy, loose workout clothes does more for me than Abigail has managed in the past fifteen minutes.

“You weren’t interrupting anything,” I tell her, unhooking my cuff links to roll up my sleeves.

I won’t make myself look guilty by rushing to redress the way Abigail did. She huffs her disagreement behind me, but I don’t give a fuck what she thinks right now. This game doesn’t include her, I’ve realized. She’s only a misplaced piece from a completely different box.

Reaching across my desk, I grab up the stack of exams that was waiting for the girl on the corner of my desk. The ones I emailed her about picking up earlier, never anticipating such a delicious surprise.

Holding them out toward her, I keep my tone even as I say, “I have the tests here.”

“I’m sure they can wait until tomorrow,Raze,” Abigail grits through her teeth, scowling down at me from over my shoulder. My name is a curse on her tongue.

I hardly offer her a backward glance, keeping my gaze trained on the young woman still standing in my doorway.

She slowly spins back around, taking careful steps toward my desk as if I’m going to grow six heads and bite her.

No, Little Nightmare. I’ve only got two.

“I’ve got a few notes,” I start to say, but am interrupted when Abigail releases a frustrated growl. She stomps past us and out the door with her dress still unzipped and her hair in disarray, mumbling a string of insults toward me.

“It really could have waited until you were less . . . occupied,” Ellery says in a low voice, as if she doesn’t want Abigail to hear. “She’s going to hate me forever now.”

“She’ll get over it,” I promise boredly. Or maybe she won’t. I really don’t care either way. Something about this woman makes me this way—vicious, uncaring, cruel.

“Have a seat,” I command, nodding toward the chair before me.

Her eyes drop to my exposed chest, then even lower to my black briefs and,fuck me—my erection grows even bigger right before her eyes.

“I should give you a moment,” she suggests in a tight voice, flicking her gaze back up to meet mine when she realizes she’s staring.

I chuckle at her coyness, shaking my head. “Surely, we’ve moved beyond such awkwardness after I’ve seen you completely bare.”

I nearly explode at the mention of that night.

Standing to re-button my pants, I change my mind halfway through the task, leaving them wide open to prove my point as I swipe up my wine glass and walk behind my desk.

And fuck, the image that’s been torturing me for weeks replays in my mind again. I’m so hard, I can’t even think straight, but I refuse to squander this opportunity to pay her back even the slightest bit. The crimson of her cheeks deepens and spreads further down her neck, disappearing beneath her shirt.

“You love bringing that up, don’t you?” she says through a heavy sigh.

Leaning forward to grab up the wine bottle Abigail left behind, my shirt falls open even more, exposing my entire torso as I point to the spot again.

“Sit.”

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