Page 66 of Hunting Pretty

The sound of him ripping through my t-shirt filled the room. I gasped, my skin prickling as the cool air hit my bare nipples.

They tightened to hard painful points.

Even more so when he ran the blade over them, caressing me with the cold kiss of steel.

I fought the urge to push my breasts out toward him for more.

I should be terrified.

Iwasterrified.

But for some stupid reason, I also felt… alive. My blood rushed through my veins like a drug. I could feel every single cell in my body electrified.

My heart almost stopped when he slid that blunt edge along my hip.

“Don’t move a muscle,” he said, his voice as soft as a lover’s even as his deadly blade, glinting in the moonlight, promised violence. “I wouldn’t want to cut you. At least… not yet.”

I tried to scream, but fear had closed its hand around my throat.

He lashed up, cutting apart one side of my panties.

The thin strip of cotton fell away, revealing my hip, exposing more of my skin.

He traced the knife along the curve of my bare hip that he’d exposed, letting out a low growl from deep in his throat. “So fucking soft.”

I grit my teeth against the wave of panic.

Stay calm, Ava. He’s not going to hurt you.

I don’t know where this irrational thought came from. But it sounded hollow against the nightmare that was unfolding before me.

He chuckled. “Have you decided to stop investigating?”

I pressed my lips together.

I could lie to him. Say yes.

I could stop this torture, his twisted sense of punishment, with a single word.

But something inside me flared in defiance.

My childhood was shrouded in mystery, even after yearsof therapy, my memories of before Ebony took me in were still missing. That’s why, I believe, I was drawn to journalism, to the career that uncovered secrets and gave voice to those who had no voice.

Somehow it felt like if I could just uncover Liath’s secrets, I could start to unravel my own.

That’s why I sought the truth. No matter the consequences.

So I refused to give up. I would not walk away. Could not.

And perhaps, if I looked closer at my intentions, I would see that a part of me, a dark twisted part deep down inside mewantedto see how far he’d go.

So I said nothing instead. Confirmed nothing. Denied nothing.

But he must have read me like a book because his features morphed from a smirk to a scowl. “So stubborn.”

He slipped the blade’s sharp edge under the other side of my panties.

I choked on a knot in my throat. “N-no. Please.”

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