Page 28 of Midnight Wedding

Come over. We need to talk.

I’m trembling when I look in the mirror. My hair’s a curly, ratty mess, and the stupid little stud in my nose is slightly off-center. I’m in black Adidas sweats and a tight thermal top with no bra on. My nipples are hard for some reason.

Fuck it. Whatever. I pull back my hair to keep it from my face, tell my mother I’ll be back soon, and walk down the hall. Another funeral march.

“I don’t know what to do with you,” Arsen says when he welcomes me into his place. It’s weird, the way he changed it since I was last here. Aside from the general lack of mess, there are paintings on the wall, generic landscapes I couldn’t pick out of a lineup, but still. An attempt at personalizing an otherwise barren space.

“Don’t do anything with me.” I stand nervously near the couch, sit down on the arm, lose my balance and rock back, then jump to my feet. I’m getting all twitchy and annoying again.Get it together, Lena. “We can just call this a wash. I already quit Shade.”

“That’s a start.” He’s staring at me. There’s something else bothering him, like he’s not quite in the room, but his gaze keeps moving down my body. It lingers on my chest, and I like how he licks his lips. A flush fills my skin, thinking of what he can do with that mouth.

“What can I do to convince you? How about you take my brother as a hostage?”

“I don’t want your brother.”

“Yeah, I can’t blame you, nobody really does.”

“I want you.”

He steps toward me. A cold thrill runs down my spine. It’s half horror and half primal excitement.Hooray, the murderer wants to fuck me.

Why is that weirdly hot?

“You know I can’t turn you down,” I whisper, because it’s true. He wants to fuck me? Okay, fine, fuck me, anything to keep him from killing me. That confuses things since Iwanthim to fuck me too. I just alsohaveto. Maybe he doesn’t care.

“You can. You’re free to do anything you want.”

“Then you might get mad and kill me. See the problem?”

“I’m not going to kill you, Lena,” he says, voice husky and low.

“Fine. Good. That’s wonderful. So I can walk out of here?”

“Yes.”

“No strings attached?”

“Stay away from Shade. Find a job far away from that place. Don’t ever speak to anyone from that club again. But aside from that, no strings.”

I’m breathing fast. I touch my top lip with my tongue and shift past him. “Then from here on, I don’t know you, I’ve never seen you, and I won’t ever say anything about you to anyone.”

“If that’s what you want.” He’s staring at me as I shuffle down the hall. His big, muscular body doesn’t yield to me, and I’m forced to the wall to slip away. He turns to stare at me but doesn’t reach out.

“Goodbye.” I reach the door. My heart’s pounding. Is this what I want? He looks so good it’s obscene. His tight Henley shirt’s unbuttoned, showing off a bit of ink and a little scar. His hair’s swept back in a gorgeous wave, and he’s got that incredible mouth. And I know what sort of things he can do with it.

I hesitate. I shouldn’t, but I do. I don’t grab the door and yank it open, and maybe that’s why he does it.

But he reaches for me just as I turn to look at him again.

His fingers brush my cheek. I stare, mouth opening. His palm cups my cheek and slowly moves back into my hair.

I could jerk away and tell him to stop. Some part of me knows I should.

His hand grips hard, and I gasp.

“Tell me you want it,” he whispers through his teeth. “Tell me, Lena, and I’ll fuck you until your messy little pussy comes all over my bed tonight.”

“That’s what you want from me?”

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