Page 58 of Burn With Me

I gasp out my answer. “Fine.” His teeth release me and he offers a brilliant smile. I blink at the way it makes him look so much younger than he is. It’s almost … innocent. And I know better than most that he’s anything but.

“Good girl,” he whispers, pressing a kiss to the bite mark he left before he sets my hand carefully back on the table.

I’m feeling floaty—like I was a puppet all along and someone has just cut my strings. I’m so lost in the vibe of it that I barely recognize Isaac reaching down and pulling out my cell from my pocket. Instead of stopping him, I just stare as he grins my way before unlocking the screen. Of course, he knows the code. Asshole probably looked over my shoulder at some point. He fiddles with it for a few seconds before setting it back on the table next to my bite-marked hand.

Finally, his chair slides back—making the professor pause once at the sound before he shakes his head and continues with his lecture. Isaac leans over and presses a kiss to the top of my head with a grin before he sidles away. I can’t help it. I turn and watch him go as he strides up to the back row where he’d originally been seated.

It could be seconds, it could be minutes, hell, it could be fucking hours later—I don’t know—when Selene leans over my side and prods my arm. “What the hell was that about?” she demands.

My voice, when I answer, is as breathless as I feel. “I wish I knew.”

27

RORI

He has my number. I should’ve known that’s what he was doing when he grabbed my phone in class. As I stare down at the phone screen later that night, I rub my thumb over the bite mark left on my knuckles. It still stings, but at the same time, it does funny things to my insides.

Isaac:221 Brendon St. Friday night. 8 pm

It’s a bad idea. I shouldn’t go. My fingers hover over the screen of my cell. Instead of replying, however, I switch over to my maps app and type in the address, curious. After a moment, my screen reflects a boring-looking shop front. Blacked-out windows with a logo that has two needles crossing over one another within a bejeweled circle and the name of the store.Needle Point Piercings. A piercing shop? What the hell does he want me to do at a piercing shop?

The door to the apartment opens and Hel strides inside, looking like a woman on a mission. I drop the phone onto the coffee table and reach for my drink. The second she sees me, though, her long afro of dark corkscrew curls bounces as she slams to a stop. We look at each other for a long moment.

“What happened today?” she finally demands.

I blow out a breath and set my drink back down. “Isaac cornered me in class,” I say.

She continues into the room until she’s standing in front of me and drops her bag next to the couch. She carefully pushes the coffee table back, moves my drink to the side, and plops down right in front of me. “Tell me.”

I grimace. “I don’t know what to tell you,” I admit. “He was upset that I left and he wanted me to promise to meet him somewhere this weekend.”

“Where?”

I sigh and point to my phone on the table. “A piercing shop.” She frowns and picks up my phone. She doesn’t have to ask for my password. She already knows it. She swipes the screen open and stares at the location I just pulled up.

“That’s suspicious,” she concludes as she clicks across the screen—likely pulling up the website or the reviews or something else to gain more information. I don’t know how much it’ll help. Isaac is probably planning something, but what I don’t know.

“So far, nothing else has happened,” I say.

“They're rumors,” Hel replies.

“Yeah,” I agree, “but I doubt he started them himself. They’re all probably circulating around the fact that he wouldn’t leave me alone in class this morning. There are no more videos or taunting.”

“That’s not to say it’ll last, though,” she points out, flicking her dark brown eyes up at me briefly before she goes back to the cell phone screen. Her lashes lower as she scans the screen, swiping up with her finger. “Have you talked to Marcus?”

A beat of silence passes and when I don’t answer, her eyes find my face again. “Rori … tell me you told your brother about this.”

“He didn’t answer his phone,” I hedge.

“Oh my god.” My phone slams down on the table, the sharp clack making me jump in my seat. “I thought you were going to warn him—tell him about whatever went down between you and Isaac. What the hell happened to you?”

I stand abruptly and reach for my phone, grabbing it and shoving it into my back pocket as I move away from her. “Nothinghappened,” I reply. “I’m still going to tell him, but he hasn’t answered any of my phone calls.” Not that I’d tried calling all that much.

“Thentexthim!” Hel’s voice grows closer as she follows me into my room. “Rori, you can’t go meet him without telling your brother.”

I stop and whirl around to face her as I reach the doorway of my bedroom. Hel jerks back as she nearly collides with my front. “Why?” I demand. “He’s not even here. He left. Or did you forget?”

She scowls at me. “I didn’t forget,” she snaps. “But you don’t seem to recognize that Isaac Icari is not someone you should be getting involved with. What about the video he shared of you? The rumors? He’s been fucking tormenting you since you showed up on Hazelwood’s campus. The effects of that shit don't just go away overnight. He can’t be trusted.”

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