Page 74 of Kiss the Villain

Yet.

I lift the cigarette to my mouth as I watch him, letting my eyes linger on his lips. Lips I have the urge to kiss again.

Lips I shouldn’t have tasted in the first place, because one taste was enough to convert me.

My little monster is one of those obscure niche religions that revolve around pain.

And dominance.

And goddamn forbidden desires.

He clears his throat, clearly uncomfortable with my staring, and that makes me smile.

I truly find pleasure in seeing him squirm.

I release a cloud of smoke and wait until it ripples in the air. “Your unlawful conduct is spiraling out of control. Breaking and entering again?”

“I didn’t break anything. I just put in your code and got in. You should’ve changed it if you didn’t want me to have access. Besides, you’re the one who said I could drop by since I already know where your place is.”

He talks a lot when he’s out of his element. I suppose it’s because he’s not used to having someone mess with him. Though I don’t think he enjoys messing with others either since he disregards them too much to waste his time on them.

But he is giving me his time.

His attention.

He’s here because he can’tnotmess with me.

When I continue watching him in silence, he narrows his eyes. “Aren’t you cold? Your lips are blue.”

“You’ve been looking at my lips?” I let my mouth curve in a grin. I can’t help it.

This little fucker merely exists in my vicinity, and no amount of ice can numb me.

“Observing your sorry state,” he says with that natural condescension, and the arrogance he hides so well in public rushes through in warm waves against my freezing skin.

“And you do that by watching my lips? If you want a kiss, all you have to do is beg.”

“Get over your fucking irrelevant self.”

“Language. And if I were irrelevant, you wouldn’t be standing in my bathroom like a lost puppy looking for his master.”

His lips lift in a snarl, and I wait for him to attack me so that I can yank him into the depths of the bath. My fingers twitch around the cigarette, and any trace of fucking numbness disappears.

It must be the look in my eyes that gives me away, because his widen a little, and he presses his lips in a line. The dimples appear in his cheeks, but they’re not deep, not like when he smiles.

And he does that a lot on campus. With his fake friends and fake acquaintances. He smiles like it’s a sport.

He never smiles around me, though.

I wonder why.

I know exactly why, but it doesn’t make me despise the others any less.

“Just come out. I’ll wait outside. If you faint, I’ll let you die.”

“Ever thought of writing aHow-to Tough Lovebook?”

“No, but I’m thinking of writing aHow to Murder Your Professor for Dummies, though you might not get to read it.”

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