Page 131 of The Wrong Play

Jace: You’re dreaming about me, aren’t you?

Jace: I bet you are.

Jace: Probably thinking about my hands on you, and that little tongue trick I did this morning.

I rolled my eyes, but a smile tugged at my lips despite myself. I was going to ignore that comment…I didn’t need to be getting horny when class was about to start.

Jace: No response?

Jace: I’ll take that as a yes.

Me: I’m in class. You’re being stalkerish again.

Jace: So, tell me to stop.

My fingers hovered over the keyboard. But, of course…I didn’t tell him to stop.

I was past the point of wanting him to.

Jace: Learning anything important?

I shook my head, trying to ignore the warmth curling low in my stomach. I needed to focus.

The professor still wasn’t here yet, but the lecture hall was already buzzing. Students filled the seats around me, pulling out laptops, flipping through notebooks, and leaning across tables to whisper. Some of them weren’t even trying to be discreet.

I caught the sideways glances. The murmurs just low enough to be obvious.

Jace.

His name threaded through the air like static electricity, sparking in snippets I tried to ignore but couldn’t quite escape.

I was getting used to the stares. The rumors. The fact that half these people probably had an opinion about me, one way or another.

That was the price I paid for dating someone who was a campus celebrity, though.

Good thing he was worth it.

I glanced at my phone to see what else Jace had sent, and then it happened.

A voice sliced through the chatter, deep, smooth, and rich with authority.

“Good afternoon, everyone.”

My entire body locked up. Every muscle in me turned rigid, my fingers turning ice cold where they gripped my pen.

No.

No,no,no,no.

That voice.

The voice that had once whispered in my ear, wrapping around me like silk, like chains. The voice that had slithered through my nightmares long after I thought I had escaped.

A sound I would know anywhere, no matter how much time had passed.

I turned my head toward the front of the room slowly, dread thickening like tar in my veins.

My stomach dropped into a bottomless, black pit of nothingness.

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