Page 43 of Did They Break You

“How’s it going, Remi?” he asks now, his voice quiet, his eyes fixed on mine, his jaw clenched.

I catch his woodsy scent as my nostrils flare. “Fuck off,” I snap back. I go to spin around to walk away, feeling braver now with a witness, but he clamps a hand on my shoulder, keeping me still, and every muscle in my body is tense.

I inhale, grit my teeth, close my eyes.

I hear him laugh, a low, soft sound.

Then his breath caresses the back of my neck. “You look tired. Are you not sleeping well, is that it?” he taunts me. “Having nightmares?”

My throat feels tight. It’s not fear that rolls through me. It’s anger.

He really doesn’t think he did anything wrong.

I keep my mouth shut out of defiance.

He sighs, his fingers crawling up my shoulder, coming to my neck, closing around the back of it. “My girlfriend wouldn’t really like me being here, so close to you.”

I tense, my eyes flying open as I meet his in the mirror.

Immediately, my thoughts flash toMaya.

To him watching her drop me that day in the gym.

I think about his lips over mine in the bathroom. His blood on my tongue. “Your girlfriend?” I blurt out, annoyed there’s so much anger in my tone.

His hand closes tighter around the back of my neck as he keeps his eyes on mine in the mirror. “I think you might know her, pretty baby.”

Those words cause my chest to tighten. I used to love when he called me that. I thought that meant he cared. My sick brain thought his soft words were kind.

But I was naïve. A young girl with daddy issues and only the worst kind of attention at home. I was stupid.

I’m not that girl anymore.

“Maya Bell ring abell?”

My stomach flips. “You’re stillwith her?”

He smiles at me in the mirror. “You sound surprised.”

I shake my head. “Get off of me, Cortland.”

His hand squeezes tighter. “No, thanks.”

I grit my teeth. “You’re disgusting.”

At this, his eyes narrow. “Says the girl who has slept withliterally allof my friends.” His fingertips sink into my flesh, and he jerks me closer, so I can feel him at my back.

I feel his dick, too, how hard he is against me.

My skin prickles.

“You know I didn’t want them,” I tell him, meaning it.

He arches a brow. “Huh. Well, it would’ve been nice if you’d havesaid sothat night.”

My face flushes pink in the mirror and I know he sees it too.

“But I gotta say,” his hand slides around to the front of my throat, gripping me tighter. I know the attendant can’t see what he’s doing, because his tall frame blocks her view.

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