Page 106 of The Darkest Note

“Do you really think you’re impressive for tormenting someone like me? You run around making my life hell and for what? What could a poor girl like me possibly have that the big bad wolf of Redwood Prep has to take from her?”

He grabs me by the shoulders and drags me close to him. I can feel his heartbeat banging against his chest.

“You know what I want,” he grinds out.

My eyes fall on his lips. There’s something more behind his obsession with kicking me out of Redwood Prep. I can feel it.

“Why do you need me gone?” I whisper intently.

Instead of answering, Dutch stares me down. His eyes are tormented. It’s like I’m watching him being torn in two.

I press up on my tiptoes, my lips an inch away from his. “Tell me, Dutch.”

He growls low in his throat.

The heat between us isn’t unfamiliar to me, but it’s different tonight. The temperatures are rising, slow, steady, like the notes before the climax of a song.

My breathing deepens when Dutch steps closer to me, penetrating my personal space. “Stop testing me, Cadey.”

I’m so caught up in him that it takes me a second to realize I’ve got my hands under his shirt. He captures my wrist, his jaw flexing.

I’ve felt this surge of desire before—in the dressing room when he kissed me and when we had that moment in the coffee room. Both times, I was able to pull myself back, but I don’t know if I can now.

Dutch looks like a bad decision in the making. His shirt is black and so are his pants. He’s darkness in motion, imposing and yet incredibly magnetic. When he watches me, it feels like I’m naked. Like there’s nothing I could hide from his eyes.

This connection, in all its pulsing brokenness and sharp edges, is what I want. Just like the music that filled me when I was downstairs, I may not have experienced it before, but it’s familiar to me. To my body. To my soul.

I crave it.

More of it.

My skin comes alive as I feel Dutch’s strong fingers sliding beneath my coat and slipping it down my arms. Fake feathers tickle and caress my skin before pooling into a puddle at my ankles.

Still watching me, Dutch presses a hand against the small of my back. Silk meets hot flesh and a surge of air hits the back of my lungs. He draws me close in a rough motion, smashing me into his sculpted body.

“Why are you wearing this dress?” It’s not a question so much as it is a berating.

I don’t have time to think about an answer when his lips drift on top of mine. The heat inside me swells, throbbing with its own pulse and sending signals of desire through my body.

I slide my hands around his waist and push into his back, nudging him closer to me. Close enough that I can feeleverything.

It’s new and thrilling. I’ve never let any boy as close I let Dutch get to me. We’re breathing each other in, drowning in each other. There’s not enough oxygen to stay alive.

The song from downstairs crawls beneath the slit in the door, filling the room with a sensual rhythm. I lap at his mouth, wanting to taste more of him.

This kiss is different than the one we had in the changing room.

That time, I wasn’t myself—myrealself.

And Dutch was gentle with her. The other me.

Tonight, he’s not. He’s pushing up my dress and rubbing his hands all over me. Then he’s squeezing me. Hard. I moan and he growls at me before dragging the sleeves of my dress down my shoulder and sliding his tongue across my chest.

I dig my fingers into his shoulders. Hot, desperate sensations whip through me, too fast for me to contain. Too much for me to handle.

His name falls out of my lips and he surges up, smashing my head into the wall with the force of his kiss. Maybe I see stars. Or maybe I hear fireworks. I don’t know. I just kiss him deeper and he sucks at my bottom lip, making my knees buckle.

Without warning, Dutch picks me up and drops me on top of the vanity mirror. His lips don’t leave mine for a second.

---