Page 60 of Covenant

“An act, huh?” His breath is hot on my ear and I’m fighting to stay still, to not turn my head to face his challenge head-on. “Then why were you the one who had to get off the second we got home?”

“That had nothing to do with it. I was teaching you a lesson.”

“You taught me something, all right. I’ve spent years wondering what you look like when you come. Now I don’t need to imagine it. I’ve got the memory to look back on as often as I want.”

I’m so tense that you could bounce a quarter off any part of my body and it’d hit the ceiling. “You repulse me.”

He hums before rolling onto his back. “I’d believe that if I was the only one hard on that dance floor. But we both know that wasn’t the case.”

With that, he falls silent. Moments later, his breathing falls into the slow pattern of deep sleep.

I scowl into the darkness. People who fall asleep that easily must be psychopaths. It’s the only explanation. Matthias does it every night, so it all adds up.

As exhausted as I am, I know it won’t be that simple for me.

Especially not with everything that happened tonight. With everything Matthias has just thrown at me.

“I’m talking about the way you kissed me.”

“Why were you the one who had to get off the second we got home?”

“I wasn’t the only one hard on that dance floor.”

He’s holding up a mirror, forcing me to face things I want to ignore.

Things I don’t want to admit.

I wasn’t hard. I was just…it was natural. And I was winning. I won.

That falls flat as I think about meeting Matthias’s brothers. The strange family dynamics I don’t fully understand. The hints of how he’s talked about me in the past.

But most of all, there’s one phrase that keeps replaying. One that I know is going to keep me up for hours. One I can’t escape, even if I want to. It proves that I’m right, that Matthias is attracted to me.

But I’m fucking terrified it means more than that.

“It’s everything I’ve ever wanted.”

* * *

I must fall asleep because I’m having a super weird dream about me trying to run in a bowl full of pudding, but my tongue is too large and my feet are webbed. I can’t move, can’t swim. Can’t cry out for help. I’m forced to eat that pudding to escape.

And in the distance, I hear it. Someone moaning.

But that sound isn’t in my dream.

It’s coming from beside me.

Sitting up slowly, I blink until my vision focuses. When it does, alarm fires through me. “Matthias?”

He’s thrashing in the sheets, beads of sweat rolling down his face, his chest. Even in the darkness, I can see how pale he is. His breathing is too fast. His lips are open as moans turn to whimpers.

“Please,” he begs. “Please, I promise. Don’t.”

My blood turns to ice. Who is he speaking to? What the fuck is going on?

“Matthias,” I lean over him. “You’re dreaming. Wake up.”

A choked sob falls from him as he covers his eyes with his forearm. “I’ll do anything. Anything. Please don’t do this.”

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