Page 208 of Boys Who Taint

He shakes his head slowly.

“Fine.” I clear my throat. “You know, I lost the plug. But I already gave you what you wanted. Now, I need you to hold up your end of our deal.”

He steps forward, and I hold my breath as the space between us evaporates. All that’s left is those haunting eyes and that mask separating me from the truth. He’d never let me rip it off. He’d never let me see what’s behind the mask, not even if I begged.

“Plea—”

“Kiss me.”

The whisper is soft, like a breath in the wind, but it stops all the raging thoughts in my head in an instant.

“Kiss me … and I will kill him tonight.”

A kiss? That’s all he wants after all the dirty demands?

A kiss … and all of it is over, just like that?

I swallow away the lump in my throat as I look up into his soulless eyes, my lips parting. “Can I lift your mask?”

He doesn’t stop me as my fingers slowly reach for his chin, tugging down the balaclava as slowly as I can, so I don’t give him a reason to stop me. I can barely see a thing in the dark, but I can feel the stubble right above his lips as I push the mask up far enough for me to lean in.

And as my hands slowly coil around his face, I press a kiss onto his lips so gentle it makes my eyes tear up.

After tonight, it’ll all be over.

Just this one kiss.

The last on his list.

My lips on his, his hands on my waist, sliding farther and farther across my body, as I slowly begin to lose myself in the moment while his calloused lips kiss mine back for just a second.

Just one second.

And I nearly forget the world even exists.

His lips part against mine mid-kiss. “You flutter around a fire so happily, forgetting it can destroy you in an instant … Firefly.”

Firefly?

My eyes widen.

No.

This is a trick. It has to be.

Suddenly, he pulls out a knife.

Is he going to kill me now?

Whoosh!

He chucks the knife at a nearby tree, and I pull away from him, my lips still tingling from our kiss. Behind the tree, another set of red eyes appears, and my entire body freezes.

“What the fuck?” my kisser murmurs under his breath.

Another masked figure in a hoodie and with red eyes emerges from the graves beyond, zigzagging his way to us. “Seems I’m not the only one who was invited.”

“You …” My eyes narrow as I try to place the awfully familiar voice.

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