Page 39 of Beautiful Secrets
So much blood.
My stomach grows tight. I taste bile.
“Fuck you!” I yell, and race for the door again.
“I never meant to hurt you!”
My hand shakes as I hold the card up to the panel. I hear a mechanism somewhere behind the wall, but it sounds as if the elevator is all the way on the ground floor.
Chyort!
Just then, the intercom buzzes. It’s so close to me—just a few feet away—that I almost pee myself at the sound.
Yes!
I lunge toward the intercom.
For a moment, I think I’m seeing things as something soars past me.
But then the butcher’s knife slams into the plastic handset and smashes it to pieces.
I gape at the mess and then turn toward Cole, dread filling every inch of my body with ice.
He’s right next to me.
He grabs the front of my throat with his left hand and pushes me against the wall.
Bleeding out? It’s like I barely even scratched him. His right hand swipes hair out of my face so he can study me.
He clicks his tongue a few times, shaking his head. “I’m starting to think you’re enjoying this,” he murmurs. “The chase, the fight, the punishment. Why else would you keep trying at something you know you’ll fail?”
“Because quitting is for losers,” I hiss, and then kick him in the balls.
Well, I try.
But he twists away at the last second and I just end up kneeing him in his washboard stomach.
“Christ, woman,” he grates as he throws me back against the wall and pins me with his body. “You know how this ends.”
“Yeah, but do you?” I fire back.
He lets out a huff of a laugh. “You trying to wear me out? Because I can go all night, little rabbit.” His eyes drop to my mouth, and then slide down my body. “All night.”
I feel his gaze like a physical touch. And, for some unfathomable reason, his veiled threat makes my ass start to throb again.
I know what he wants—it is blatant in the way he keeps looking at me. So why the hell am I not using that to my advantage?
My stomach flutters queasily.
Because I am scared.
Fuckingterrified.
I can try to seduce him. But that means letting him close. Letting him touch me. Letting him…do other things to me.
Can I handle that now…ever?
There is only one way to find out.
