Page 57 of Never Die for a Sinner
Slowly, I climb off her and rise to my feet, holding out a hand to pull her up. She stands on wobbly legs, her hair mused and filled with leaves and sticks from the forest floor.
A better man would take her home and clean her up. Run a bath for her and massage the kinks out of her neck from fucking her on the forest floor.
I’m not a better man, though, and the sooner she figures that out, the better.
“I can’t believe I let you do that to me,” she grumbles.
Not to be mistaken with,I can’t believe I let you fuck me in the woods.That’s slightly less insulting.
She tugs her leggings back up her hips, and I’m almost pissed that her ass is gone. I was enjoying staring at it.
“Well, believe it or not, sweetheart. It happened,” I murmur, grabbing my hoodie off the ground. I toss it to her, and she tosses it back.
Fine. She wants to be a brat; she can be acoldbrat.
She starts walking, not even bothering to make sure I’m with her.
“You’re going the wrong way.”
She pauses, her shoulders tight.
I see my little prude is back.
Without another word, she turns and stalks in the other direction. I chuckle under my breath and follow behind her.
We make the trek back to the house in silence, and she ignores me when I hold my hand out to help her. That’s fine. She can pout all she wants. I don’t owe her anything. She wanted it just as bad as I did.
Yet . . . somehow . . . I still feel like a dick when I catch sight of the scratch on her cheek.
Fuck that.
Why the fuck should I feel guilty? She broke into my room. Snooped through my shit. She was going to steal from me. She’s lucky she’s still got a job and a place to live.
It’s not until we make it up to the house that I’ve decided I’ve had enough of her little attitude.
Fuck it.
Before she can make a mad dash into her room and slam the door in my face, I grab her, shoving her back into the wall, my hand wrapped around her throat.
She lets out a startled gasp, her pretty green eyes going wide, and a look of fear on her face. As if she actually thinks I could hurt her.
My thumb brushes over her rapid heartbeat in the side of her throat, and she swallows heavily, a shiver moving through her.
“Don’t think I won’t find out what you’re hiding, Ava. And when I do, you’d better hope to God you have a good excuse for sneaking around my room.”
I watch the gears turning in her head, as if she’s trying to come up with a new lie to spin. It won’t work. I can see right through her, and the moment I find out who she’s working with, I’m going to enjoy punishing my new little toy.
Because she may not know it yet, but the forest wasn’t the end of this arrangement. It’s not over until I say it is.
And I’ve barely gotten a taste.
I shove away from her before I can drag her back to my room for the night, stalking across the hall. Before I shut the door, I turned back and found her still pressed against the wall, watching me under heavy lashes.
“Until next time, little ghost.”
AVA
I’m officially another statistic.
