Page 58 of Backfire
Me: Bite me.
Twatwaffle: You don’t want me coming over there to get it.
My eyes shifted to the last condom sitting next to me, full of water.
Me: Maybe I do.
No text came. Just a loudly growled “motherfucker!” followed by something smashing against the wall. An angry slam vibrated through the air, signaling me to reach out and grab my ammo.
My eyes followed the footsteps echoing down the hall as I slowly crept closer to the door. I’d never been more focused on a small metal knob in my life. I could feel the light glinting off it, tensing my muscles as it jiggled and twisted before being thrown open
Two steps into my room was all Devlin made before I swung my hand, lobbing the water-filled condom through the air.
Gotta say, I’d never been more satisfied than I was when his eyes widened and the bubble burst on his face. I didn’t even care about the backsplash that splashed my shirt. Was my retaliation the best course of action to take?
Probably not.
I was definitely going to pay for it. And that was okay because there was only one thing I could smell in the air as droplets trickled off Devlin’s chin. The sweet scent of cherry-flavored victory. This round was mine.
Then his eyes snapped up to mine and fucked didn’t seem like a strong enough word for the predicament I was in.
Of all the times in my life where the phraseOh, shit!came into play, I never truly understood the full meaning of those two words. But as I stood there watching blackness seep into Devlin’s expression, I got it. I knew why girls in movies ran upstairs instead of outside. It wasn’t stupidity that led them to make poor choices. It was the mind-numbing effect of terror.
I felt that cloud creep its way through my system. It was a cool, heavy abyss of dread that made me wish the floor would open up and swallow me whole. Regret didn’t have shit on that. Hell, I’d take complete and utter mortification over this.
Now would’ve been a great time for Angus to show up, or Reese. Even Wyatt would have been okay. But I was alone, which wasn’t something that bothered me before.
“Did you just hit me with a water balloon?”
Technically, it was a condom. Not that I’d tell him that. I was more worried about getting my legs to move. A calmly spoken phrase shouldn’t be that eerie. If there was a tone for impending death, I just heard it in Devlin’s voice.
“You want to get wet, do you?” Devlin tipped his chin my way and clenched his jaw. “Fine.”
Uh oh, that didn’t sound like a good fine. On the upside, when he jerked towards me, my body suddenly remembered how to move. Devlin’s arm shot out, reaching for me, and I sprang away, jumping onto the bed with the gracefulness of a cat.
The landing, however… that was another matter.
There was this thing called potential energy return that I hadn’t taken into account. Springs—like the ones in this mattress—were designed to bounce back.
So when the full weight of my body slammed down, the springs did what they were meant to and shot me back up, causing me to lose my footing, roll across the bed, and topple off the side.
Gravity pushed down as a whoosh of air blew past me, and yet I still had time to consider the ramifications of my actions. At what point did I cross the line? Was it the text conversation, or the explosion of water that pushed Devlin over the edge? And would I change anything if I could?
I slammed down on the ground with a loud grunt as my lungs concaved and forced out all my oxygen. My brain barely had enough time to register the pain radiating across my chest before Devlin was on me.
He flipped me on my back and growled, “Do you think you’re fucking cute?”
That’s when I decided that no, I wouldn’t change anything if I could. The twitch clenching his jaw was totally worth it.
“I prefer to think of myself as more adorable than cute.” Talking wasn’t an easy task right now. It felt like every inch of my body hated me, but I still managed to get one more jab in. “You should try it sometime. Brooding asshole isn’t really doing it for you.”
That was a total lie. I’d just taken a stellar nosedive off a rather high bed and still couldn’t stop my eyes from roaming over the muscles flexing in his shoulders.
Devlin was looming over me like the shadow of doom, and I had to squeeze my thighs together when a lock of damp hair flopped over his forehead. Probable death should not be that tempting.
Next thing I knew, his fingers were twisting in my hair, then I was being dragged across the floor.
“Let’s see how fucking cute you are after a cold shower.”
