Page 45 of Bend & Break
It must be obvious—the way my breath stutters, the way my eyes keep darting between the mask and his broad chest—because he stills like he’s just caught me in the act.
I point at the mask. “Take that off.”
He pauses. “Why?”
“B-because.”
He tilts his head, watching me with far too much amusement through the eyeholes, like he’s just confirmed something I didn’t mean to give away. “You’re into the mask.”
He’s so matter-of-fact.
I turn away so he doesn’t see how flushed I am. “Let’s get out of here before I do something irreversible,” I mutter.
His fingers curl around my wrist, halting me mid-step. He tugs me back until I’m flush against him, then leans down to murmur in my ear, “We can’t leave just yet. Might look a little suspicious.”
Chapter 16
Mads
She doesn’t move at first. Just stands there staring at me, wide-eyed, breathing shallow. I can’t tell if she’s turned on, freaked out, or about two seconds from bolting.
I hope it’s all three.
Because when I put this mask on, something in hershifted. Pupils blown wide, throat working around a swallow. And for a second, just one, she looked at me like she wanted me to ruin her. Right here. On this fuckass horror set. Red corn syrup covered floors and severed foam limbs and all.
She is as viscerally drawn to me as much as I am to her, evenhere.
And fuck me if that doesn’t nearly snap the last bit of restraint I have.
She’s flushed and fidgety.
I am completely still, letting her body heat seep into me. I watch the way her chest rises. Every cell in my body dances in revelry. “Wanna play a game of hide and seek, Blue?”
I want this so badly it’s embarrassing. To chase her, corner her, catch her. To get my hands on her and prove I could undo every knot she’s tied herself into. I think about the things I’d doto her, the things I’d give, just for an hour where she let me make her feel good.
She twists to look up at me, startled. Her lips part, but no sound comes out.
I tilt my head, catlike. A predator sizing up its prey. “I’ll even let you pick. You can hide, or you can seek.”
She seems to melt further into me. Her fingers twitch at her sides. Nervous. Maybe unsure. But not walking away.
“Hide,” she says, barely above a whisper. “I want to hide.”
I smile under the mask. I knew she would besucha good girl.
She finally pries herself away from me and turns to face me, crosses her arms, and gives me a suspicious look. “How do I know you’re not going to peek? You’ve got this on,” she reaches up and flicks the vinyl covering my cheek. “That’s literally the plot of every slasher movie ever. Creeping on the girl from under a mask.”
I lift a hand to my chest, mock-offended. “Blake Aster, are you impugning my moral integrity?”
“Yes,” she says flatly. “With cause.”
“Fair enough.” I peel the mask off slowly, keeping my eyes on hers the whole time. “Better?”
“Much,” she says, voice tight.
“Good,” I say, then step in and kiss her the way I’ve been dying to do it since the moment she looked at me like I was something dangerous she wanted anyway.
If she’s surprised, she doesn’t let it show.
