Page 39 of Wicked Dreams (Fallen Royals 1)

He leans in. “Don’t you dare speak about my father.”

I stiffen. “Caleb—”

He twists my wrist, bending me over. “I was almost starting to like you again,” he mutters. “And then—” He pats me down, his hand almost as violating as in the car.

I get my arm loose, pushing at his chest. “What the fuck?”

He grabs me again, finally finding what he’s looking for: my phone in my back pocket.

I snatch it before he can do whatever he’s going to do and take off.

Where, I don’t know. It isn’t like I can run all the way home. But once I get my phone back, my mind registers the awful glint in his eyes. He’s murderous. Dangerous.

He’s worse than a demon.

He’s the fucking devil.

I sprint up the running path, shoving my phone in my bra. I make it to the curve in the path, just before the trees break open.

He tackles me from behind, his arms wrapping around my middle.

He doesn’t cushion our landing, either. I don’t have time to protect myself, except to bring my arms in like tucked wings. We hit the ground hard, sliding and rolling down an embankment, and I immediately propel us sideways. We’re a wild tangle of limbs.

Caleb stops us, his weight crushing down on me. One of his legs has mine pinned, and he grabs my wrists and drags them above my head.

I’m stretched out and furious, trying to kick at him, when he leans down and kisses me.

Another mind game.

I bite his lip hard enough to draw blood. The sharp metallic flavor hits my lips, but he doesn’t stop. It fills my mouth, and then his tongue pushes inside, claiming all of my space. All of my oxygen.

I hate you, I say on repeat in my mind, if only to try to remind myself that I’m not this person. I’m not the person who falls for the bully. I’m not the girl who falls to her knees when the handsome boy pays attention to her.

If I want to win his games, I’ll have to remember that.

If I lose… I’ll lose more than the game. I could lose myself, too.

“Kiss me,” he growls against my lips, my only reprieve.

And then he’s back on me, and damn it, the kiss brings out feelings my body doesn’t know how to handle. His hand slides down my side, into my jeans. He touches me like no one has before, and I might just combust.

I arch my back, loathing myself.

“I used to dream about this,” he says, leaving my lips and moving down my throat.

I don’t think about how Lenora and Robert will react if I come home with a hickey. Okay, I do. I think it, and then the thought blows out of my mind at the first pinch of Caleb’s teeth in my skin.

I moan. It’s a little surreal: who is that on the ground, making sounds she’s only heard in movies? Feeling things she didn’t think she had a right to feel?

“How long should I deny you, love?” he asks.

A burning ache spreads through me, chased by a spark of something extraordinary. I shift. I curl my fingers into fists.

“Should I leave you like this? Spread out, begging for me?”

He rises up on his elbow, staring down at me while his fingers move on the most sensitive part of me.

“D-do you want me to beg?”

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