Page 68 of Allure

I grimace. He has a point. I am tired, but in another way, I’m also completely wired too. We’re standing far too close together, and there’s electricity in the air between us. I don’t know if the spark is the kind to set hearts aflame or if it’s the kind that will burn the world down all around us.

“Tomorrow?” he suggests.

“Sure,” I say quickly, already making up my mind because I do not want there to be a victim tonight.

Only Declan’s car is right next to mine, and he follows me out of the lot all the way to Orchid House, where he sits his car idle, rolling down the window.

“I’ll just watch you head on inside,” he says.

“Because I’m not safe here on campus,” I protest. “It’s, what, thirty steps to the door?”

“And I’ll watch them.”

“You don’t trust me,” I say sourly. “You think I’m going to wait until you leave to head back to my car and drive over.”

“You thought about that, didn’t you?”

“Remind me to never play you in poker,” I grumble.

“Strip, baby. Strip poker.”

“I’m actually a very good poker player,” I inform him. “You would be the one naked first.”

“Would that make me the winner or you?” he asks with a grin.

I suck in a breath, not wanting him to draw me back into his web of lust, but then all of the hurt of my past and present all fade away to nothingness, and all I feel is pleasure, the pleasure he coaxes out of my body. When he looks at me, with those damn alluring eyes of him, I’m lost. Lost forevermore.

And I don’t mind.

But I can’t give into him. Not again.

“Goodnight, Brooke,” he says softly.

I turn and flee, and I don’t leave Orchid House again that night.

And there is another reported attack come the morning, this time from a different shopping center altogether. Even if we had gone over, we wouldn’t have been able to prevent it from happening.

All I did was deny us a chance to be together for one more night, a way for Declan to maybe apologize not with words but with his actions, his fingers, his tongue, his lips…

A sigh escapes me as it often does when I think of him, and hell, if I know what to do next as far as Declan and the mugger and all the rest.

CHAPTER24

My classes are a bit of a blur. I have so many assignments to do, and now there are quizzes and tests to contend with as well. I’m studying at the library for once when my phone vibrates.

My mom.

I’ve been putting her off for so very long, and if she starts to talk to me about something I don’t want to discuss, I’ll just use studying as an excuse to get off the phone real quick.

I hurry out of the library so I won’t disturb anyone and answer. “Mom?”

“Brooke! Oh, honey, it’s so good to hear your voice!”

“Yeah, because my voice is so incredible,” I joke. “What’s up? Just calling to check in?”

“Yes,” she says, but there’s something in her tone that makes me want to groan.

“I’m fine, Mom. I’m actually at the library—”

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