Page 37 of Kings & Corruption

But I wanted in. I wanted to be sure.

I opened my clutch and dug for the hairpin. I was bending to insert it into the lock when the door flew open.

I stood on reflex, pulse racing — and found myself staring at my stepbrother.

Chapter17

Willa

He shut the door behind him and leaned against it, his eyes glinting in the dim light of the room.

He squeezed one of his fists in the other palm. “Do you have any idea what you’re doing?”

The implication was clear: that I was stupid, that Ididn’tknow what I was doing. It pissed me off, because while I didn’t want to be here — at Aventine, in the Kings’ house, in the dean’s office after hours — I had to do it for Emma.

“I’m doing what no one else has been willing to do,” I said sharply. “What no one else cares enough to do. I’m looking for my sister.”

He pushed off the door and stalked toward me.

I tried to back away from him but came up against the curtained window behind Dean Giordana’s desk.

Neo was almost on top of me when he finally stopped moving, his chest brushing against mine as he stared down at me, his eyes spitting fire. “You don’t know anything about Emma’s life here.”

My mouth dropped open. I didn’t know what I’d expected him to say, but it wasn’t that. It wasn’t Emma’s name, familiar, even…intimatein his mouth.

“What do you know about Emma?” I asked, staring up at him.

He leaned closer, his cheek brushing against mine. “What do youthinkyou know?”

He spoke the words right into my ear, his lips grazing my earlobe. The sensation went straight to my pussy, the scent of his sweat and cologne filling my head like some kind of drug.

“She was here,” I managed to say as he shoved his knee through the silky fabric of my skirt. He wedged it between my legs, and I had to fight the urge to grind on it as my clit sought friction. “She… she came for a party. Her roommates said she came… they said she came for a party.”

Fuck me. Why couldn’t I get the words out like an intelligent human being?

He brushed his nose along my jaw and I felt his hand close around my throat.

He squeezed. Not hard. Just enough to make me wet.

“What else?” he murmured against my neck.

“N… nothing else. She was at Bellepoint. Then she was here. Then she was gone.”

The horror of it broke through my lust. I felt it as a sharp pain in my chest, a vise that threatened to crush me in its grip.

Neo kissed my throat and I cursed myself as a sigh escaped my mouth.

“Drago thinks you’re a tiger,” he said, kissing his way up my neck. “Rock thinks you’re a kitten. You know what they both have in common?”

“What?” I barely managed to choke it out as he dropped a feather-light kiss at the corner of my mouth.

“They’re both cats,” he said against my lips. “And you know what they say about curiosity and cats.”

He crushed my lips under his, and I admit it: for a split second, I forgot.

I forgot why I was in Dean Giordana’s office, why I’d come to Aventine.

I forgot that I despised Neo Alinari. That he might know something about Emma.

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