Page 28 of Deadly Sacrifice

Prudence scrunches up her nose and — I despise that I’m even thinking this — the expression is fucking adorable. “Nothing, I just don’t— this is my first date, so nothing to compare it to.”

I balk for a moment, and then a wicked smile curls up my lips. “No dates, huh? You just went right in for the kill. You’re my kind of girl, Ember,” I rasp, stepping in and gripping her waist. “Don’t worry,” I add softly. “I’ll be a gentleman tonight. It’s my honor to give you a first, even if I missed all the rest.”

Something flickers in her eyes, but I don’t really care. I’m done talking. Leaning down, I press my lips to hers. I’m soft at first, letting her ease into it, but the second her mouth parts for me and her tongue peeks out to meet mine, I lose a little shred of control. Groaning into her hot mouth, I back her up against the nearest tree, savoring the shocked sound she makes when the bark scratches through her sweater.

Prudence tastes like cherries and sex, and I’m a second away from ripping her clothes off for more.

16

Prudence

My lips are buzzing with a scorching, unfamiliar heat when Creed finally pulls away. His grip is firm and needy on my waist, his hungry eyes devouring every inch of my face as if he’s burning it to memory for later.

I breathe out a self-conscious laugh, gently pushing his chest away to give myself some space. “I thought you were being a gentleman tonight?” I ask softly, biting my kiss-swollen lip.

Creed smiles, setting his sharp features into a deviously handsome mask. “Sorry,” he whispers, giving my waist a squeeze before backing away, taking my hand to pull me along. “Seems I can’t help myself around you.”

Butterflies are still swarming in my stomach, threatening to dive lower. That was my real first kiss. The one in class today doesn’t count. This is my first date. Christ, if I’m not careful, Creed will steal all my firsts and leave me an entirely new woman.

“Maybe that’s a sign this is a bad idea,” I say as we come to a stop in a small clearing. There’s a cooler, presumably filled with beer, lights strung along the surrounding trees, and a couple of axes leaning against a wide tree. “I can’t imagine it’s a good thing to be around someone who makes you lose control.”

Creed arches a brow at me over his shoulder as he goes to pick up an axe. Walking toward me with the handle offered, he says in a rough voice, “The only people I want around me are the ones who make me lose control. Who force me to feel something other than the bland fucking monotony of life. Otherwise, what’s the point?”

I open and close my mouth, searching for the right words. I take the proffered axe, weighing it in my hands. “I guess there wouldn’t be one,” I mumble, tightening my grip on the smooth wooden handle.

“Exactly.” He grabs an axe for himself, staring down at the blade. “I don’t want to settle for boring, or routine, or fucking black and white. I want to spend every single day submerged in color. Losing control, making a scene, and doing what I damn well please. That’s the only way to live.” He steps forward, rolling his shoulders back, raising the axe high above his head, and then throws it. As it embeds into the thick trunk of a tall tree, Creed looks back at me. “And if I can’t have that, then I may as well drive that axe through myself instead.”

In all my years, I’ve never heard something so insanely profound. My chest is tight as I watch him walk forward and retrieve his axe. Then I get into position and steel my spine. “I’ve never lived for myself,” I mutter, imagining that big tree as every hurdle I’ve had to jump in my life.

Warmth soaks into my back, and Creed’s deep cadence is right at my ear when he tells me, “Then isn’t it time you start?” He guides his hands down my arms, wraps them around my wrists, and helps me pull the axe back above my head. “Lose control with me, Prudence.” Then he releases me and steps back.

I’m still for a moment, breathing heavily and glaring at that goddamn tree. And then, with a roar that claws its way up from a deep, wounded place within me, I throw the axe and watch as it flips through the air, hits the tree wrong, and bounces to the dirt below. My shoulders slump and I blow out a harsh breath. “That was anti-climactic.”

Creed lasts maybe three seconds before he bellows out a laugh.

I spin on my heels, ready to chew him a new one, but laughter is bubbling from me, too.

“It’s not as easy as it looks,” he says, walking by with a big smile. Picking up my axe for me, he adds, “I guess we’ll just need to spend all night out here practicing.”

I glance around the clearing we’re standing in, and then up at the starry sky. Creed came out here beforehand to get everything ready. It would be a shame to let his efforts go to waste by calling it a night too soon. And even though I told myself not to trust these guys, Asher is the only one who has set off my internal alarms.

Creed and Griffin are different. Maybe I don’t have to fight what I’m feeling all the time. I can see where things go here and keep my eyes peeled for red flags at the same time. All while balancing school, Greek life, and finding out the truth for my mom. I may be setting myself up for failure, but right now, with the way he’s been looking at me, I find myself wanting to give in. Shrugging one shoulder, I turn my attention back to his warm brown eyes and seductively messy black hair. “I don’t have anywhere else to be.”

“Good.” Closing the distance between us, he cups my cheek and tips my face up to meet his gaze. “Looks like you’re all mine then,” he breathes against my lips before sealing them to mine. After a disappointingly quick, yet lingering kiss, Creed back up and hands me my axe.

We spend the next hour sipping beers, throwing axes, and laughing. He’s not at all what I expected. That first day when we met, I thought for sure I had him pegged as the campus fuck boy. He exuded a careless, sex-fueled energy that I’m sure drenches more panties than an erotic novel.

But in reality?

He’s so much… more. He’s spent most of the night teaching me how to properly throw my axe rather than showing off and throwing his. When he speaks, his words are soft and unhurried, with the barest undertone of lust. His touches are simmering, but never pushing. And goddamn, his eyes are a molten river of golden chocolate that holds me hostage anytime his attention is solely on me.

I’ve never been on a date, but Creed has eviscerated every ideal I ever held onto about romance. I can’t imagine anyone ever surpassing him, ever outdoing this moment in time.

That thought is all at once terrifying and exhilarating. I didn’t come to college to date. I’m here with one goal: to make my mom proud. Yet I’m getting drawn into this guy with no hope of seeing my way out, and it’s only the first date. But like he asked me earlier, isn’t time I start living for me? Just a little, at least? Ultimately, that’s what propels me, what fans the flames he started over an hour ago.

“Creed,” I murmur, walking up behind him and putting my hand on his back to grab his attention.

He looks at me over his shoulder, an alluring half-smile curling up his pink lips. “Yeah, Ember?”

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