Page 22 of Deadly Sacrifice

My smile gets a sharp edge to it. “With enthusiasm, usually.”

“Right. I’m sure you make it as enjoyable as you can manage,” she drawls sarcastically.

“Why so feisty today?” I ask her, using my hands to tip her face up a bit more while I inch closer. To the few students milling around, I’m sure the two of us look like a couple getting ready to lose ourselves in the other’s mouth. “You weren’t like this with me before,” I point out with a bit of a pout.

“Before you proved how much of a fake asshole you were? Gee, Asher, I wonder what could have changed between us?” she bites out.

I narrow my eyes. “Oh, so now I’m the villain?” Prudence scoffs, so I let out a long sigh and then say, “I’m sorry that I lost control the other day outside the cafeteria, but I—“

“There’s no excuse,” she snaps, startling me a bit. The quiet, almost timid girl who barged into the men’s restroom is long gone, and in her place is this little fire cracker trying to peel my flesh off my bones with her furious eyes.

I loosen my grip on her face, stroking my thumbs over her cheeks again and giving her my most charming, apologetic expression. “I’m sorry, Prudence. I was having a bad day, and I took it out on you,” I explain softly.

She wrenches her face back, and I let my hands drop to her shoulders instead. She gives me this incredulous look, like I’m speaking right out of my ass, but when I don’t make a move to say anything more, she shakes her head. “You scared me, Asher. Hurt me. You left marks on my skin, left the taste of blood in my mouth. Not to mention the actual threat you made that day. Normal people have bad days and chop off all their hair or lock themselves away and tell the world to fuck off. You didn’t have a bad day. You let your mask slip and showed your true colors. Don’t think you can fool me into believing otherwise now.”

A couple of giggling chicks walk by, and I shoot them I tense look before focusing down at Prudence once more. “You know what I think?” I ask in a low voice.

“Please, do enlighten me,” she drawls, looking so unbelievably bored and unimpressed that it’s almost comical.

“I think you’re not so innocent, little Prudence Cate. I think your ploy of being just another college freshman, just another wannabe popular girl in another fucking sorority, is a ruse,” I murmur as I lean in, bringing my lips near her ear. “And I think you’re so desperate to reach your end goal, whatever it may be, that you’ll play along with all this other shit, our behavior and demands, because you’ve got no other choice.” I dig my fingers in harder, enjoying the soft hiss of pain she makes. “And I’m the goddamn king around here, sweetheart. One word from me will send your ass packing,” I vow darkly before pulling back to smile at her.

Prudence is stiff in my arms, and if I’m not mistaken, she even trembles a little. But much to my surprise, she lifts her gaze, stares at me with a blank face, and says, “What did you want, Asher?”

“You on your knees,” I answer smoothly, not giving her a chance to deny me as I put enough pressure on her shoulders to force her down. A class must have recently let out because a dozen or so students are coming our way, headed for their cars. “Perfect timing,” I murmur as she finally relents and drops to the ground with a pained whimper. “Last chance to do this in my car?”

Prudence closes her eyes, swallowing hard. When she opens them again, she shakes her head, lifting her trembling hands to my belt.

Half the students walking by stop — most of them guys — pulling out phones and making crude jokes to their friends. One of them even whistles, grabs his groin, and shouts, “Yeah, baby. I’m next!”

Her face crumples, her fingers shaking so badly now that she can’t even manage to unclasp my belt.

I should revel in this moment. I should love the power I have over her right now. I’m following my dad’s orders, pushing and pushing Prudence until I can find her breaking point. What’s one blowjob in the middle of campus with an audience, right? The girl should certainly have thicker skin. Hell, Heather would do this willingly and enjoy every second of it.

But I don’t feel anything except thick shame curling up in my gut. Especially when she levels her determined, slightly watery eyes on me, finally yanking my belt open and starting on my button and zipper.

My hand snaps out before I can convince myself to shut off my emotions and let this happen. I curl my fingers in her hair at the base of her neck and wrench her face back, giving her a cruel smile when she blinks at me in shock. “Did I tell you to suck my cock?” I ask slowly, enunciating each syllable and ignoring the howling laughter from the onlookers.

Prudence’s face pinches, and she opens and closes her mouth like she can’t find the right words.

“I wanted you on your knees. I never said I wanted your mouth on me,” I say in a low voice. “But since you’re so keen to use those pretty lips, why don’t you get a little lower and kiss my shoe?”

Her cheeks flush. I can’t tell if this is more or less humiliating than if I had let her get my dick out, but it’s not like I can backtrack now. There are people watching, and if this gets back to my dad… Well, I don’t know what the fuck he’ll think, so better to hurry this shit show up.

I’m not nice or gentle when I shove her head down with my fingers in her hair, pushing until Prudence has no choice but to put her palms flat on the ground. Slowly, I release her, making a show of redoing my jeans and belt, laughing and rolling my eyes at the few guys still standing around. “So eager, wasn’t she, fellas?” I joke.

Prudence peeks up at me questioningly, almost pleadingly, but I don’t give her anything besides an arched brow as I cross my arms over my chest and wait.

Her muscles visibly protest as she drops her head, almost pressing her nose against my shoe. I wait as she hesitates, and just as I’m about to say something to move this along, Prudence acts. But she doesn’t kiss my shoe like I asked.

She spits on it.

I’m shocked fucking silent for about five seconds as she turns a sharp grin to me. “Happy?” she asks sweetly, lifting up as if she’s going to stand and go on with her day.

I put my hand on the top of her head to keep her down, and we have a bit of a stare off while the small crowd laughs and jeers like a bunch of goddamn idiots. I want to scream at them to move on and forget about seeing Prudence on her knees like this, but I can’t seem to drag my focus away from her long enough to do it.

“Clean it up,” I order slowly, already shoving her back down.

Prudence grabs my wrist, digging her nails in while she struggles to get free. Hasn’t she figured out by now that I’m stronger and angrier? That I’ll always win? Poor girl. Though, to her credit, she does put up a good effort. Her nails break the thin skin on my wrist and she pushes against me with all her might.

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