Page 19

I darted to the bathroom, shoving the door open so hard it banged loudly against the wall. It was a tiny room with exactly zero windows.

“Fuck.” My eyes flicked to the sink, and I quickly turned the tap on and cupped handfuls of water to my mouth.

Moving back into the main room, I quickly scanned the space for something that might be useful. There was a desk in the far left corner where an aging box TV sat. I walked over to it and punched a finger into the power button so I didn’t have to listen to the weather anymore.

Sliding the top drawer of the desk open, I rifled through some blank pieces of cheap note paper, an empty roll of tape, a few colored thumb tacks, a single paperclip that had been bent out of shape, and⁠—

A letter opener.

I snatched it from the drawer, pricking a finger on the tip to test the sharpness. It was a little dull, but it would do.

I spun around and made a beeline for the door, pressing the tip of the letter opener to the top hinge, pushing as hard as I could, but it didn’t move.

“Fuck!” I yelled, kicking the door before I remembered I wasn’t wearing shoes. My toes throbbed in agony, and I sat on the bed to rub them.

A low thrum of panic began to stir.

My gaze fell on the curtains. I jumped up and hurried to them, pulling them open. Fuck. These windows didn’t open. I could break them, though. The panic dulled to a faint hum as I ripped the TV cord from the wall, wrapped my arms around the boxy girth, and lifted.

Holy fuck, that was heavy. I walked slowly toward the window, pausing to take a breath. Right at that moment, the door swung open, knocking the TV out of my hands. A sharp, awful pain knifed through my foot as the TV fell on it`.

“What the hell⁠—”

“Fuck!” I screamed. I reached down to get it off my foot, but before I could shove the thing off me, the TV was thrown to the wall like it weighed nothing, and two big hands caught me under my armpits, lifting me clear off the ground.

The anger on his face was expected, but it still shocked me. “I told you to be careful, for fuck’s sake!”

“Fuck you!” I reached out and grabbed at his hair and pulled hard. It was so soft it felt like silk between my fingers. He grunted, jerking his head from my grasp and holding me farther away. I braced my hands on his arms and swung my legs up between us, pushing off his chest with my foot and wrapping both legs around his neck, crossing them at the ankles and locking them tight.

If I’d thought about it for more than half a second, I might not have done that—because now my crotch was in his face and I could feel his hot, angry breaths through my pants.

“Jesus fuck,” he breathed all over my pussy.

He still held me under the arms as he moved us forward, and then I was going down until my back hit the bed and he was pinning my upper body to the mattress.

“You’re like a fucking wolverine,” he said into my crotch. He grabbed my wrists and secured them above my head. His eyes were bright, and this close, I could see a few brown flecks swirling around the edges of his irises.

I yanked at his hold, and when he wouldn’t budge, I whipped my head forward and snapped at his face like a piranha. Squeezed my legs tighter around him, trying to choke him out. He put my wrists together and used one hand to hold me down. His other hand came around to my jaw, gripping it tightly.

“Stop fighting me,” he bit out. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

I spit on him.

Or, I tried to. It completely missed him, even though I’d been aiming for his eye.

And then⁠—

Then he bit down right on my pussy, his eyes trained on mine, an intense, angry heat in them.

I shouted, involuntarily jerking my hips up into his face. The heat of his mouth and—was that his tongue? Did he just lick me?

A shudder wracked my body, and in my attempts to get him off me, I’d unlocked my ankles to try and kick him.

As soon as my legs weren’t locked around his neck, he let go of my crotch and rose over me. He seized one of my ankles and lifted himself up just enough to slide me underneath him. Then he settled his weight on top of me, one hand still holding my wrists and the other wrapping around my throat. Not tight. Just enough to keep me in place.

Heat was flooding every inch of my system, and I could barely breathe.

“What the fuck,” I choked out.