Page 104 of Dare To Fall

Eli

The heady combination of strawberries and Ari’s lips makes my dick hard. I groan against her mouth.

“Tell me to stop kissing you.”

She leans closer, chasing my lips with hers. I shift forward on my seat, lift her off her chair and onto my lap. Her arms loop around my neck, her tongue darts into my mouth, and I stop trying to resist the temptation she poses.

My hand lifts, cups her jaw and tilts her head back, then slides down to wrap around her throat. She immediately stiffens and pushes at my chest.

“Let me go.” She doesn’t wait for me to release her but shoves away and scrambles off my lap.

Picking up her plate, she moves over to the trash can and dumps the remaining pancakes into it.

“Ari?”

She shakes her head and walks out of the kitchen. I stand and follow her.

“What did I do? Because I obviously did something wrong. If you don’t tell me, I can’t fix it.”

She spins to face me. “I just need you to leave me alone for a little while. I need to process everything you’ve told me.”

I think back over the last few minutes. She asked me to kiss her. I complied.

“Ari—”

“You tried to strangle me, Eli. And when you touched my throat, it brought it all back.”

The words are delivered tonelessly. A heavy weight rests in the pit of my stomach.

“Okay.” I give her a slow nod. “I’ll give you some space.”

I grab my sketchpad on the way past and walk down the hallway to my room. Once I’m inside, I drop onto my bed and close my eyes. There’s a pressure building inside my head. One caused by my own fucked-up decisions.

I’m not sure we can ever get past what I did. Kellan warned me I was taking things too far. But I didn’t listen. I was too caught up in what happened to Zoey, what could happen to Arabella, to realize I was becoming the thing I feared the most—the thing that was most dangerous to her.

The Monster of Churchill Bradley Academy.

Chapter 70

Arabella

As soon as I hear Eli’s door close, I touch my throat and swallow hard. The fury on his face when he attacked me is imprinted in my mind. I try to rub away the feel of his fingers against my skin.

His hands are crushing the breath from my body. I can’t move. I’m clawing at his wrists in desperation with my nails, but he just won’t let me go. He’s going to kill me.

A tremor runs through my body as the memory shifts.

People are screaming. Eli is on the floor straddling Garrett, whose face is a red mess. I’m begging him to stop, unable to get more than a whisper out past my lips. There’s so much blood.

Pressing a hand to my mouth, I collapse down onto the couch. My heart is pounding against my ribs, and I can’t stop shaking. I hug my knees to my chest. I’d been fine until Eli gripped my throat. The second he squeezed, I was catapulted back to that day. I bury my face against my knees and try to breathe through the panic fluttering on the edge of my mind. I struggle with it, clinging on, not wanting to go over the edge into a full-blown panic attack.

How do I trust him when I know what he’s capable of? The violence when he snaps.

He said whoever was blackmailing me had trained him to react whenever I did something to him. They wanted him to attack me after the video they posted. It’s sick and twisted. Who would have the knowledge to manipulate and execute such a plan?

I focus my thoughts on the question instead of my fear.

My gaze moves to the fireplace, and I stare into the flames. The longer I watch them dance and crackle, the more the tension eases from my shoulders.

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