Page 76 of Drown in You

He smirks. “Next time, I’ll make sure to come where you can lick it off.” When I part my lips, he adds, “Or maybe I’ll just come in your mouth. No mess to clean up then.”

I wouldn’t say I’ve ever been eager to swallow somebody’s cum before, but Luke Valentine is a totally different beast. A Devil.

Luke climbs onto my bed and throws the blanket over us.

“What the hell are you doing?” Spinning to face him, I try to push him out, but he tosses an arm around my waist, pinning me against him.

“Going to bed. Big day tomorrow.” He’s so beautiful this close. I want to memorize every inch of his face so I see it in my dreams.

“What’s tomorrow?”

“I plan on waking you up with a slow, tender fuck before our parents come looking for us.”

Panic thrums through my veins at the possibility of our parents waltzing in here and catching us. “They can’t know.”

He squeezes me. “They won’t.”

“Do you still think they’ll split up?”

When he hesitates, my heart drops. “I don’t know,” he admits.

“What happens if they don’t?” I whisper.

His hand drifts up to my hair, tucking it behind my ear. “You’ll always be mine, Sienna. No matter what. Nobody will come between us.”

“But what if they do?” I blink back the tears that threaten to spill out. “They don’t have to let me stay here. If they find out?—”

“They won’t.” His voice is hard, sure. “We won’t tell anyone. Not until we graduate. Then we can go anywhere, and I’ll keep you safe.”

“You’re okay with keeping us a secret?”

He gives me a small smile. “Your crazy friend talked sense into me.”

Juliet. So they weren’t flirting after all. More like conspiring. I grin. God, I love her.

“I’ll do anything to keep you. Anything. Even if that means I can’t hold your hand in public. Even if that means I can’t kiss you when someone else is in the room, no matter how much it kills me. As long as you’re mine, the rest doesn’t matter.”

My heart soars. He’s willing to make that sacrifice. For me. To keep me, and to keep me safe.

But to keep me safe, he needs to know what happened with Marcus. He deserves to know the truth. “I need to tell you something.”

His arm around me stiffens. “What?”

I take a shaky breath. “I’ve been getting these threatening texts and...I think they’re from someone back home.”

I could mention the times I’ve spotted the red Cadillac and the hazel eyes beneath the mask at the party that I thought belonged to Marcus, but I’m still not sure if that was actually him or someone else. Or drunken paranoia.

Just by saying the words out loud, a small weight lifts off my chest. It’s not my burden alone to bear anymore.

Luke pulls back from me so he can peer into my eyes, brows scrunched low. “Who?”

My heart pounds with the terror that after I tell him the truth, he won’t look at me the same anymore. But I can’t keep this secret bottled up any longer.

“His name is Marcus.” I sit up and take a deep breath, attempting to calm my racing heart. “Last summer, I thought I saw something. Something bad. Really, really bad.” A lump lodges in my throat at the memory, flashing through my mind again like a movie I’ve watched a hundred times. “A crime.”

Luke doesn’t interrupt as I keep going, silent and motionless other than his hand brushing up and down my arm. Comforting. Encouraging. Nowhere feels safer to me than when I’m in Luke Valentine’s arms.

So I finally tell him everything.

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