Page 5 of Corrupt Me

“Sure.” He sounds so sure of himself.

I feel the blush creep up my neck, and with my fair complexion, my only small help is that it’s getting dark.

“Tell yourself whatever you want. No wonder I couldn’t get a quick fuck, even when I wanted to.”

Deny it and make it believable.It was one freaking time.

“You were supposedly with Celine.” I can’t believe I didn’t think of that argument sooner.

“Such a good friend. So now, I can just go fuck whoever I want?”

My defense will be simple if I kill him: His challenges made me do it.

I close my eyes for a moment, trying to erase that image. “You already do that when you disappear.”

“I need an outlet.”

An outlet from me. “I wouldn’t want to stand in your way.”

Right then, Eric sends me a text:Wanna go out?

“Tell him no,” he says cold enough to send a shiver down my spine.

“You were just preaching about privacy,” I huff, not knowing how to deal with the intensity that electrifies all my senses.

He’s so close to me, his breath fanning my cheek, heating me from within, and goose bumps rise along my neck. Maybe he infected me with a deadly virus, making me break out in these sudden bouts of fever.

Gripping my chin, he tips my face up, his eyes locking onto mine with an intensity that makes my heart race. “If I don’t get any, you won’t either. It’s only fair.”

I swallow hard, trying to keep my voice steady. “I’ve known him since high school. It’s not like that.”

His gaze narrows, and his voice drops to a low, dangerous tone. “No, he wants to fuck you, Bailey. And neither of us is fucking.”

“What? Why?” I ask, completely taken aback and struggling to understand his reasoning. But then again, confusion is nothing new when it comes to him.

“Because I need to focus on keeping you alive, and you need to focus on finding that motherfucker, Felix, so I can kill him.”

He has a point. It’s the best solution to my predicament. We’ll find Felix sooner if I can focus more on work and less on what Hunter does.

I stretch out my hand, and his brows furrow in intrigue before he takes it. The small contact sends a jolt of electricity through me, making me fear that one of these days, he’ll short-circuit my system.

His silver eyes bore into mine with a fierce determination. “No one is fucking until we find Felix.”

“Deal,” I agree, though a part of me wonders,Not even each other?

When Celine and Kaden, Abi and Dane, and Mia and Blake return from their weekend getaways, I jerk my chin at them in greeting before heading out. With our friends here, I can get away for a few hours. Watching over Bailey is starting to feel like torture.

But apparently, I like torture because I was the idiot who took it upon himself to watch over her. It’s been three months since we went on high alert after Caleb and Felix’s escape. Until Felix is found, I am trapped in this hellish limbo.

I refuse to lose anyone else. Death will come, but not on my watch. It has to be from a natural cause, old age, whatever.

It has to be me. Who else could spend all his waking hours making sure Bailey’s safe? No one. Celine and Kaden are too wrapped up in each other, but at least they can take care of themselves. Abigail and Dane are both mad about each other, and Dane would set the world on fire before a threat could reach her. Mia and Blake went through hell together, and they’d sooner be responsible for another world extinction than let someone else harm the other. That leaves me and Bailey. She annoys me and terrifies me at the same time—a truly disturbing combination that has been present from the moment I laid eyes on her.

With her delicate, fairy-like appearance, I would have never believed she was the mysterious hacker. She did such a spectacular job being inconspicuous that she even fooled me, or I let myself be fooled. It wouldn’t be the first time a woman did that.

The thought alone has shame twisting my insides. But if I go there, I will pour bleach all over my skin. I doubt the dirtiness will ever fade—it’s stitched to my bones, making me want to hurl at the constant reminder.

Contrary to what my friends believe—that I am a flirt and a playboy—I used sex to escape from my mind, to crawl out from my skin for a bit and forget. I am still waiting for the memories to fade, but my hopes of erasing a time in my life that I’d do anything to forget are minimal.

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