Page 55 of Feed Your Fiends

“Is this your bedroom?” I ask lamely as he stalks closer the second I creep back.

“One of them.”

“Are there any for guests?”

He pauses his advances, his expression darkening. “Why?”

“Because I’m a guest, aren’t I?” I can hear Rin practically shrivelling up at the question, at me fucking up the plan, but I don’t care. Jaime and Jarett threw me off. Gant’s pretty, meaningless words and strong arms threw me off. I need some time. I’m too…desperateas I watch his Adam’s apple bob and a wicked smile splits his lips.

“You don’t like this bed? This room?”

How many other girls liked this bed and this room?

What does it matter?!

I swallow the intrusive thought. “Nothing. I’m sure no one’s complained before.”

“Of course not. No one else has been inside this room and on that bed before.”

My chest clenches. “You should keep it that way,” I say. “I can sleep somewhere else.”

An eternity stretches between us.

“I won’t force you to sleep in my bed, Elle. I have five others you can choose from,” he says finally. “Pick anyone you want.”

“Great—” I stalk past him, but he grabs onto the ribbon of my corset and tugs me hard against him.

“But no matter which one you choose, I’ll be right there beneath the covers with you.”

“No, you won’t,” I spin around in his arms, feeling the rush of anger I had in the hospital. I’m desperately trying to hold onto it, tap into it. “I told you at the bar, you don’t get to decide when enough’s enough. After what you did…you don’t get to…” But I can’t finish the sentence because it hurts. It hurts so fucking bad to be this spineless.

“It’s just sleeping, Elle,” he says, stepping closer again and tucking a lock behind my ear before trailing his fingers down my throat. “Just a bed.”

But we both know it’s not.

“You’re shaking, Dovey,” he says, and when I step back from his touch, my back meets the door. “You’re scared.”

I swat at his hand, but he only grabs my throat tighter, running his thumb over the hollow with feather-like strokes.

“I’m not.”

“Not of me. Of yourself.”

“What?”

“You’re scared of how I make you feel. You say I’m a fiend, but we both are, and you’re fiending for me too, aren’t you?”

“You think way too fucking highly of yourself,” I snap because he’s right. “You…you don’t get to touch me like nothing happened. You don’t get to crawl back into the deepest parts of me. You don’t deserve me!” The snap of the last words hangs heavy in the air.

“I don’t deserve you,” he whispers, curling over me to press his forehead against mine so that he can peer into my soul. “But I’m going to have you anyway.”

“Gant—”

“When you say yes,” he cuts me off. “But I caught you. You let me put you in this gilded cagewith me. You’re insane if you think I’ll spend another night away from you. Whatever you give, I’ll take. I can be patient.”

“Good, be prepared to wait forever.”

He only smiles. “You don’t trust yourself, remember?”

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