Page 76 of The Demons We Hide

“You don’t want to feel used?” I ask. “Fine. I won’t.” It’s not like I was planning on any of this anyway. All I’d wanted was to go to school, get my fucking degree, and get out.Theywere the ones who came after me.Theywere the ones who pushed themselves into my life and won’t leave.

Nolan’s eyes soften and his fingers loosen their grip. “I said don’t use us like we’re drugs, Princess.” I swallow roughly, staring into his eyes. “We’re not disposable and neither are you.” He draws closer until the sharp spice of his clean scent washes over me. I inhale deeply. It’s hard not to think of them as drugs when he smells as addictive as one. “Use us to feel safe,” he says. “To feel whole. To feel…” Nolan doesn’t finish his words, letting them drift into the night air.

Will he stretch me out first or just fuck me until I cry?

I shake my head at that thought. No, no way. I don’t cry over sex. I don’t cry at all. It’s a waste of fucking time.

Most of my life has been wasted on crying and fake smiles. It’s been wasted on the performance of a play I never even wanted to be a part of. I was almost thankful for the shitstorm my life had turned into in the last couple of months. After all, you never know who you truly are until the skin has been peeled off your back and you learn to survive without it.

Now, I know the truth. I’m stronger than I ever was. I’m not someone’s lackey, not some preppy bitch’s bff, or even some douche’s girlfriend. I’m me. Juliet Donovan. And despite Nolan’s warning, I realize, I really fucking want to kiss him again and I want him to follow through on all of his dark promises.

I carefully push up on my elbows. He doesn’t back down, letting me close the gap between us all on my own. Now that he’s made his intentions clear, Nolan is waiting for me to make the decision. Kiss him. Fuck him. Let him shove his cock inside me and ride the wave that is the leader of the Scorpion Kings. Or back off and go back to my mildly safe and definitely boring ass life as a girl running from any sort of attachment.

This doesn’t have to be anything more,I tell myself as I draw closer and closer to his face.One kiss. One fuck.A night of pleasure and curiosity unbound.

I’m such a fucking liar.

When I press my lips to Nolan’s for a second time, neither of us close our eyes. Instead, we lock onto the other’s gaze with little intention of pulling away. His mouth opens and his tongue dives forward to tangle with my own. A little groan rumbles up my throat as he sucks my tongue into his mouth.

He doesn’t touch me anywhere else. The only connection between us is the feeling of his lips and tongue and the harsh glare of his gaze. It’s too late now. I’m tired of wanting something I can never have.

31

NOLAN

My desire is a cruel, wicked thing. It’s a sinister agent of chaos that wraps invisible chains around us both as I take Juliet’s mouth like a man possessed.

I fucking devour her.

And she lets me.

When the sound of voices grows closer to where we are, I pull back, licking the taste of her from my lips and loving the blown wide pupils that stare back at me. For a moment, I want to track Lex down and confess the truth to him. I get it now. Why he spent years watching this girl, stealing things from her, taking pictures of her and plastering them across his wall.

She has a way of making men lose themselves in her. Stormy seas have nothing on Juliet Donovan’s eyes. They say that to desire something so desperately is a sin. She is temptation incarnate. I want to rip her apart and bury myself so deep inside of her that both of us forget where one ends and the other begins.

“Nolan—” I rip her up from the ground, cutting off whatever she’s going to say. One more word from her and I’ll have her stripped bare and my cock so deep in her cunt that I won’t give a fuck who finds us. I’d let the whole fucking school watch her choke my cock with her pussy and I wouldn’t give a damn about whether she’d hate me afterwards or not.

Juliet stumbles at the suddenness of the movement and I catch her against me, bending and then sweeping my arm around the back of her thighs. The natural instinct she has to open herself and wrap her legs around my waist and cling makes my dick pound against the front of my pants. If I have any hope of making sure this will be a repeat performance in the future, we need privacy, and there’s no fucking way I’m going to be able to wait until we get back to my house.

Picking a direction at random, I turn and stride off, moving away from the voices and the party and the bonfires. Juliet shivers, arms tightening around me. I stomp over the dewy grass and into the darkness beyond the old farmhouse where these parties are so often held.

“What are you planning?” she murmurs, as if she doesn’t feel this bowstring of need inside the way I do, but is merely curious about where the monster she clings to plans to take her. I don’t respond. Mycravingchokes me into silence.

I stride into the very woods that I’d once sent Lex and Gio into to save her from herself—my brave, stupid girl. Saving someone who wouldn’t have thought twice about two assholes leading her into the darkness to be taken advantage of. It makes me want to bend her over my knee and spank her ass until it’s red and hot, then rail that glowing backside of hers until she’s screaming my name.

Each step jostles her against my cock, sliding her against me in a maddening test of my endurance. I keep going, placing one foot in front of the other until there’s nothing but silence and the sound of our breathing. I come to a stop in a clearing where the treetops part to allow slivers of moonlight to spill down and illuminate her face as she raises it and looks back at me.

Charcoal lashes against such pale cheeks. Rose colored lips. The scent of whatever she was drinking lingers between us, something spicy and tart. Slowly, she unlocks her legs from my waist and slides down my body until her feet hit the soft ground underfoot. I release her from my hands, but not from my gaze.

She takes one step back and then another and another. Her whole body is trembling, and a wicked smile graces my lips when I see the sharp points of her nipples poking at her shirt. It’s not fear she’s feeling.

“Strip.” One word makes it out of my mouth. A command.

Juliet’s ice-blue eyes are locked on my face. She doesn’t immediately move and in reaction, I shrug out of my jacket, tossing it to the forest floor. Then, I reach for my shirt, tugging it off over my head and letting it follow the same path. I unbuckle my belt, but leave it on as my fingers graze the button and zipper of my pants. I arch an eyebrow at her.

“If you want to wear those clothes outside of these woods, I highly suggest you take them off,” I say, casually popping the button and watching her gaze drop down, sliding over my chest and lower. “I have no issue carrying your naked ass back to my fucking bike in front of the entire fucking school.”

Her tits rise and fall with each breath, sharp, ragged, hungry. Juliet’s eyes slowly lift back to my face, and I know—she’s just like me. Broken inside. Bleeding. Perfect for us in every way.

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