Page 144 of Creep

My mind moved back to the text.

It wasn’t true.

I grew up with Leo and my father, and nothing had ever indicated they were shitty human beings. Were they just that good at hiding it, or was this new?

I…

I shook my head.

I didn’t want to think about it anymore.

I let out a small cry. “Why?” I asked.

Mael shook his head. “I don’t have an answer for you.”

That wasn’t good enough. And suddenly, I was just too angry to think rationally. “This is your fault!” I screamed. “My life was going well without you in it!”

He laughed, the sound hollow. “Hate to break it to you, but Leo and Luckas were already pieces of shit before I ever made an appearance in your life.”

I shook my head, even though I knew it was the truth. It just wasn’t the kind of truth I wanted to accept.

“No,” I said.

Something like anger flashed through his eyes, but I wasn’t scared of him. I was past holding onto anything like self-preservation.

Mael grabbed my shoulders and pulled me in closer to him. It didn’t help that I was naked, and he wasn’t, leaving me already feeling at a disadvantage. The way he grabbed me like this made it worse.

“I’m not lying to you. I will never lie to you,” he said.

I tried to push him off. “Hate to break it to you, but a lie by omission is a lie. You didn’t think to tell me you were stalking me?”

“I would have told you if you had asked. You didn’t want to ask. You didn’t want to know the answer.”

“Bullshit.”

He didn’t retort to that. Instead, he slammed his lips against mine, and he kissed me. I tensed in his arms for a quick second before I struggled against him, trying to push him away. He didn’t relent. He kept kissing me, his lips harsh and demanding against mine. There was no yielding in this kiss. No gentleness I had experienced with him before. This was a punishment, a claiming. He tasted like fury and desperation and everything ugly and something else I couldn’t quite name. Something else I didn’t want to put a name to.

My body reacted before my mind could. I kissed him back. I didn’t know when the resistance left me, and all that was left was this energy I felt inside.

I kissed him just as desperately as he kissed me.

His hands left my shoulders, one hand reaching up and curving around my neck, squeezing gently at first, before he tightened his grip marginally, cutting off the air. Panic set in a little, and I pulled back to look at him.

There was a frenzied look in his eyes that sent shivers up and down my spine.

He didn’t say anything as he pulled me back and kissed me once more, his hand squeezing my neck again.

I rubbed my legs together; thethrillof knowing he could cut off my air supply at any moment did something to me. There was something seriously wrong with me if I was turned on by him choking me.

His chest rumbled against mine as he let out a low growl.

He eased the pressure on my neck, and I gasped for air, the sudden rush of oxygen making me lightheaded. His eyes were dark, pupils blown wide, watching me like I was the prey he’d cornered. He liked seeing me like this.

I didn’t want to think about how that thought made me feel, mostly because there were still things I didn’t want to admit to myself just yet.

“Do you like this, my sweet girl?” he asked, somehow making the question sound rhetorical.

I turned my face away, my breath coming in short gasps as his grip tightened slightly. “No.”

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