Page 97 of Goldsin

I pull away from her intoxicating lips and shift my attention onto her neck, sinking my teeth into her delicate skin.

I bite her hard. Enough to leave a mark. She shrieks, eyes widening as she looks up at me before instinctively wrapping her hand around the spot.

Standing up, I put some distance between us. She does the same, scrambling back on her legs, chest rising and falling.

Tension radiates between us, dense enough to be felt. My patience is running thin, and if making her feel good doesn’t get me the response I want, there’s only one other way.

Our gazes lock for a long, stretched-out heartbeat before I break the silence with one single word.

“Run.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

AURELIA

He doesn’t smile.

No twitch of his muscles. No tilt of his head. No twirl of his knife between his fingers.

“I saidrun, golden one.”

His dangerous tone startles me, and I take a step back.

I don’t want to run. I don’t want to put distance between us. But his eyes turn into pits of rawness. This starving need to punish me. He looks unhinged. His rigid expression screams resolve—I’m not going to change his mind. I can’t even find words after the way he made me come three seconds ago.

My steps are small yet deafening as I race deeper into this haunted place. I would have opted for sneakers, had I known I was going to get chased like an animal,naked, in an abandoned indoor theme park.

I can’t hear him behind me, but I feel him, with theway the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. I don’t see him, but I can feel his gaze. He’s far away. Yet he could reach me in no time.

He’s giving me time. No ...

He’s having his fun.

A mountain of rocks in the far corner of the room catches my attention, and I sprint toward it. There’s a slide incorporated on one side and a wall for rock climbing on the other, with the entrance to what appears to be a cavern in the middle, hidden by some plastic vines.

If I confuse him by running in a different direction, he’ll miss me entering it. I can stay hidden for a while and then dash for the entrance.

Why are you trying to escape him?the voice inside my head questions.

I don’t have an answer.

I’m crouching behind the semi-deflated bounce house, straining my ear to hear if he’s close while I take off my shoes, discarding them for this next phase of the plan. I can’t let him know I’m in the cave because he heard my heels.

When I’m certain he didn’t see me, I bolt. My bare feet pad on the cold floor as I enter the cave. My breathing is heavy, heart pounding loudly in my ears.

“What the fuck?” I breathe out, eyes scanning the light blue kitchen inside the cave. A family of mannequins has been placed to look like they’re baking together, the little girl and the little boy laughing as they throw flour at one another. The mother, dressedin a lilac apron, holds a wooden spoon as she smiles down at them, the father hugging her side with a look of admiration.

My gaze flickers over every detail as a dreaded sense of resentfulness spreads inside of me. The way they’ve been positioned, it’s all a lie. No family is that happy ... carefree. At least none of the families I’ve met.

Yet as I stand motionless in front of the mannequins, I can’t help but feel a spike of jealousy coursing through my bones.

I could have had this with my mom. We could have been this happy and carefree.

Then I hear his voice from outside.

“You could’ve been the good girl you said you were and accepted my order to attend Lucian’s party.”

And my mind changes direction. I don’t feel a sense of jealousy; I feel disgust.

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