Page 75 of Ethereally Tainted

“It’s a scar my dad gave me when I was five. I was more emotionally than physically affected, and it was the first time I grasped the severity of my parents’ cruelty.”

He takes a deep breath and pauses, and I feel the sorrow that comes with his childhood memories. My heart breaks for the small boy he once was, wishing I could somehow make it better. None of us had a normal childhood.

“I got the flames and the eagle tattooed on me as a reminder that I was able to survive the challenges they threw at me, even though they still linger in my mind, and that I can conquer anything.”

“It’s beautiful,” I murmur.

“You’re beautiful.”

I can feel the fire in my cheeks, a telltale sign of my blush. “Stop, you know we can’t–”

“Little doll, you will never get rid of me, not even in death. I am as deeply imprinted in your heart as you are in mine. Stop fighting it, stop denying your feelings, and stop lying to yourself.”

The intensity of his gaze is so strong that it causes me to turn away, my emotions becoming a chaotic whirlpool within my mind. I want this–whatever this is–with him, but he’s transferring programs, and I am leaving. I don’t dare voice the despair I feel inside, but I know there’s no hope.

I tilt back into him, my head laid gently against his toned and muscular chest, and his arms wrap around me in a warm embrace.

“There’s one thing I don’t understand.”

“What is it?”

“Rebecca has been gone for weeks. There’s no trace of her.”

I miss her too much, and that thought has bothered me for a long time. Having her absence in my life leaves a void in my heart that should be filled by her friendship.

“Emilio Ricci told me to stop searching for her because she transferred programs, but the way he said it… it gave me certain vibes. He’s lying to me.”

Grey sits up and looks at me, his eyes searching deep within me. “I encountered her a few days ago while she was on her way to a meeting with Emilio Ricci in the basement after I had completed my meeting with him.”

“Wait, why was the meeting with him in the basement?”

“I have no idea.”

Rising up from my bed, I walk across the room to my wardrobe as I prepare to put on clothes for the day. When I lift the plain black sweatshirt from where it’s folded up, a note falls from underneath it, gently landing on the floor. My heart stops as I stare at it in fright while Grey bends to pick it up. Just as he is about to hand it over to me, his eyes land on the text scribbled there. The silence that settles in the room is overwhelming, causing my face to lose its color as I try to process it.

He’s seen the goddamn note. Shit.

“What is this?”

“It’s not what you think.”

“Don’t lie to me, Naya,” his voice is stern, unmoving, full of betrayal I caused while he glares down at the piece of paper in his hands.

My heart clenches while he stalks closer to me, pushing me against the wall.

“What. Is. This?”

“I–”

He wasn’t supposed to see that note, he was never supposed to see it. And now I have hurt him, I see it in his face; the anguish, the utter devastation masked by fury.

I tear the note into several pieces in a moment of rage, my emotions mirroring his as if he had the damn right to read it. Without warning, he does something I never saw coming. With enough force to send me back to the wall, he grabs my throat in a gentle act not to injure me further. My eyes flutter as I stare at him in shock. There’s a moment of fear that takes over me while I watch the fury pour out of him.

“You were going to leave me, little doll?” he questions me, words full of poison.

He spreads my legs with his knee and presses his thigh against the edge of my clit, forcing me to fight the urge to whimper. There is a whirlwind of emotions in my head as I try to figure out how to respond to this side of him.

“You were going to just fucking abandon me, is that it, huh?”

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