Page 13 of Warrior

“Artemis,” I test out.

“Reese Avery.”

“Nice to meet you.”

She scoffs.

I want to apologize. I almost do, especially when she runs her hands up under my shirt and pushes it off. Her gaze drops tothe bruises decorating my rib cage, still pretty stark against my white skin. It’s a reminder of what I have to do…

She doesn’t say a word, but her hips roll. She moves, and I slip my hand between us to touch her clit. I know the way she operates, and bringing on her orgasm is almost easy.

No—it is easy. But it’s aided by the drug. Fueled on by it. She doesn’t stop after one either. She keeps shuddering and gripping at my cock with her inner muscles, riding it like she’s insatiable.

I let her, while my gaze scours her face. I want to commit her to memory, because long after I leave this place, I can’t forget her.

I won’t.

Too soon, I’m riding the edge.

A knock at the door cements it, and I pin her hips down. I spill inside her, that tingling pleasure rushing from the base of my spine straight through my cock. My balls are tight, and the bite of pain in my ribs and abdomen is worth it.

I lift her off me. Turn away from the door and the camera to wipe myself clean and put my pants back in place.

She’s withdrawing, and my heart thumps extra hard.

I open my mouth, but she waves me off.

“Don’t make a promise you can’t keep, Reese Avery.”

So I don’t.

I’m sixteen—I don’t know how to find this place, let alone get her out. I have a feeling the price is too high, and my father wouldn’t allow it. He mutters about the whores in this place when he thinks I can’t hear him.

And now…

When I leave the room, there are more guards waiting. They escort us out, and my father waits until we’re in the car to laugh. The worst sort of laughter.

Condescending.

Loathing.

We travel back in silence. He doesn’t so much as look at me until we arrive home. Not the boarding school—my childhood house. His hand comes down on the back of my neck, that stoic expression locked in place. The laughter was a break in character—this is the act I was expecting.

It’s the same expression he wore when he dragged me out of my room last week, the mutinous anger only cracking a split second before he hit me.

I hate him.

I hate him as he locks me in my room, as I hear him explain to my mother in the hallway what happened. As he paints my infraction as something wrong with me. Something fundamentally broken. He tells her that I might do something truly crazy if I’m allowed anywhere near Sterling Falls.

Once my bruises heal, I’m sent to a new boarding school. One out of reach of him, yes, but also Sterling Falls. Out of the reach of Artemis.

No matter what I do, though, the guilt-driven nightmares don’t abate. Not until the day I graduate. I’m at the top of my class, giving a speech with concealer hiding dark circles under my eyes and drops put in them to cover how bloodshot they are. I stride off that stage and out of the building, and right into the Marine recruiter’s office.

They talk about a worthy cause, but I see it as penance.

And weeks later, in cramped barracks on a faraway base, I am finally able to sleep.

5SAINT

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