Page 103 of A Taste of Torment
My heart leaps into my throat.
His hands plant against the wall on either side of my head, caging me in. My whole body pulses with adrenaline. His dark eyes watch me. I peek under his arms to see several people glancing our way then back. Like they want to watch but don’t want to be seen watching.
I shift my attention back to the predator caging me in, and yet I feel no fear. Jarron runs hands up my thighs, nails pressing against the silk fabric. I breathe heavily through my nose.
“Do you like this?” he whispers.
Yes.“No.” I don’t know why I lie. Maybe because nothing could scare me more than how much I’m enjoying this.
He smirks, like he knows the real answer. Can he feel my heart pounding rapidly? How I work to hide how breathless I am?
The pressure eases, and then his hands still, just resting against the outside of my thighs.
“So, what did you want to talk about?”
I can just barely make out his fangs as he murmurs the words. His face descends closer to my shoulder.
His nose grazes my neck, and I shiver.
He purrs in satisfaction, and my head falls back until it’s resting against the wall.
“What are you doing?”
“Making it look convincing.” Then, his mouth captures my neck. This time, I can’t hold back the breathless whimper. His sharp teeth graze over the sensitive skin.
He could rip me apart with just the wrong movement. I am entirely at his mercy.
And somehow, despite the fact that I am on the edge of death, it is not fear that fills me. A pulse flutters in my gut, drifting lower. I squirm against him, and he presses in tighter.
“Are you convinced?” he purrs.
“They seem to be.” But I’m not actually looking. I’m too distracted to know if anyone has even noticed. I’m sure they have, given the amount of attention we’ve garnered just walking in together, but I can’t manage even an ounce of energy to care about that now.
“So, what did you want to say?” he murmurs against my neck.
My eyes flutter closed, brain clouded with sensations I am totally not supposed to be enjoying. I’m supposed to answer. I’m supposed to say something, but his lips are on my skin and I’m burning in the best possible way.
“Mmm, uh, I wanted to…” I trail off as his lips meet the skin of my collar bone.
“Yes?”
“I, um.”
“Very interesting.”
I clear my throat and shift, forcing my brain to obey. “Mr. Vandozer. There’s something off about him.”
Jarron pulls back, his expression serious and completely empty of the heat I’m feeling. “There certainly is. But what exactly concerns you?”
“He saidascend,” I mutter. I’m sure it sounds stupid. Jarron doesn’t respond or react; he only waits. I pray desperately for my heart to slow and mind to clear.
“Which maybe isn’t enough to go on, but he fits too.”
“You’ve lost me,” Jarron admits. “What fits?”
“My sister,” I whisper, trying to ignore his closeness, his smell, the way I imagine very inappropriate things I’d like him to do with his hands. I picture Liz, her smile, her bright hopeful eyes. Someone killed her. I can’t let this—whatever it is—stop me from seeking her killer. “In her journal, she wrote about her new lover. That he ‘ruled’ the school and said he could ‘ascend’ her. Which is totally not like her. She made it seem like he could make her incredibly powerful, not just in a bond but something more.”
Jarron’s mouth twists as he considers all of this. “It’s certainly not enough to implicate him.”
