Page 31 of Sleepless Beauties
My jaw clenches down hard and fast. I nearly bite my tongue all the way through.
She’s watching. But the man who poses a real danger here is gone.
I’m as safe as I can possibly be for the moment.
I can’t go back into that tomb, though.
“No.” His eyes widen as I say it, and I widen mine right back at him. “You lie in here and tell me how great it is,” I snap at him in a hushed tone that still carries all through the tomb.
“I’d fucking love to!” Prey hisses with impatience. And then his hands on me are against the edge of the coffin and he’s stepping right into the meager little marble box.
“Stop it!” I push at his legs, but his fucking insulting stability never wavers. He’s sitting at my side in less than a second. “Get out!” I say louder.
He simply sighs at me and with a heavy hand against my chest he shoves me down into the terrible dooming darkness that is my deathbed.
“Stop it!” I push and claw at him, but then it happens.
He pulls the lid closed over us once more.
And that pressing darkness falls over me once more.
“Prey! Get me the fuck out of here. Move! Get out!Now!”
His arm against my chest never budges. He’s curled up against my side, and I can feel him watching me as I squirm.
I’m the prey now.
I’m the living embodiment of the weakness I swore I’d never show these damn people.
“Shhh,” he whispers warmly against my neck.
“I—I can’t fucking breathe in here. I’m suffocating! I can’t do this.”
The weight of his bicep across my body shifts, his hand lifts and just when I think he’s about to slap his hand over my mouth and force me to shut up, his fingers gently graze my jaw. It’s the faintest caress of his cool touch along my flesh. And it drifts, his hand wanders lower as he strokes along my chin and then… he skims his fingertips along my parted lips.
“I can help you,” he says it so quietly and ominously that it sounds like the devil himself is making me an offer in the dead of night.
“Help?” I ask against his fingertips.
He lingers there before tracing the shape of my mouth ever so lightly. The warmth of his breath trickles along the curve of my neck and he suddenly feels impossibly closer.
“I can make you sleep. I could give you the most peaceful sleep of your entire life.”
“That—that sounds a little too much like death, and I don’t think I’m ready for that kind of foreplay in our relationship yet. Thanks, but no thanks.”
A breath of a laugh slips from his lips and dances along my neck in such a way that it shivers right through me.
“No. Not death, but the very next best thing. You’ll sleep, and then you’ll wake up fully rested. You’ll be the same. I promise, Pretty Pet.” His taunting tone makes me want to kick him in the balls.
If only we had the space.
I hate him, I really do. But… I need him in this moment. I need to keep my cover, and I can’t do that if I’m having the kind of mid life anxiety crises that even Kanye would be envious of.
I just don’t know how to separate the line of hate and need in my head.
I can’t.
“Just do it.” I close my eyes hard and try to find what little air that might be left in this fucking death trap.
