Page 49 of Cursed Encounter
Donovan looks a mix of menacing and nonchalant, sitting there with his face tilted down and his eyes cut up in my direction. His hair is draped around his face. Despite the slight air of boredom, he looks like a killer right now.
The sight of him has my heart racing for all the wrong reasons. I don’t dare try to figure out why I find the monster in him attractive.
Rage vibrates around him. I can feel it shifting the air. It feels like I’m choking when I inhale.
His fisted hands press down on the desktop as he rises. Never once does he look away from me. I’m not even sure he blinks. He walks around the desk, casually leaning against it, but I’m not fooled by his cool demeanor. I can feel how mad he is.
One of his hands unfurls as he goes to set something on the desk.
I stare at the little vial filled with green liquid, blinking as everything registers.
“I had a meeting early this morning,” he tells me, voice void of any emotion. “I was going to leave you a note.”
Shock hits me, and my mouth parts.
He was going to leave me a note? Like… so I wouldn’t wake up alone and feel… well, like I felt this morning. I don’t know how to process that.
I guess it doesn’t matter now.
“I found this in the drawer beside your bed when I was looking for some paper,” he tells me as if I don’t know what it is or where he found it. “I wanted to believe that you weren’t working for your father—”
“I’m not,” I say, cutting him off.
Before I even know what’s happening, he’s got me turned around and pinned against the desk. His hand pinches my jaw hard while the other brandishes a knife close enough to my lips that I can feel the prick of the blade’s tip.
“Lie to me again, Astra, and I’ll pry your pretty mouth open and cut out your tongue.”
This man before me is everything they say he is. A man with no feelings. No emotions. A monster.
But this close, I can see into the monster’s eyes.
He does feel, but he hides it well. The rage bubbles to the surface, overflowing and hitting me. I see more, though. There’s a hint of fear. He values his life more than he wants people to think he does.
I hadn’t planned on lying to him. Now that I see through him, I vow to never leave him in the dark again about something like this. Something that has to do with his life or safety.
“I’m not working for my father,” I say again. It comes out mumbled due to the fact that he’s gripping my face so hard I can’t move my jaw. I’ll have finger-shaped bruises dotting my skin for sure.
The knife presses into my bottom lip, and I flinch at the bite of pain. I don’t have to touch the spot to know I’m bleeding.
I catch a brief glimpse of Torrin from the corner of my eye. He won’t step in to help, but I don’t miss the look of confusion on his face. Does he think his boss has gone too far?
Incinerating rage flows through me, vibrating my whole body. I close my eyes as I try to release it and calm down, but it feels like I’m nothing but a system made of tubes or wires, circulating the energy in an endless loop.
“Donovan,” I whisper. “I didn’t lie to you.”
His eyes glaze over. It’s almost as if he has no control over himself.
“I don’t believe a thing that comes out of your mouth,” he seethes.
My vision becomes spotty, even as I force myself to drag in a long, calming breath. The light is flickering around me, and I can’t understand why this is happening.
“Uh, Boss,” Torrin says. Out of the corner of my eye, I can see him take a hesitant step closer. The room goes dark, except for a few shafts of natural light cutting through. “Donovan!”
Torrin sounds panicked. I close my eyes, but I can still see the light winking in and out from behind my lids. I’m starting to think it’s not in my head.
I can’t keep holding all this rage in. My mouth parts, my lids fly open, and a scream pours out of me. It’s so loud. Like nothing I’ve ever known.
Donovan’s unforgiving touch is suddenly gone, and where the bite of the knife was a second ago, I feel a sharp slice of pain.
