Page 72 of Degradation
‘But—’
He puts a hand up.
‘I’ll help you get to the bottom of this and, as for the deal, I won’t do anything bad, and you can safe word out whenever you want. It’s sort of like a game.’
‘Helluva game,’ I mutter. ‘This is how you got your kicks growing up on the wrong side of the tracks?’
He doesn’t gainsay me.
‘We tell the others everything if this gets any worse, okay? And you have to tell me immediately if you get any more of these notes or emails.’
I nod.
He cages me in against the desk, making me gasp as his hips roll against mine. ‘And I won’t fuck you.’
‘You won’t?’
He shakes his head. ‘I have plenty of other bad things I want to do with you before that.’
My eyes widen.
‘Like what?’ I whisper.
‘I think I’ll keep them as surprises. But tonight, I want to be in here with you, not Mav. Deal?’
I take a deep breath. ‘Okay. Deal.’
He gives me a wink. ‘Are you ready to go to bed?’
‘I...’
‘C’mon, I can see you’re dead on your feet.’
I huff, but I limp across the room to the bed and pick up my coat. I hang it in my closet.
‘I’ll just go...’
I grab my phone and towels and leave the room, my heart beating wildly. But I’m notafraid, just nervous.
In the bathroom, I message Lu to tell her I’m not dead and I take a shower, trying not to second-guess myself as I go through the motions. I’m trying not to imagine the things he was talking about. I mean, I can’t really. I don’t know enough to come up with much at all. I really need to do some research on sex stuff, so they don’t always know more than me. Though I guess actually doing it is research in itself.
I giggle under the water, wondering what Blake would say if I told him I was messing around with him purely for research purposes.
He’d probably find a way to be into it.
I dry off and wrap the towel around me, shuffling back to my room. I find him already lying in my bed without a shirt on, the rest of him covered by the sheets.
I freeze, my eyes traveling over the tattoos that have always intrigued me, the cubes that run down the side of his neck. I can see more of them than ever. My eyes dance over them, seeing that they begin to change as they go down, the edges growing softer, but I can’t see any more than that because the blanket is blocking my gaze.
I want to see more, I want to trace them with my fingers. I want to know what they feel like. My fingers twitch with the urge. Will he let me touch them?
‘Are you naked?’ I ask, tearing my eyes away from his mesmerizing body and glancing at the pile of clothes he’s left on the floor.
He smirks. ‘Want me to be?’
‘I’m not sure,’ I say.
‘I have my boxers on,’ he says with a chuckle.
