Page 81 of Ecstasy
That’s all I know. It’s definitely sweeter than mine.
24
Zara
When I open my eyes,I’m standing up.
I’m standing up, and for a second, I can’t move. I’m paralyzed, and everything is dark and it’s so quiet. It’s so fucking quiet that I don’t know where I am. I’m not in Alex’s house.
This can’t be his house.
This is not a party.
This is like hell.
I sense something looming in the shadows, something coming closer, the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end. Something is going to get me, and I can’t move. I can’t scream. I can barely evenbreathe.
I want to clamp a hand over my mouth.
I want to turn around. I want to scream.
Run.
It’s getting closer and everything is so dark and so quiet except thisthing.
“Zara. Zara, wake up.”
I flinch, my eyes flying open, and I stumble back into someone’s warm body. I open my mouth to scream, but a hand comes over my mouth.
“Shh,” a voice says in my ear. “Shh, baby girl. It’s me. It’s Eli.”
Slowly, like binoculars coming into focus, I see the room, and it isn’t Alex’s. It isn’t the one I fell asleep in.
It’s bigger, and it’s shrouded in shadows. There’s a bed in front of me, a desk to my left with a dimly lit laptop screen.Is that a car?
There’s a door between the wall of the desk and the bed and I think it’s to a bathroom. I think I see white tile beyond it. And the floor beneath my feet is cold.
But Eli’s hand over my mouth is so warm.
With another little jolt, I realize his body is pressed against every inch of mine.
I open my mouth to speak and he must know I’m not going to scream because he drags his hand over my lips, my chin, down my throat, then brushes back my hair off my shoulder.
The words I was going to speak are stolen from me. Hijacked by the feel of him.
I’m in a tank top, and he slides his finger under one strap, pulling it down. His mouth touches my skin, warm and wet and so soft. His other arm is wrapped around me, fingers digging into my waist as he holds me to him.
“Why did you come here?” he asks me. I can feel his every breath against me.
I realize I’ve been holding my own breath and I exhale, slowly, trying to will my pulse to calm. My head to clear.
WhydidI come here?
He drags his bottom lip over my shoulder, toward my neck. I tilt my head to the side, giving him better access. I shouldn’t…
“Talk to me, Zara. Why did you come here?” His mouth trails up my neck, just underneath my ear.
“I don’t—I don’t know.”
