Page 48 of Drown Like Heaven
As I fumbled with my keys, he grabbed my shoulders and spun me around, capturing my mouth with his. I wanted to bite him so hard he’d bleed on my tongue.
“Don’t kiss me where people can see,” I said, shoving him off me. He stumbled back a half-step before righting himself, his eyes dark and focused on my face.
“You don’t have your porch light on. Nobody can see.” He pointed at the plastic lantern attached to the metal siding, the lightbulb inside dark. “Why don’t you have your porch light on, baby?”
“Why are you calling me that?” I hated the way my pulse fluttered when he did. Hated how I became putty in his hands.
“Because I like you.”
“You’d kill me if you got the chance.”
“That’s not true. I’ve had the chance already.”
He kissed me again, deeper this time, his hand knotting in my hair to angle my head as he slid his tongue into my mouth. I was grateful for the darkness because I knew my face was getting red. Mason pushed me backwards, pressing my spine flat against my front door as he slid one of his legs between mine.
“You know, I’m sorry about tonight,” Mason said.
“No, you’re not.” I arched my neck, trying not to grind on his thigh while he sucked along my neck.
“I should be. I know that,” he said lowly, gripping my jaw to tilt my face up towards his. His eyes looked sincere, but I wasn’t sure if that was a trick. “I should be giving you more time, but I can’t. I don’t want to let you leave me. Ever. Can you deal with that now, or should I try and hold back for longer?”
“This is you holding back?”
“Put your number in,” he said, disregarding my question and shoving his phone against my chest. “And don’t try and give me a fake one. I know where you live.”
His tone made it sound like he was joking, but it wasn’t a joke. Not really.
“Do I have to?”
“Do you want to?” His stare held me in place, paralyzing me.
“I don’t know,” I breathed honestly.
“I’d like you to.”
“Okay,” I whispered, nodding, my shoulder blades still pushed flat against my front door and Mason’s thigh wedged between my legs. My thumbs were shaking as I typed my contact in, then gave Mason’s phone back to him.
He took a step back and grabbed my chin, holding his phone up—to take a picture of my face, I guessed. I wasn’t looking at the camera, though. I was looking at his face. He was so handsome, even while twisting my mind up in knots I’d never be able to untie.
Things were just so…intense.
Every emotion I felt with Mason I felt in my whole body. I tasted them in my mouth, inhaled them into my lungs, felt them like hot metal on my bare skin. They all consumed me. Anger, fear, lust, need. Something else I couldn’t describe.
“What are you gonna do when you go inside?” he asked, inclining his head towards me again.
“Shower and go to sleep.” I bit my lower lip, my fingers twisting together.
“Think of me.” He kissed the tip of my nose.
And then he left.
Chapter 14
Mason
I’d given Dakota that fucking gun, knowing it wouldn’t kill me. I’d given it to her and then I’d watched her grip it in her small hands, watched her nervously glancing over at me as I took away every shred of her agency, as I forced her to accept all the things I wanted to do to her.
She always surprised me, though. With that fire in her eyes, that darkness in her soul.
