Page 25 of Dark Knight

His mouth curved into a wicked smile as his free hand came up and cupped my cheek for a brief moment before sliding down to hold my chin between his forefinger and thumb. "I could make you scream and beg for mercy."

"And I'm sure I would enjoy every second. Let's be honest, you know nothing about me." Talking while he held my chin was challenging, but I knew I could get my point across. "You don't know my likes or dislikes. Maybe if you did, you could torture me, but I feel like right now, all you'd end up doing is giving me pleasure."

His chest rose and fell rapidly, just like my own. I wanted to run my hands through his hair, to pull on it. The long blondish strands demanded some kind of action. His piercing topaz gaze dipped from my own eyes to my lips, or maybe lower, I wasn't sure. Suddenly, the distance between us was gone, and I was no longer standing on the floor.

The kiss was brutal but brief. His hand had moved from my chin to my throat, circling it and pressing ever so slightly. His hips pinned me to the door.

I lifted my legs and wrapped them around him, which made him growl in what I hoped was need, one that matched my own. He wrenched himself away, dropping me like a hot potato. I barely got my feet under me in time to not land on my ass.

"That was a mistake. One that will never happen again. Your Dylan's infatuation, not mine. Don't try to manipulate me. You'll just end up paying for it, and it won't be with pleasure."

He shoved me out of the way so hard that I almost tripped and fell. It was only his hand on my shoulder that steadied me enough to not fall on my face, but then he was gone, out of the door and down the hallway faster than I could even wrap my head around what just happened.

13

Evie

When they called it a road trip, I expected the drive to be long. It was maybe an hour to the other side of the city tops. For the most part, the drive was quiet. Neither Hudson or Dylan wanted to talk, and the only thing I wanted to discuss was me going into my dorm alone and leaving those two waiting in the car so we didn't draw too much attention.

There was nothing like two grown men in suits that look like they're about to either kill somebody or take over a Fortune 500 company walking around a small, quaint college campus. "If we can park close enough, you can watch me walk all the way to the door. See?" I said as we pulled up and I pointed out which dorm I was going to.

"You'll watch me go into the dorm, and you'll see me come back out. There's no other entrances or exits, except for the fire escapes, which will set off the alarms. This way, we won't draw a bunch of unwanted attention."

To my surprise, it was Hudson who agreed with me. "She does have a point, boss. We don't exactly blend with the crowd."

"I just have to wait until somebody is walking in so I can get in as well. It's not like I was allowed me to keep my key card or anything."

"Fine. We'll give you thirty minutes. If you're not back out in thirty minutes, we're coming in to get you." Dylan's voice was firm and brokered no argument. I knew it was the best deal I was going to get.

"That's fine. That's fine." I repeated hastily before he could change his mind. "Thank you."

There was a girl walking toward where the car was parked who looked vaguely familiar. There was a big pedestrian pathway that ran through the center of campus. She could really be going anywhere, but if she looked somewhat familiar, there was a good chance that she lived in the same dorm as me. I hopped out of the car and started walking toward the path I expected her to take.

Just as predicted, she descended the few steps to the entry and I hurried to catch up with her. Her keycard beeped. And the green light on the door flashed as she pulled it open. "Could you hold that?" I called from just behind her.

She looked over her shoulder, her brows furrowing and her mouth turning into a thin line. She clearly wasn’t comfortable with the idea of holding the door for somebody in a keyed-entry dorm.

"Sorry, I left my key card in my room. It wasn't like I'd been reminding myself all morning not to forget it or anything." I gave her a charming smile, or at least what I hoped was a charming smile. She returned it and continued to hold the door as I stepped inside. "Thank you so much. You're such a lifesaver!"

"Is your roommate home?”

“Yeah, she should be. I think she's asleep though, which is probably why she wasn't answering the phone," I said, lying through my teeth. I felt a little bad, but at the same time, I didn't have any other choice.

The scariest part was that I didn't actually know what I was going to do if Lyric wasn't in the dorm. I mean, just like there was no way for me to get into the building, there was no way for me to get into the room either. If she wasn't there, maybe I could talk to the floor RA and see if she could get me in somehow. That would probably mean a long conversation explaining my absence and everything like that, which I didn't particularly want to get into.

I boarded the elevator with the girl and pressed the button for the fifth floor. The girl pressed the button for the second floor. "I didn't think there were girls on the second floor," I mumbled, not really meaning to say it aloud.

She heard me anyway and laughed and before saying, "I'm visiting my boyfriend first."

"Gotcha. Have fun!" I winked at her as the elevator slowly eased to a stop and she got off, which made me sigh with relief.

I didn't have to fake it anymore. I could just be the anxious ball of nerves that I was. Almost immediately, I started chewing on my fingernails. It wasn’t the greatest habit, but it was something I picked up when Sampson kept me in the basement. It wasn't like I had anything else to do.

The smell of the elevator was familiar and comforting, even if it was a little ripe thanks to what I was sure was a week of partying or something like that. Finally, the elevator opened on my floor and I headed out, glancing at the closed door of the RA's room and hoping that nobody was inside.

If I could make it into the room with nobody else seeing me, hopefully I'd be able to talk to Lyric and tell her what was going on. I was both excited and terrified by the prospect of seeing my old roommate. Did she know Sampson was dead, and if so, was she upset about it? I wasn't sure how I'd handle it if she really thought of a man like that as family.

The odd thing was that I never once felt compelled to try and run away from Dylan and Hudson. Out of everything that had happened, meeting them felt almost natural. Yes, I owed them a debt, and yes, they were using me as a chess piece in a game that I didn't understand or expect to be a part of. That being said, they also took care of me, and while I did want to come back to school, college didn’t feel like my only option anymore.

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