Seven lifts his face to look at me, the pain in his expression giving way to a sadistic grin as a terrifying new hunger sparks to life in his eyes.
“That’s more like it,” he says, stalking forward as I hurry to scramble back from him on my hands and knees. I barely make it a few feet before Seven has me pinned to the ground with his foot pressing into my shoulder blades. “You’re going to have to be faster than that.”
He reaches down and grabs me by my shoulder to flip me onto my back before dropping down to straddle my hips. Seven leans forward over me as he once again presses his blade to my neck.
“I don’t think I need to be faster,” I say, staring up at him as he tilts his head and gives me a confused look, “just smarter.”
I press the point of one of his other blades just below his sternum.
“When did you get that?”
“If I told you, I’d have to kill you,” I say as I grin up at him, happy to see I’ve managed to shock Seven of all people with my own resourcefulness ... Even if the chances of me being able to accomplish any of this in a real fight are slim to none.
Seven pulls his knife away from my throat, placing both of his hands against the floor on either side of my head.
“I surrender,” he says in a low growl as he starts to press the weight his body against the blade.
“What are you doing?” I gasp as I watch the point of the blade dip below the surface of his skin.
“Use it on me. Just because we’re training doesn’t mean we can’t have a little fun, too.”
For a split second, I’m almost tempted, but then my senses return to me.
I’m no murderer, and the very thought of a knife cutting into someone makes my stomach twist … especially as I’m suddenly reminded of the darkroom photos.
Is Seven the one who carved up those bodies? It’s quite possible, especially with how freakishly attached he seems to be to his knives. Not to mention how expertly he handles them.
“No!”
I wrench the blade away and toss it aside, just as a trickle of blood begins working its way down the center of Seven’s torso. He doesn’t so much as move to wipe it away, in fact, the sight of it only seems to excite him more.
Seven shifts his hips against mine to readjust himself as his body begins to harden in response, and I immediately start to regret tossing my knife out of reach.
As he shifts forward again, his shirt drapes open further, and I can just make out part of his snake tattoo over the edge of his pants as it curls around his hip. As if I needed more of a reminder of what lies beneath.
I squirm to see if I can wriggle out from beneath him, but this only serves to excite Seven even more. His grin widens, a hint of silver flashing in his teeth as he plays with the knife still in his hand.
His weight keeping me anchored to the floor, Seven begins trailing the cold point of his blade lightly across the skin peeking out of the neckline of my shirt. I shiver as chills, a mixture of fear and pleasure, race across my skin and down my spine.
Reaching the first button, he carefully twists the knife against it until it pops. The shirt falling open to reveal slightly more of my chest.
He drags the knife lower still until it meets the next button.
“It really is such a shame to hide so much beauty beneath such shapeless clothing, don’t you think?”
He pops the button. The shirt falling open just enough to still be covering my breasts, especially since they’ve kind of flattened and dropped off to the side a bit in this position, but not by much.
Instead of moving on to the next button, Seven trails the point sideways, pushing the fabric with it and leaving the faintest of red lines across my skin.
I trace my eyes over Seven’s body, scanning for each of his other blades as I remember that I’m supposed to be trying to escape. They’re too far out of reach, unless I want to press my body into his blade.
Fine, I’ll just have to settle for testing my theory.
I carefully move to place my hands on Seven’s thighs, but he doesn’t seem to notice. His focus is zeroed in on my breast as he pushes the remaining fabric away to expose the rest of it to him.
I squirm beneath him again without thinking, unused to having any part of my naked body on display … though I suppose I should be getting more and more used to it given the past few days.
“Don’t move,” Seven snaps as he pulls his blade away from my skin, “or I’ll cut you.”