“Go on then,” I taunt, knowing exactly what she’s going to ask.
“Was it you?”
“You’re going to need to be a little more specific, preppy.”
“Did you k… did you kill him?”
A smile curls at my lips. Her eyes drop to it and all the color drains from her face, thinking it’s my admission.
It’s going to take a hell of a lot more than that to get a confession out of me.
“How long has this been eating at you?” I ask, reaching out and tucking a lock of her blonde hair behind her ear. She tenses as I touch her, as she should, before she recovers and squares her shoulders.
“Cole,” she warns.
“Hadley.”
“I just… I need to know.”
“What you need is to mind your own business.”
She rears back slightly at my words. “Oh, is that why you took me up on my offer Saturday night? To keep me at arm’s length?” I don’t respond, and it pisses her off. Her lips purse and her eyebrows twitch with a frown. “Well?” she asks, lifting her hands to push me away, but before her palms connect with my chest, I catch them.
She growls in frustration. It’s almost cute.
“Is that the whole reason you snuck in here? To throw around wild accusations?”
“Firstly,” she hisses, trying to pull her wrists from my vise-like grip, “I didn’t sneak in. The front door was unlocked, and I strolled inside. Secondly, I don’t think my accusations are so wild, given how I found you that night, do you?”
My chest heaves as I think back to her stumbling across me Saturday night. Seeing anyone, let alone someone I knew, certainly wasn’t part of my plan.
“You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Cole, I—argh.” Her words are cut off as she falls onto the bed.
Jumping on top of her before she has the chance to scramble away, I pin her thighs with mine and hold her arms out wide with my fingers around her wrists once more.
I lower my face to her ear, allowing my lips to brush her skin as I speak. “You need to be careful, preppy. Someone might overhear these accusations and start getting ideas.”
She shudders beneath me, but it doesn't stop her running her mouth. “Getting ideas?” A bitter laugh falls from her lips. “They’ll have more than ideas, especially when you’re carted off in the back of a cop car.”
“There’s no reason for that to happen though, is there, preppy?” I ask, releasing one of her wrists and trailing my fingertip up her bare arm. Goosebumps prick her skin and her entire body tenses beneath me as she tries to fight how I’m making her feel. “If you believe what you’re saying, then you know how dangerous I could be. The last thing you’d want to do is make an enemy of me.”
My fingers find her throat, and I squeeze just a little harder than necessary, although I’m a long way from actually cutting off her air supply.
“Cole, please,” she mouths.
“Please what? Please shut you up, or please make you feel good?”
Her eyes narrow in anger, but I know it’s fake. I can see how fast her chest is heaving. I can feel her thighs tensing between mine, and fuck if it doesn’t have me rock hard.
“You’re wet for me again, aren’t you?”
“Fuck you,” she spits.
I nod at her, thinking just how easy it would be to lift her skirt right now and do exactly that. “Is that what you want? Me to fuck you?”
I drop my head once again, sinking my teeth into her earlobe.