I snag her wrist almost immediately. “Do that and this whole experience will be a whole lot less pleasurable for you, Little Dove.”
This time when a shiver runs down her spine, I know it’s not with desire but a little of the fear she says she doesn't feel when I’m around.
“Seducing you, making you need my touch like a junkie who needs their next hit, isn’t the only way to do this.” Shifting slightly, I pull my flip knife from my waistband.
“Oh my God, Cole,” she whimpers when I hold it in front of her and expose the blade.
“Torture comes in many forms. I can deliver it in pleasure so at least when I walk out of here with all your secrets you’ll be satisfied, or I can leave you crying in pain. Your choice.”
“You’re fucking crazy, you know that?”
I lick up her neck again until my lips are at her ear. “I’m more than aware. And you only make me worse.”
“We shouldn’t be doing this. We’re a train wreck waiting to happen.”
“We? You say that like we’re a thing… an item. We’re not anything, Little Dove. We’re just two broken souls fighting their way through their own darkness. But the thing about darkness is that it’s addictive. Coach has made sure I stay away from any real hard addiction I might have had, so it’s time I found another.”
My teeth sink into her neck before my tongue laves over it, easing the sting. The need to mark her, claim and consume her burns through my veins. And when I pull back and see the teeth marks I left behind on her skin, something inside of me explodes, my restraint shattering. “And I think you’re the perfect one.”
“Cole.” She squirms against me as I bring the blade closer.
“Give me what I need, and this will be over quicker.”
“And then what? You’ll leave me alone? I give you all my dark secrets and we’re done?”
I think about her question for a few seconds, not liking the way it makes me feel.
“I think we both know that we’ll never be done. You need this as much as I do. This feeds that darkness in the depth of your soul just like it does mine.”
She flinches when the cool metal of the knife hits her cheek.
“Cole,” she warns once again, as if just hearing my name and the fear in her voice would stop me. All it does is get me fucking hard for her.
“Now, let’s try this again. Why here? Why Sterling Prep?”
“They’re ashamed of me and wanted me out of their lives.”
“Better, Dove, better. And dear ol’ Timmy?”
“I… it was a secret. We shouldn’t have been together.”
“Because he was older?”
“Partly. The details don’t really matter.”
“They do,” I state.
“Well, you’re going to be disappointed then, because you’re not getting them.”
A growl that even I don’t recognize rumbles up my throat at her refusal.
“That’s where you’re very much mistaken, Hadley Dove Rexford. Everything matters to me. Every single last detail.”
“Why?”
“Because it does.” My addiction to her, my need to know every single thing about her was already out of control before this little visit, but now I know he was a part of her leaving, I need to know if he hurt her, because if he did, well… I won’t hesitate in making sure it doesn’t happen again.
I pull the neck of her shirt away from her body and place my knife against it. It almost instantly parts.