Mia leads me straight to her dorm building, and I hang back as she lets herself in and turns toward the stairwell, leaving me just enough time to slip in unnoticed behind her.
She's still totally oblivious to me as I step up behind her, and when she pushes her door open, I press my front to her back and wrap my hand around her mouth to stop her from screaming.
"You can't escape me that easily," I breathe in her ear, and I swear she relaxes against me as I kick the door closed, cutting us off from the rest of the campus.
6
Mia
“Bexley, what the he—” My breath whooshes from my lungs as he spins me around and presses me up against the wall, sealing his hand completely over my mouth.
“You’re with him?” he spits. “But what I can’t figure out is if you were trying to use me to get back at him for something, or whether you’re both trying to fuck me over.”
“It isn’t like that.” My words are smothered by his warm palm.
“Sorry, what was that? I can’t hear you.” His eyes darken, anger swirling in his icy depths.
He slightly loosens his grip, and I manage to choke out, “Fuck you.”
“That can be arranged.” He presses his big, ripped body against the length of mine, erasing every inch of space. “After all, you were begging for it at the party. I had my fingers inside you, remember? I felt how wet you were, how much you wanted me.” His hand slides to my throat, and his tongue darts out to taste my lips. “Are you wet now, Mia?”
A violent tremor rips through me. This Bexley isn’t the guy I met at the lake. He’s different. Angry and cruel.
And yet, I can’t deny the flash of heat that pulses through me.
“You can’t say that to me.” I let out an indignant huff.
“Why not? Because you’re his girl?”
“Why do you care?” I cry. “You pulled away, not me. I was there, I was right there, and you rejected me.”
Tears spill from my eyes without permission, but the lock on all the anger and frustration that has been building inside me finally bursts wide open. “I was willing to give you everything,” my voice shakes, “and you made your choice.”
Bexley releases me like I’ve burned him and staggers back. “Fuck,” he roars. “FUCK!”
The whole moment is bizarre. We don’t know each other, not really. But I felt something at the party that night. Something real. It’s still there, simmering between us, crackling in the air.
“Why?” He snarls the word, dragging his fingers through his hair. “Why play me like that?”
“I didn’t… I wasn’t…” Crap. I don’t know what to say. It’s not like I can tell him the truth.
Can I?
You know you can’t.
So I go with the only truth I can admit. “I just wanted to feel something normal.”
“Normal? What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” he sneers. “Doesn’t Kingsley get you off or something?”
I suck in a sharp breath at his crude insinuation, and Bexley notices. His brows bunch together as he studies me.
“What aren’t you telling me?” He closes the distance between us, reaching for my cheek and brushing his thumb over the soft skin there. “Is Kingsley making you do things you don’t want to?”
“N-no, nothing like that. I just… he’s intense.”
Bexley goes rigid, his jaw clenching painfully tight. His eyes fix on mine, as if he’s trying to unearth all my deepest, darkest secrets. “I don’t like playing games, Mia.” His words are a low whisper that sends shivers racing down my spine. “I had enough of that back in Sterling Bay, and it didn’t end well… for anyone.”
“It wasn’t a game, I promise. It wasn’t.”
“But you’re his?”
Silent tears drip down my cheeks as Bexley stares at me with utter disgust. He might be relatively new to Gravestone, but he already hates Kingsley. Most people do, they’re just too afraid to admit it.
Not Bexley Danforth, though.
For a second, I imagine telling him. I imagine spilling every sordid detail about this town and the people who hold all the power. I imagine letting him comfort me, letting him fight my battles. But this isn’t a fairy tale, and there are no happy endings here. There’s only misery and pain.
His thumb strokes along my throat as he leans closer, his lips practically touching the shell of my ear. “All I can think about is finishing what we started at that party. You were so fucking wet, Mia. I wanted to make you come all over my fingers.” Bexley rolls his hips against me, letting me feel exactly what I do to him.
I smother a whimper, my eyes fluttering closed as I let myself remember. “You felt so good, little mouse.” My eyes fly open, and he smirks. “Small, helpless, little mouse.” His grip around my throat tightens.
I know I should feel terrified; I’m completely at his mercy. But there’s something else under the surface. “Fuck. You,” I seethe.
“Nah.” He releases me sharply, and I sag down the wall. “Something tells me you want that, and Kingsley made it pretty clear you’re his. So until I find out what you’re hiding, I’m not going to lay a single finger on you.”
Disappointment wells in my chest.
“You should go.” I can barely look at him. Bexley hovers for a second, his eyes drilling holes in the top of my head. He isn’t leaving, so I say the only thing I know will get rid of him.
“If Cade finds out you’re here,” I finally lift my gaze to his, “he’ll kill you.”
Bexley bristles. His eyes narrow to dangerous slits as he backtracks to the door. But he pauses at the last second, right as he goes for the handle.
“I’d like to see him try.”
By the time the next morning rolls around, the pit
