Chapter Eight
I f I have to watch this fucker touch her one more time, he’s going to lose his hands.
He runs his fingers down her arm, edging himself closer as they watch something on the small screen ahead of the director and she isn’t moving away. My hands curl against my thigh, fingers aching to reach for the blade I keep in my pocket. The click and flip have always calmed me, perhaps because it’s the same blade that freed me.
I don’t pull it out though, not here, where Savvy works. I won’t let my fucked-up head affect her life.
His hand slides around to her back, pressing into her lower spine and jealousy, hot, violent, smashes through me like a tsunami .
Fuck no.
I have killed men for less.
Crossing the room in quick, long strides, my shoulder thumps into Adrien hard enough he’s knocked off his feet, taking down the screen at the same time. I grab Savannah before she can fall too, hauling her into me.
She grunts as she slams into me, hands pressing against my abdomen, her warmth like a branding, a consistent burn like embers smoldering in a pit.
“What the fuck!?” Adrien roars as he gets to his feet, “The fuck are you doing!?”
“Sorry man,” I keep one arm banded around Savvy who appears to be in some kind of shock. “Tripped.”
His eyes narrow before they flick to where my arm is around her and a slimy grin pulls on his mouth. Lifting his hands, he straightens his jacket and rolls his neck, “No worries, bro, no one got hurt right?” As he says it, he reaches for Savvy again but I’m quicker, subtly moving her away from his touch. His grin only widens.
“I think we’re done,” The director huffs, “Someone come clean this up.”
Without another word, I guide Savannah back to her dressing room, “Get dressed,” I order her, “We’re leaving.”
My eyes meet hers but she’s staring at me in shock, her mouth open, “ Excuse me? ”
I’m holding onto my temper by a thread, and it’s fraying. “We are leaving.”
“Care to explain what the fuck just happened?” She snaps at me.
“Watch your tone,” I warn her.
“Watch my… What the fuck!? ” She screeches, “You can fuck right off.”
I’m across the room in a blink, her body pressed to the wall with her wrists in one hand, my other pressing her hips back. She gasps, eyes widening as the light shimmers against her skin, catching the remnants of glitter still there.
“Don’t push me, Tiny Dancer,” I growl, voice a low warning I hope she feels in her fucking soul.
“Or what ?” She challenges. Her voice is all steel, but her eyes, they give her away.
“Did you like it?” I ask her.
“Like what!?”
My fingers flex on her hip as if only just realizing they’re on her. She’s so fucking soft.
“His hands on you?” My eyes drop to where I have her, my palm cupping her hip. The t-shirt has rolled up, sitting above my hand so it’s skin to skin, warm and tan and bitable, the band of her black panties right there.
“Who? ”
“Don’t play dumb with me, Savannah.”
“Adrien?” She scoffs. “He was being friendly.”
“Friendly?” I laugh but it’s not fucking funny, “He wasn’t being friendly, Savannah.”
Fuck, she feels so damn good under my hand, I want to slide it around to her ass, squeeze and drag her leg to the side. Hook it right over my hip, here and now, against the wall, hands trapped in mine.
“You’re not being very friendly right now either,” Her eyes flare as my hand twitches, sinking in a little deeper to her flesh. But then her words register, sink beneath my skin and drench whatever fire had been set inside of my soul.
I drop her, stepping away as quickly as I was on her.
“I’m not your friend,” I bite and the pain that crosses her face with those words, it’s crippling but I make for the door like it doesn’t affect me at all as I yank my cell from my pocket, “Get dressed, we’re leaving.”
She doesn’t argue as the door slams behind me.
I drop Savannah off at her friend’s house thirty minutes later, the entire car journey silent save for the tinny sound of the radio that was on such a low volume, you couldn’t hear what was being said or played. She kept her face toward the window, her hands in her lap right up until I come to a stop at the end of the driveway.
She climbs out without waiting for me to open her door for her, heading straight for the porch and I don’t stop her. I can’t.
I came close to breaking today. I showed her a part of me I never wanted her to see and almost let my desire for her take control. I’ll remember the way she felt for years to come, the way she was pressed to me, her flesh in my hands.
The forbidden fruit.
Just a taste is enough to lead you into an abyss you’ll never escape.