Chapter 21 Sutton
SUTTON
I’m not planning on saying a word to the temptress across the room.
I’m happy to just watch from afar where she’s tucked between bookshelves in her little black dress with the bell sleeves and sheer tights clinging to her long legs, bending over to squint at the spines of journals like something straight out of a porno.
The snake charm she wears around her neck at all times feels appropriate.
She breaks the silence without facing me. “Did you have to send everyone away?”
I clear my throat, listening for sounds of someone else entering the stairwell. She has no idea just how close she is to the fucking carnage that would love to get its hooks in her. Down the hall and below us.
“Thought you could use a little distraction-free reading,” I reply.
“Distraction-free, huh?” She snorts. “If you say so.”
My chest tightens. I slide my hands into my pants pockets just for something to do while I wait.
Her shadow appears in my peripheral vision as she comes around one side of the bookcase.
I resist the urge to look—or try to anyway.
She bends again, dropping a new addition onto the pile of periodicals and journals she brought with her, and I get a flash of her ass in those tights as her dress rides up.
Fuck.
I swallow. Hard.
She spares me the slightest glance, smoothing her hands down over the fabric. Like she knows exactly what she just did.
I’m fucking starving.
Unable to sit still in the ensuing silence as she turns back to her task, I wander a bit closer, hands still in my pockets.
The pile of books grows at her feet, and I wonder if she even knows what she’s looking for.
“Can I help you with something?”
“You can go away.”
“What a different tune you’re singing compared to last week when you were practically begging to ride my cock.”
The words come out like vomit, triggered instantly for some reason by her disdain.
Or maybe I’m still keyed up from having to watch her with Lexington.
Or the fact that I can’t have her despite settling between her thighs being the only thing I’ve been able to think about since the start of the semester.
It feels like I’m losing my mind, bit by bit, every time I’m forced to share the air with her but unable to do anything more.
She swivels those beautiful, glittering hazel eyes my way. “I begged, you chastised me, and I saw the error of my ways. Can we just forget about it?”
“So what? You’re done coming on to me?”
Her jaw shifts. “Yep. I know better than to ask a man for something multiple times. My previous attempts probably set women back centuries.”
“I wasn’t aware you had that much influence on your gender.”
“Sounds like something my sister would say.”
Ah. There it is. I lean an elbow on one shelf, staring at her as she continues her task. “You think I came here with Quincy.”
“You showed up at the same time she did.”
“Coincidence.”
“Whatever. It doesn’t matter—I don’t care. The only reason I’m down here right now is to try and piece together the puzzle that is Avernia and its many mysteries.”
“Mysteries?”
“Yeah, like the students who go missing and are never investigated. The lack of charges in connection with the deaths from last semester. The strange network of student organizations and their ties to weird-ass cultlike practices. The curses.” She shrugs, and I can’t help wondering if she’s seen things or if this really is just a basic curiosity.
“Those people you hid from in the forest.”
Most in Fury Hill are happy to believe whatever they’re told if the truth is shiny enough. For centuries, Avernia’s been a breeding ground for misinformation—a way for those running the town to test the waters and see just how much their people will overlook.
That Elle is trying to uncover things rather than go with the flow doesn’t bode well for any of us. Especially should any higher-ups find out.
They’d see her as a threat. A manifestation of the curse.
The reason no one’s done anything about the crimes perpetrated by her siblings so far is because they think they’re under control so long as they can shape public narratives. Pythia does a great job keeping people just informed enough to think they know everything.
Elle looking deeper could unravel a thin thread tying the underbelly of this university together.
Something tells me that might be worse than losing my job or stepping in as Incarnate.
A book slips from her fingers, and she lets out a small breath as if exasperated. I crouch down, picking the journal up and putting it at the top of the pile.
“What would you like to find out?”
Her eyes find mine. “What do you mean?”
“I’m a founding family member from arguably the most prominent surname in town. Do you think there’s information I can’t get?”
“I didn’t ask for your help.”
“No,” I agree. “I’m offering.”
“Why?”
“Consider it a gesture of peace.” I extend my hand.
She looks at it, makes a face, and pushes into a standing position. “No thanks. I’d rather just ask Meg or Lexington.”
My body moves before I can command it to stop, following as she attempts to slip past me; suddenly I’m standing, guiding her back into the shelves behind us so we’re mostly obscured from view at the entrance to the room.
Elle’s eyes widen as her spine collides with solid wood, and I grip the edges of the shelf on either side of her head, irritation flooding my nervous system.
Goddamn. No one gets under my skin the way this woman does.
I drop my gaze to our shoes. She has those little block heels on again.
“Don’t.” It’s the only word I can manage, and I’m not even sure what I’m saying. I shouldn’t be this close at all. “Don’t go to him.”
“Why shouldn’t I?”
“Because I’m asking you not to.”
“You can’t do this,” she whispers, reaching up.
Her palms flatten against my chest for a moment, as if she wants to push me away, but then they twist in the fabric of my sweater.
“The hot-and-cold thing…telling me you can’t act on what I know we’re both feeling…
If you can’t be in this, I don’t want any part of it. ”
“Since when?”
“Since I decided being an asshole wasn’t very progressive of me.”
I lift my chin. “After I sent you out of the forest.”
She nods. “I’m sorry for how I’ve been behaving. I guess I didn’t want to see your side of things, and it was selfish and rude of me. I don’t want to be the source of your suffering. Pushing your buttons is one thing, but if you really think they’d take your job…”
Swallowing, I move my arms inward and step closer, trapping her. “Is there someone else you’d rather spend such valuable resources on?”
“Ugh. See? What am I supposed to think here, Sutton?” She ducks, trying to escape, but I just move with her. “I’m trying to do the nice thing, but then you… God, you’re fucking exhausting.”
“It’s no picnic on my end, I assure you.”
“Then let me leave.”
“I can’t.”
Her nostrils flare, and she lowers her eyes. “Someone will come back soon.”
That’s true, and I should release her based on that notion alone. Instead, I pinch her chin, tilting her head back until it hits the bookshelf and she’s forced to meet my gaze. The longer I stare into those warm irises, the deeper I fall into a cycle of uncontainable desire.
My restraint, no matter what I claim verbally, is wearing thin.
“Fuck it,” I mutter, shaking my head. If she wants to go back to Lexington, she can do so with my taste on her lips.
Inhaling that honey-vanilla scent of hers, I slink even closer until there’s barely room for a breath between us. My hand slides back, cupping her jaw as raw need pulses through me, denial like a dam breaking and giving way to weeks of longing.
She lets out a tiny noise, something that sounds an awful lot like desperation, and moves toward me, angling her mouth in preparation for mine.
Footsteps thud in the stairwell. Our breaths mingle, and a momentary lapse in sanity glues me in place, mere centimeters from her lips.
I sway, temptation clouding my judgment, but she blinks, and within seconds, she’s spinning out of my embrace and diving toward the journals on the floor.
I’m still standing where she left me, leaning against the bookshelf, when Quincy reappears in the doorway.
The older Anderson daughter glances between us but doesn’t say a word.
For that, at least while I try to get the beat of my heart under control, I’m grateful.