Chapter 27
TWENTY-SEVEN
LANA
T he very last thing I expected to be doing today is facing off with Cole in a boxing ring in his basement.
According to the blueprints I’d studied before coming here that first night, this was just a wine cellar. If I’d known he had it kitted out the way he does, I might have made him bring me here sooner.
Seriously, this place is nice… for an amateur, at least. It could be better if he added some targets for knife throwing, a gun selection, and some other fun things, but I guess this works for what he needs it for.
I stand in the middle of the ring and wait for him to join me. Despite how well this place presents, there’s a lot of dust down here and it doesn’t look like it’s used often.
“You don’t come down here much?”
He ducks under the rope and stands opposite me, shaking his head.
He’s taken off the T-shirt he was wearing, leaving him in only the gym shorts he changed into when we got back to his place.
His toned abs are on display, and I’m not sure if he did it as a distraction technique or not, but I have a feeling it might just work.
Asshole.
“Not really. I usually use the campus gym with the guys and only really fight when I feel the need to.”
I nod in understanding.
We’re opposites, me and him. I fight because I have to do it to survive. He fights to feel alive.
I could go without fighting, he can’t.
I use it to burn off some energy.
He needs it to dispel his demons.
Is that what he’s doing right now? Using me as a way to fight them?Was he having a bad day, and bringing me down here is just what he needed to get his head clear? Or is there another reason I’m here?
I know I shouldn’t read into it, but I can’t make sense of it all. He can’t stand me, so why would he bring me down here, show me this place, and fight with me if he didn’t need to? I know his schedule, so I know that he should be in class right now. None of it makes any sense to me.
“Let’s go, little menace,” he says, bouncing around a little on the balls of his feet and circling me.His usually tidy hair is messed up a little from running his fingers through it, and right now he looks nothing like the persona he shows the rest of the world.
What would the rest of the school think if they saw the real Cole Aston?
Would they still worship him and his friends the way they do? Or would they make him an outcast, like they’ve done to me?
I roll my eyes at myself. There’s no point in wondering what would happen, because Cole will never let the world see the real him. He’ll never reveal his darkness to anyone.
Anyone but me , a small voice in the back of my mind whispers, and I shake my head to focus on what’s happening in the present, only to realize Cole is still circling me, a frown on his face.
I cross my arms across my chest and raise a brow, making him sigh and stop his motions.
“I’m not going to tire myself out and let you get the upper hand like I did the last time we fought. I learn from my mistakes, little menace.”
“ That’s what you think I was doing? Letting you tire yourself out?” I scoff. “I could be fighting with a bullet wound and still beat you, pretty boy.”
He’s making it sound as though I couldn’t have won from the moment we stepped into the ring at the church.
This asshole thinks that’s my tactic?
Oh, pretty boy… you’re about to eat your words.
“Isn’t it?” he gloats, and I growl at him before I strike.
I pounce, sending a quick uppercut to his jaw before I make a beeline for the ropes around the ring.
I climb up on one, waiting for him to approach me before I jump and maneuver myself until I’m sitting on his shoulders.
I use one hand in his hair for leverage as one of my legs wrap tightly around his neck, cutting off his air supply.
Cole quickly catches on to what I’m doing and flings himself backward so we both crash to the floor with an audible thud.
We land in a heap, my leg still wrapped around his neck.
He coughs and wheezes, and I use his struggling to give me some time to right myself before jumping over and straddling his torso.
“Still think I was just letting you tire yourself out?” I ask between pants.
He chuckles darkly. “We’re not finished yet, little menace.”
He flips us over so he’s the one sitting on my thighs, my legs trapped underneath him. He grabs my wrists and pins them above my head in one hand while his other hand finds my neck and squeezes.
“You gonna tap out, baby?”
I struggle beneath him, but his grip is too tight for me to shrug him off. I could find a way to get out, but that would mean me actually hurting him.
And I don’t really want to break any of his bones.
I find myself not wanting to hurt him this time around, and it’s weird.
I don’t like it.
“Never,” I grit out through clenched teeth.
He grins down at me, knowing he has me right where he wants me.
But I recognize the look in his eyes, and I know exactly how I’m going to get myself out of this.
His hands don’t let up the grip he has on me as he bends down. His eyes drill into mine as though he’s searching for something before they flick down to my lips. I unconsciously run my tongue along my lower lip, and he breaks.
Cole’s mouth slams down on mine in a fiery, aggressive kiss. His tongue tangles with mine as we both battle for dominance. I give in, knowing I need to get him out of his head for me to take the lead.
My pretty boy does like giving up control, he just has to fight it first.
His hips shift and his hard length presses into my thigh, so I shift a little and he moans at the friction. Using that as a distraction, I wind my leg around his back. His grip loosens around my hands, and I wrap them around his neck and draw him in for a deeper kiss.
My entire body is on fire as I feel him pressed against me, his sweat-soaked bare chest meeting my clothed, covered body. His hips rock against me, and I grin into the kiss before flipping us over. He lands on his back with a grunt, and I chuckle.
I quickly take off my hoodie, leaving me in only a sports bra and leggings before I pull the string from the hoodie and use it to tie his arms together. He doesn’t even fight me; he just lets me do as I please as though he enjoys every little thing I do to him.
That, and he’s too busy studying the tattoos that cover both of my arms.
He’s probably wondering what they mean, or if they have a meaning at all.
In truth, the flowers and the snakes winding up my arms do have meaning.
As in, I thought they were pretty, so I got them tattooed.
Some people can’t understand why anyone would get a tattoo that doesn’t have a deeply personal significant reason behind it.
“What? Didn’t get a good enough look when you kidnapped me?”
He cocks his head. “Is it kidnapping when I took you to your own room?”
He has a point. I’m surprised I didn’t wake up tied to his bed, if I’m being honest.
I’m certain that was his first time ever doing anything like that.
I could see it in his eyes—the excitement mixed with apprehension.
I’m pretty sure I’ve taken a lot of his firsts.
First time he’s ever kidnapped someone, first time he’s ever witnessed a murder, first time being tied up and gagged, first time experiencing knife play…
I wonder if he ever thought he’d enjoy being tied up before he met me. Did he used to fantasize about it, or did I introduce him to a whole other side of himself?
“You look good, tied up for me,” I murmur, and his lips curve the slightest bit before he glares at me.
There’s no anger behind the glare. No, he’s just using it as a way to hide his smile.
It hits me then that I don’t think I’ve ever seen a genuine smile from him. Sure, I’ve seen the mask he wears when he’s in public, but that’s just it. A mask. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him genuinely happy, and it makes me wonder what that would look like on him. Would it suit him?
“What are you gonna do with me, baby?”
I smirk down at him, taking in his rapidly rising and falling chest, his blown-out pupils, and his freshly fucked–looking hair.
“I’m going to ruin you, pretty boy,” I purr.
“So ruin me, little menace. Ruin me, destroy me, do whatever the hell you want with me.”
A rush of warmth washes over me, and I can’t help but crack a smile.
“It’d be my pleasure.”
I climb to my feet, and he growls at the lack of contact between us before I send him a pointed look. He huffs but doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t try and move, he doesn’t get up to follow me. He just lies there, in the middle of the boxing ring, in a pair of shorts with his hands tied.
He knows I’m not leaving him like this. I just need to find something to make this a little more… fun.
I snoop around the room, looking for anything that catches my attention, and then I see it.
The stack of dumbbells.
Huh.
That could be interesting .