Chapter 5 #2
“Go away, Warren. I’m not letting you inside.” Our eyes lock as she looks at me over her shoulder. Is this the part where I leave? Because if so, she’s sorely mistaken. Stopping at a door on the left side, she fumbles with the key. Obviously, she’s distracted.
Staring up at the ceiling, I direct my attention back to her when she finally gets it to go inside the lock and turns it. As soon as she pushes the door open, I spring forward, wrapping an arm around her waist, and carrying her into the room.
“You didn’t really think that would get rid of me?” I ask with a grin. Yes, I know I’m an asshole, but I have my reasons just as any asshole does. She skirts away from me, and I shut the door, closing us inside together. Alone at last.
“I was hoping it would.” She huffs, switching on the light.
Taking in the tiny apartment, if you can even call it that, it’s more like a small room, barely enough space to hold a twin-size bed, a kitchenette, a table and chair.
Harper throws her bag down next to the bed and peels her jacket off.
And then it hits me like a kick to the ball sack.
She lives here. This is her fucking apartment.
There is no friend, no boyfriend either, or fuckboy, at least not in sight.
“You lied to me. You said you were staying with a friend.” I pin her with an accusing glare.
She rolls her pretty hazel eyes, “I didn’t want you to know where I live.
Well, now, you know. Congratulations. Sorry, it’s not up to your standards.
There are no butlers, or maids, no chefs, and the bed doesn’t have Egyptian cotton sheets.
” No, there definitely isn’t any of that here.
This looks like a room that a whore would use to sell herself out of.
“Actually, my standards are pretty low. I’m here with you, aren’t I?”
“Whenever you’re done with your insults, you can go ahead and leave, doors over there in case you can’t pull your head out of your ass and find it.”
Good one. Ignoring what she said because I don’t really care what she has to say, I get straight to the point. The real reason I came here.
Taking a step toward her, I let myself turn into the predator. “Heard you sucked off someone else at the party. James, I believe. That’s going to stop. If you have to stay at this school, the only cock you’re going to suck, ride, or choke on will be mine.”
“Of course, someone saw what happened.” She shakes her head, her eyes colliding with mine.
Fire sparks between us, zinging through the air.
“I did not and will not fuck anyone else, and above all you!” Her words slice through me like a dull knife, and before I know what I’m doing, I close the distance between us in one large stride.
I’m like a caged monster that’s been freed.
My hand flies up, and my fingers wrap around her delicate throat.
Fragile, so fragile, like glass. Pushing her back until she falls onto the bed, I climb on top of her.
“You spread your legs for who knows who, but not for me?” With my free hand, I start to undo her blouse.
The heat of her skin beckons me forward.
She’s a beacon of light in my dark mind, and I want to dull out her light.
Trying with little effect, she slaps me away, but that just makes me tighten my grip on her throat.
Careful… I tell myself, my eyes piercing hers. The blackness bleeds out of me, filling the room to the point of suffocation. I can’t breathe. All I can do is feel. Feel the pain, the sadness, the anger. That’s what seeing her does to me. It brings out the worst in me.
“Don’t,” she pleads, and I try to ignore the panic in her voice, but it calls to me. I want to hear her cries, of want, of fear.
An inch from her face, I snarl, “Don’t what?
Hurt you? Break your heart like you broke mine?
” Her eyes widen at my words, confusion reflecting in them like she doesn’t understand what I’m saying, or why I’m acting like this.
Surely, she doesn’t think that I forgot her secret?
She opens her mouth to say something, but I don’t let her.
I can’t listen to another lie coming out of her mouth.
Easing back, I let my eyes roam down over her perfect body. She still looks so innocent; she still looks like my Harper, and that only makes all of this so much worse.
All over again, she’s here in front of me but somehow lost forever.
I’m so fucking furious, I feel like I’m going to burst if I don’t let this out.
Anger overwhelms me, overriding all reasoning, and I let go of her throat, knowing that I’ll squeeze too hard and cut off her air supply if I don’t. I want to hurt her, not kill her.
Balling my hand into a fist, I rear back and punch the mattress beside her head. I don’t know what’s happening to me. The rage burns, it owns me. Harper covers her face, protecting it like I’m going to hit her, and that only infuriates me more.
Getting off of her, I turn and punch the closest wall.
Pain shoots through my hand and up my arm as it makes contact with the old plaster wall.
I welcome the pain. I hold on to that physical pain because it hurts less than the kind of pain she causes me.
Taking a deep breath, I compose myself enough to speak.
“You need to shut up, or this is going to end badly for both of us. Your voice makes me lose my fucking mind, and I want to hurt you, not kill you, so please shut up.”
Her body trembles on the bed, and I take another calming breath. One. Two. Three. I count back to myself because counting and breathing are the only two things saving us right now.
“I heard you’ve been dancing at the local strip club, so why don’t you give me a little show to calm me down?”
Harper eases into a sitting position, and I look over at her. She looks as if she’s afraid, but not afraid enough. There is fire in her, and I’m going to do everything in my power to extinguish it.
“If you’re implying that I’m a stripper, then you’re going to need to go back to whoever told you that lie and tell them they’re an idiot. I would never strip for money. I have morals, no offense to the girls that do it, but…”
Rubbing at my temples with two fingers, I snap, “Get up, take off your fucking clothes and start dancing. Otherwise, I’ll do it for you.”
Gritting her teeth, I can see the defiance pooling in her eyes. She lifts her chin, holding it high as she pushes up off the bed. Come on, baby, walk over here and tell me to fuck off, I dare you. Though she’s nearly a foot shorter than me, she stands tall like a flower in a field of weeds.
“I’m gonna tell you the same thing I told your friend at the party… fuck off and leave me alone!” She raises her voice, and all I can do is smile.
“Wrong answer,” I growl as I place my knee on the bed.
Like a frightened child, she scurries away from me and toward the wall.
Dumb girl. She can’t escape me… not now that she’s here.
I grab her leg, so she can’t get far. This time, when I look into her face, I see fear, real fear.
A look she has never given me before. For the first time tonight, my anger lessens, not by a lot thought and not enough to let go of her.
“Can you please just leave,” she begs, her voice trembling.
I try a different tactic. I shouldn’t give a fuck about her living situating, but stupidly I do.
“Why do you live here? Aren’t you on a scholarship?” I want to know everything about her, every little detail. Where she went? How she ended up back here? Who she let fuck her?
“Yes,” she bites at her bottom lip nervously, and then it clicks.
“Aren’t you supposed to stay in the dorms? Doesn’t the scholarship cover on-campus housing?” I don’t know shit about this kind of stuff, but I can easily find out.
“I can’t afford the dorms,” is all she says, her eyes dropping to the floor.
“Don’t make enough money at the strip club?” I lift a questioning brow.
“I’m not a stripper! Jesus.” She growls, her claws finally coming out again.
I like her fragile, and purring with fear, but I also like her fierce, willing to fight me tooth and nail.
It’s a contradiction, and I can’t explain it.
I know it’s wrong, but I love this push and pull. I feed off of it like a parasite.
“Okay, so what will fifty dollars get me?”
Her tiny little jaw tightens, and in a flash, her hand is making contact with my face. I feel the sting, my head turning to the side with the force of the hit.
Fuck...me… The copper tang of blood fills my mouth. If she were anyone else, I’d hit her back, but she isn’t just anyone. She’s Harper. My Harper. And I’ve got something better up my sleeve.