Chapter 25
My back slams into the wall, the shock rattling through my spine, but it’s nothing compared to the wildfire burning in his eyes. His hand clamps my jaw, forcing me to look up at him. His words hit like bullets, each one carving deeper until my pulse is a frantic mess beneath my skin.
Mine. Not Melanie. Not anyone else. Me.
I want to scoff, to shove him back and call him a liar. But my traitorous body betrays me, trembling under the weight of his touch. His thumb drags across my lower lip, slow and deliberate. Like he is branding me. Marking territory no one else is allowed to claim.
God help me, part of me wants to let him.
“Colter,” I breathe, my voice cracking. “You don’t get to—”
He leans closer, so close his breath brushes my mouth. “I get to do whatever the fuck I want when it comes to you.”
Anger spikes, sharp and hot, cutting through the gaze he always seems to wrap me in. “Then why Melanie?” I hiss, even though the sound barely escapes with his grip on me. “You don’t get say I’m yours when you had her on her knees the other night.”
His eyes darken, jaw flexing like he’s a second away from snapping. But there’s something else there too. Shame? Regret? It’s gone before I can name it.
“You think that meant anything?” His laugh is harsh, bitter. “It didn’t. It was nothing. You’re the only one who gets under my skin like this.” His hand slides from my jaw to my throat, pressing hard enough that I gasp. “You’re the only one who makes me lose control.”
I should be terrified. Furious. Running. Instead, I’m pinned to the wall, my heartbeat syncing to the dangerous rhythm of his touch. His eyes bore into mine. He’s not asking me to believe him—he’s daring me not to.”
The worst part? I almost do.
His body cages me in, heat rolling off him in waves, and I’m left teetering on the edge of something I can’t name. I hate him for this. I hate myself for wanting it.
My lips part, but the words die before I can spit them out when I hear footsteps echo down the hall and murmuring voices.
Colter doesn’t move. His thumb strokes once more across my lips, his eyes locked on me like I’m the only thing in existence. “This conversation isn’t over,” he whispers, low and dangerous.
Then he steps back, leaving me shaking against the wall, gasping like I’ve surfaced from almost drowning.
“Peyton,” Pace says my name softly from a small doorway a few feet away. Shaking my head to clear the Colter induced fog, I turn to face him. “Follow me.”
Not wanting to be left alone in the hallways where I know I will no doubt fall to pieces; I stride after him. He leads me through a pair of ornate double doors that open onto a large patio. Jackson and Lee are waiting as I step into the crisp night air.
“There you are!” Jackson crows, a large grin on his face. “Let’s get out of this stuffy old party and have some fun.”
Lee shakes his head at his friends’ antics. “Where do you want to go?”
I shrug. “I don’t care. Anywhere is good with me.”
Lee smiles. “Into the Benz then.” Jackson snorts at Lee’s unintentional rhyme.
I don’t bother to ask where we’re going. Anywhere is better than here—better than the walls closing in, better than Colter’s eyes burning holes through me like he owns me.
The Benz is sleep and black. It’s a car that swallows you the second you sink into the leather seats.
Jackson slides into the driver’s seat with a grin to sharp to be harmless while Lee takes the passenger seat like he’s the one actually in charge.
I’m tucked in the back, the cool night air still clinging to my skin, trying to smother the heat Colter left behind.
Jackson peels out of the driveway like he’s been waiting all night to escape, music low, bass vibrating through the car.
“Don’t’ tell me you don’t like parties,” Jackson throws over his shoulder, his grin reflected in the review mirror.
“I don’t like that one,” I mutter, staring out the window.
“Lee glances back at me, reading too much in those steady eyes. “Hudson’s dinners aren’t parties. They’re performances. Everyone’s always on a stage.”
He isn’t wrong. Every smile I forced tonight felt like I line I didn’t want to speak.
Jackson snorts. “So we’ll take her somewhere with no stage.”
“Like where?” I ask, unable to hide the curiosity edging into my voice.
Jackson smirks. “You’ll see.”
The road curves away from the Shaw estate, headlights cutting through the darkness. My shoulders loosen for the first time all night. The air feels cleaner, sharper. I can breathe again.
But then my phone buzzes in my clutch. One. Twice. Again. I don’t have to know who it is.
Colter.
My stomach flips, a strange mix of dread and heat sparking in my chest. I should turn it off, ignore him, pretend his grip on me doesn’t still linger like a bruise. Instead, my hand hovers over the bag, shaking with the effort not to reach inside.
Lee notices. He doesn’t comment, but his gaze lingers a bit too long before looks back at the windshield.
“Wherever we’re going,” I say quickly, forcing brightness into my tone. “it better be worth all the mystery.”
Jackson laughs. “Trust me, it will be. Colter will shit himself when he finds out we stole you.”
Lee mutters under his breath, “He’s already losing it.”
I don’t ask how he knows.
I don’t have to.
The man is obsessive.
The farther we get from the estate, the tighter my chest knots, until the mansion lights finally vanish in the rearview mirror. Only then do my lungs loosen enough to drag in a full breath.
“Relax, darlin’,” Jackson says, tapping the steering wheel to the beat of the music on the radio. “You’re out of the Shaw zoo for the night. No cages, no handlers, no big bad wolf.”
I shoot him a look, but the corner of my mouth betrays me, twitching upward. “You really think I need rescuing?”
“I know you do.” His grin flashes, boyish and dangerous. “The difference is, I won’t lock you back in once I’ve dragged you out.”
“Christ, Jack,” Lee mutters, shaking his head. “You can’t flirt to save your life.”
“I wasn’t flirting,” Jackson says innocently, then glances at me through the mirror again. “I mean, unless she wants me too.”
I roll my eyes, but the tension I’ve been carrying since Colter shoved me against the wall starts to ease. It’s impossible to stay wound so tight with Jackson’s reckless energy buzzing through the car.
Lee, on the other hand, is the opposite. Calm. Quiet. Solid in a way that doesn’t demand, but steadies. He turns slightly in his seat, his gaze on me like he’s cataloguing details he’ll never say out loud.
“Where are we going?” I ask again.
Lee smiles. “Somewhere that isn’t dripping in pearls and politics.”
“That narrows it down to…anywhere else in the world.”
Jackson barks a laugh, slamming his palm against the steering wheel. “She’s got bite. I like her.”
“I’m not here to be liked,” I say before I can stop myself. It comes out sharper than I intend, my armor snapping back in place.
Silence hums for a beat, heavy enough that I regret it. But then Lee’s voice cuts through, even and grounding.
“Good. Then you’ll survive here.”
Something about the way he says it makes my pulse skip. My phone buzzes again. Persistent. The sound rattles around in my head like a warning bell. I finally dig it out of my clutch, the screen lighting up with Colter’s name. Ten missed calls. Three unread texts.
My throat dries.
Jackson whistles. “Guess the big bad wolf noticed you’re gone.”
Lee’s jaw tightens, his eyes flickering to mine. “Don’t answer.”
I set the phone face down in my lap, but the vibration doesn’t stop. It thrums against my thigh, every buzz a reminder of that look in Colter’s eyes, of his hand on my throat, his voice whispering mine.
No cages, Jackson said. No handlers. No wolf.
Then why do I still feel like the leash is wrapped around my throat?