Chapter 14 #2
Her pupils dilate, a flicker of something dark and primal igniting in their depths.
Her pulse hammers against her delicate skin, betraying the tempest raging within.
My other hand finds its way to the curve of her hip, the fabric of her jeans cool against my burning palm.
She still doesn't pull away. Her eyes flicker down to my mouth, then back up.
I watch, captivated, as her jaw clenches, goosebumps raising down her neck.
The air between us crackles with unspoken words and wants.
Heat radiates off her body like a furnace.
I can almost taste the tension on her tongue, the way it would feel if I dared to press my lips against it.
“Theo, let me go.”
“I am not driving you home.”
The heat in her eyes turns molten. She purses her lips into a tight line. God, I’ve never wanted to kiss her more.
She shoves me hard, a sudden push that sends me stumbling back. She grabs the shovel from my feet and points it back at my face. “No one even knows you’re here. I could crack open your hollow skull, and no one would ever find out. Is that what you want me to do?”
“The list of things I want you to do to me is entirely too long for us to go through tonight, but for now I’ll settle for you looking past your baseless hatred for me for one goddamn second. Please, Holly.”
A humourless snort escapes her. “Baseless? Baseless hatred? Are you fucking kidding me? I’m not the one with an honest to god tracking device for all my texts on my phone —”
“It’s an app. And I will be more than happy to install one for you on my phone as well, but for now just shut up and listen to me.”
She sucks in a sharp breath and there it is again. The glint in her eyes, a very confusing, very interesting response to the uncharacteristic bite in my voice. “Drive me home.”
“No.”
“Theo, I swear to God, drive me home or else I will cut off your fingers. One by one. Painfully.”
“Is there a painless way of chopping them off?”
She makes some kind of a cute growling sound, and my incoming grin is inevitable. “I’m just asking, love. Although, I do think you’d like me more with all my fingers attached. I can be of much more use to you that way.”
The muscle in her jaw visibly clenches. “Are you seriously making a sex joke right now? Do you have no survival instincts at all?”
“I was talking about my driving skills, Dr. Moore. But it’s quite interesting where your mind went first. Now come on, don’t be embarrassed, Holly. It’s a good thing. Your mind is certainly on the right track — ow!”
She smacks me with the shovel. “Does being a miserable bastard come naturally to you?”
I rub the faint red mark on my arm. “You obviously bring out the best in me.”
Her grip around the shovel tightens and she pushes the tip against my jaw.
“Listen to me very carefully because I’m not going to repeat myself.
I am too fucking tired for your childish games right now.
I need to get home and unfortunately, you’re the only one with the means to take me there.
So, you’ll either shut up and drive me back willingly —” she nicks my skin with the edge of the shovel, drawing a thick, fat drop of blood, “— or not. Either way I’m going to get what I want. ”
I picture Holly using the shovel to carve her initials into my chest. Blood rushes to my cock. My eyes fall to her lips. Her beautiful plump, chapped lips that I imagine trailing my tongue over —
“Theo!”
My eyes snap back to meet hers. “Hm?”
“I said, do you understand, or would you like me to hit you again?”
“You told me to shut up.”
There’s an extended pause. Holly’s stubborn eyes stay glued to my face, making it very clear that the next sarcastic remark to leave my mouth will, in fact, be my last. Which is a bit unfair, if you ask me, since I wasn’t even being sarcastic this time.
She told me to shut up, so I shut up. Simple.
If she told me to get on my knees and bark, I’d do that as well.
“Fine,” I manage, my voice a hoarse whisper. There’s only so much you can try to reason with a murderous yet gorgeous psychopath. “I’ll take you home —”
Her eyes light up.
“— but on one condition.”
Her face falls. “What?”
“We go together. You show me your flat, we check it out, and then we decide the next step. Together. Deal?” With the shovel still digging onto my skin, I extend my hand towards her. A truce of sorts.
Silence stretches, thick and heavy. Holly’s eyes are daggers as they scan my face, searching for any trace of deceit.
They flick to my hand for a second, then back to my face.
I half expect her to smack my hand away or at least argue with me some more.
A small part of me hopes she does. But instead, she just growls a little like an upset puppy, the shovel’s handle creaking under her tightened grip.
I mean, sure it’s a sound of frustration, paired with ironclad stubbornness and an unwillingness to accept or even ask for help, but behind that facade, I see a flicker of fear in her eyes, a vulnerability she will never admit to, walls carefully constructed but never invincible.
She wants me to take her home.
She wants me to make sure it’s safe.
She doesn’t say it, but I hear it anyway.
Which is why when she finally lowers the shovel and agrees with a reluctant “fine” and a muttered “fuck,” a cold splash of relief washes over my shoulders, mingling with heady and unexpected giddiness.
I feel like I’ve just taken over the world.