Beauty In Her Madness (Winterland Tale #3) - Stacey Marie Brown Page 0,31
the night had fully sunk in.
Snow was in the forecast later this week, but I swore I smelled it coming, the air thicker with energy. In my gut, I knew it would snow tonight, like I could feel it in my bones.
“Dinah?” My head jerked to a dark-haired figure walking up, smiling coyly at me. “Hey.”
“Hey,” I replied to the guy who was in my sociology class. He was tall, extremely good looking, and built. And he knew it. Some basketball god the coaches had courted to bring more recognition to the school, and for the life of me, I could never remember his name. Tristen? Taylor? Chad? I couldn’t recall. All the girls trailed after him hoping he noticed them, and probably because I didn’t, he had pursued me from the first day of class.
“How are you?” He stopped in front of me, a cocky smile playing on his lips. Shadows popped his hazel eyes.
“Good,” I replied, disinterested. I peered around, hitching my bag higher on my shoulder.
“You look more than good.” His eyes ran down me. It didn’t seem to matter how many times I told him I had a boyfriend—hell, he had even seen Scott and me together in the commons—and it still didn’t stop him from hitting on me every time he saw me.
I wasn’t so unaware I didn’t know I was pretty. People told me all the time. My sister was drop-dead gorgeous, and enough people told me how much we looked alike, but I didn’t care. And that really unsettled people. I didn’t need confirmation from them, and I didn’t need my face to tell me who I was or my worth. My life with Scott was all I needed; the rest was bullshit.
I didn’t give a damn about being with the hot guy or in the cool group, which seemed to both intrigue and piss off people. It seemed to upset them I didn’t follow the norm.
“You coming to the party this weekend? Supposed to be huge.” He stepped closer. “I’d love for you to come.”
“No pun intended?” I rolled my eyes.
“Can’t say it wasn’t on my mind.” A barked laugh came out of him, lust sparking in his eyes. “You’re pretty blunt, aren’t you?”
I didn’t answer, pulling on my coat, ready to walk away.
“I am too. So let me say, I could make you come harder than your boyfriend ever could.”
“I doubt that.” Fury spat off my tongue. “What was your name again? I forgot…just like I’m sure what having sex with you would be like.” I turned to leave.
Grabbing my arm, he twisted me around. He shoved me up against the wall, pinning my arms, his body flattening into mine, shoving the air out of my lungs. Adrenaline slammed through my heart, fear building a scream in my throat. His head dipped near my ear. He growled, “Want to bet, little Liddell?”
Deep. Gravelly. Familiar. Like I knew the voice in the depths of my soul, every fiber of my being lit up with recognition and wrapped around the pet name.
“Jack…” I whispered.
His grip went to my throat. “You use that name again, and I will make sure you regret it. Your penance is already severe, little one. Want to add to it?” His lips grazed my skin, hot breath slipping down my neck, ripping the air from my lungs. “You do, don’t you?”
I swallowed against his hand, my body reacting in a confused blunder of anger, terror, and to my utter shame, desire.
He scoffed against my ear. “I guarantee if I slipped my fingers through your pussy right here, I would find you drenched.” His brutal directness and voice heaved my chest, my bones trembling and causing the exact thing he said. My head spun at the sound of the voice, the feel of his body pressing into mine, the roughness of the brick wall biting into me.
Everything around me was vivid and hazy at the same time, like I was in a dream but had never been more alive. I no longer felt attached to reason or logic, diving headfirst into the sensations as though my body had been starved for so long.
“Should I find out if I’m right, little one?” he muttered, pulling back enough to see him. Gone were the hazel eyes of Mr. Basketball. Bright, icy blue eyes burned into mine, the sensation of both hot and cold sinking into my skin, claiming it. “After what you did,” he snarled. Fury vibrated from him.