did this once, and while things were good, it was really good, but it didn’t last. Even though this is my dream, something I’ve always wanted, I don’t believe following your dreams is the smartest thing to do anymore. At some point, we have to let them go. Maybe they were dreams for a reason? Always meant to be a distant goal, nothing that would ever come to fruition.
The sound of glass shattering behind me has me whirling around, a gasp catching in my throat. My eyes widen, and my stomach drops when I see who caused the noise. Thomas reeks of alcohol, and when I glance down at the shattered tequila bottle on the ground, I can guess why.
“Well, well, well, funny running into you here, Selene Drake.”
I glance around the street, trying to find anyone else out walking around, but it’s quiet, deserted, even for being a Saturday night. I swallow thickly, taking a wary step back. My heel collides with the building behind me, and my stomach cramps.
“Thomas, what are you doing here?”
He closes the distance between us, and with each step he takes toward me, I feel the blood roar through my veins, and my heart hammer against my chest, trying to burst through my rib cage.
“I could ask you the same thing, little moon. It’s almost like fate put us on the same path tonight, isn’t it?”
I shake my head, swallowing the lump blocking my throat. “I should go. Endymion is waiting for—”
End’s name was the wrong thing to say. Anger flares in the depths of Thomas’s dark brown eyes, and he slams his hand against the glass behind me, caging me in against him. I let out a shriek of fear, stilling against the glass. His breath fans my face. The heat of his body smothers me, making it impossible to breathe. My pulse is pounding so hard, it’s making it difficult to think clearly and find a safe way out of this.
“Endymion. Endymion. Endymion. It’s always about Endymion, isn’t it?” He glares down at me, eyes filled with a turbulent heat, his lips twisted in a snarl. I don’t know what happened to Thomas while I was gone, but the handsome football player from my childhood has turned into a drunken mess. The town disgrace.
He leans into me, pressing his nose against my cheek, smelling me. My bottom lip trembles, and bile rises up my throat, fear clawing at my flesh.
“P-please don’t hurt me,” I whisper.
His eyes flash to mine, and he chuckles. The sound turns my stomach. “Hurt you? Oh, no, little moon. I want to make you feel good. Show you what it’s like to be with a real man. Do you know how long I’ve wanted you? How long I’ve waited?” In a flash of movement, his hands are on my hips, squeezing in a painful grip. I struggle against him. With adrenaline coursing through my body, I shove at Thomas’s chest, trying to get him a safe distance away.
“Thomas, stop it. I don’t want this.”
He slams me up against the window behind me, banging my head. A burning twinge shoots through my skull. Thomas presses his body flat against mine, and I can feel his erection digging into me. It spurs a sob to rip from my chest. I try to knee him, but he must sense it coming because he smothers me with the weight of his body, his hand digging into my hair and pulling so hard, I feel the strands rip free from my scalp. I cry out in pain at the sting as it burns across my flesh.
Taking advantage of my weakened moment, Thomas kisses me, shoving his tongue in my mouth. I gag at the invasion, shoving at his chest, doing everything I can to get him off me. For someone as drunk as he is, he’s strong, so much stronger than I expected he’d be.
“Get off me!” I yell, but it gets muffled beneath his lips.
“What’s the matter, sweet little Selene? Scared to get fucked by a real man? Spread those legs for me. I know you can.”
He reaches his hand between us, and I panic. Bile threatens to expel. Adrenaline flows through my body, and I strike him, clawing at his face. He lets out a strangled roar, and in the blink of an eye, his hand sails down across my face. The hit is jarring. Pain flares in my cheek, dazing me. I’ve never been hit before. Especially not by a