Dare Series Collection - Shantel Tessier Page 0,6

never seen her before, and I know every woman in this town. I know every woman within thirty miles. But not her. Not this face. She starts fighting harder, but I hold her easily. She wears a black hoodie, and it’s up, covering the top of her head and side of her face. I reach down and yank it back, causing her to twist her neck.

“Don’t touch me!” Her voice snaps.

“Cole?” I hear Deke call out.

“Over here,” I answer, not taking my eyes from her.

“You sorry son of a …”

“What did you find?” he asks as he comes up next to me. He shines his light on her, and she turns her face from him, closing her eyes. Six earrings run up her ear in various colors. “Oh, a toy. Where did she come from?”

“Not sure.”

“Are there more?” he asks.

“Fuck you,” she spits out while her body nervously shakes under my weight.

How much did she see? Does she know I almost beat a guy to death? She should be afraid of me. My demons like the rage. Feed off it. And I’ve never been one to starve.

Deke laughs. “I like when they have a dirty mouth.”

She arches her back and delicate neck, letting out a scream of frustration that rings out in the dark night.

“No one can hear you out here,” I tell her, my free hand coming up and wrapping around her throat but not choking her. The blood on my hand covers her sun-kissed skin as if I’m painting a picture on her body. She swallows hard against it. “There’s no one to come save you.”

She whimpers.

“I love it when they scream. Go ahead, sweetheart,” Deke says softly. “Scream for me,” he says, kneeling next to us. He wraps her long dark hair around his bloody fist, and he jerks her head to the side to face him.

She bares her perfect teeth, sucking in a breath, but she doesn’t cry out from his force. Both of our lights stay on her face, and she squints, trying to see.

In the distance, I hear an engine roar as Shane, Kellan, and Bennett leave. “What were you doing out here all alone?” he asks her.

“Watching you murder someone,” she snaps.

He throws his head back, laughing at her honesty. “Like to watch, do you?” he asks.

Her hips buck under me, but I keep her down. I’m well over twice her size, so she isn’t going anywhere. She can wear herself out all she wants.

“What a coincidence. So do I,” he tells her with a dark laugh.

She stiffens, and he looks at me. “Go ahead, Cole. Give me a show. I earned it. We gave her one, after all.”

“Don’t,” she whispers as her lips part, and she sucks in a ragged breath.

I smile down at her even if she can’t see me. My hand loosens around her slender neck, and I run my fingers down her skin and along her collarbone, pulling down her oversized hoodie in the process. The blood trail I leave behind makes my cock harden inside my jeans. I can feel her pulse race, and I like it. The fear in her green eyes. The sound of her ragged breathing and shaking of her body.

“You know how much I love to perform,” I tell him.

“Please.” Her body trembles with the plea while my fingers run over her shoulder, pushing her black bra strap off and watching it disappear into the sleeve of her hoodie.

Deke slaps me on the back. “She’s begging you already, Cole. Fuck! That’s some kind of record, right?” He whistles.

The wind picks up and tosses her hair around her face, causing it to stick to the blood along her neck and chest. “Red is your color,” I tell her.

“Orange is gonna be yours,” she growls, lifting her chin.

I smile at her words.

Deke just laughs it off. “She may have recorded it,” he says, getting serious.

I sigh as if that thought is disappointing. “That would be very stupid of you.”

I drop my flashlight beside her head. Letting go of her, I sit up, and just like I knew she would, she yanks her arms out from underneath me and lifts them to my chest, trying to shove me off her. I don’t budge. Then she runs her nails down my skin. I feel it break at her force, and I refrain from moaning at the pain.

I wrap my hands around her wrists and push them above her head, holding them against the wet ground. Then I scoot