The Other Girl - Trisha Wolfe Page 0,16
down to my hand. I flinch as he draws it up, worried about him noticing the cuts, but he lays a gentle kiss to the inside of my wrist. “But here’s the thing. I don’t know what it is, but I know you’re hiding something. You’re like a ghost, with no online presence at all. That’s a hard thing to accomplish.”
Fear coils around my spine. “Are you trying to…blackmail me?”
He chuckles. “Is there something to blackmail?”
I shiver. “No, Carter. I told you before, you have to stop looking—”
“Want me to stop? Make me.”
The dare in his eyes is lethal. I could make this stop. I could make this all go away—but the temptation to assert control over him is too strong. Something I never had with Jeremy.
A way to relive the past. Rewrite the future.
When I don’t respond, he dips his head so close, my breath stutters. “You want me to find out all your dirty secrets.”
I should feel some smolder of indignation well up within me, but I’d be a hypocrite if I tried to claim otherwise. If he let go right now, I’d yearn for his touch. I’m desperate for him to keep holding me, despite what my head is screaming.
I lick my lips. “Maybe just one,” I say.
He touches my face softly this time, his coarse fingers abrasive and electric against my skin.
“I saw how you looked at me,” he says. “That first second in your office, I saw it. It took all my willpower not to shove that fucking desk out of my way and take you right there. I’ve never seen a girl look at me like that before, and I haven’t been able to get you out of my head since.” He runs the pad of his thumb across my lips. “You’re making me fucking crazy.”
I swallow, and his gaze drops to my mouth as he releases a fervent curse under his breath.
I’m desperately trying to listen to my mentor’s guidance…but the temptation to give in to this feeling is too strong. “This is crazy,” I say, my voice weak, trembling. “It’s wrong.”
“Fuck wrong,” Carter says. “I can’t go another day at that academy wanting you and not being able to touch you.” He demonstrates his desire by cupping my face. “Just stay here with me, Ellis.”
I close my eyes at the longing in his voice, the needy way he says my name.
I remember saying similar words to Jeremy, when I was trying to convey just how right we were—how desperate I was to make him understand that we belonged together, and how frustrated I was that he didn’t hear me.
When I open my eyes again, I see that frustration on Carter’s face—that desperate, fraught desire for me to believe him, to stop denying my feelings.
How cruel it would be for me to disregard his emotions. I can’t be that ruthless, not to the boy who has invaded my soul like a storm, tearing down every barricade I’ve put up to protect myself. It’s been so long since I let anyone in, let anyone get close. He’s made me feel.
His gaze travels over my features, searching. “I’m going to kiss you now.”
There’s a fraction of a second—one moment of hesitancy—where I could stop him.
But I don’t. More than let it happen, I’m complicit as I meet him there.
Our lips collide, and every dormant emotion I’ve allowed to die in my quest to be sane and normal and rational bursts through me as I breathe him in. He tastes like heaven and hell, sin and salvation. Pure rapture.
If Carter Hensley is a devil sent to torment me, then I’ll be the angel to deliver us both.
The Fire
Ellis
Devil’s Bluff is a flat rock formation that juts out from the bowels of Black Mountain. The bluff overlooks a lake at the mountain’s base, creating a dark basin effect, like a landscape painting by Van Gogh.
The dangerous climb through the bluff’s two peaks is known as Devil’s Tooth. A sharp rocky growth that rises up like the jagged ridge of a demon’s mouth. There’s a narrow path atop the toothed structure. It’s a dangerous path to cross and, according to legend, no one has ever survived the attempt.
The locals simply call this the pass.
A while ago, a couple of girls went missing. Their bodies were later discovered mangled and mutilated by coyotes on the bluff, just a stone’s throw away from the pass. If the killer had wanted them to disappear completely, he should’ve thrown their bodies down