Bibliophile Chloe

“Don’t run from me, Sun.”

“I can’t be here.” My voice is fragile and shaky. I need space, but he doesn’t give me that, instead he steps closer. I raise my hands in the air as I take a step back. “You can let me go,” I whisper. “I won’t tell anyone. But you have to let me go.” I can’t control the way you make me feel.

“I can’t let you go.”

“Why?”

I take another step back, and my butt hits the desk in the corner of the library.

“Because you’re mine now, and I won’t let anyone have you.”

His words shock me, making my muscles freeze. I’ve felt the heat of every stare, but this is more, and the look in his eyes scares me.

“You don’t even like me. You hate me.” I shake my head, not wanting to let my brain go there. Denying the truth that is right in front of me. He moves closer, his body touching mine.

“Does this feel like I hate you?”

“You kidnapped me . . .”

“I did what I had to do.” His answer is cryptic, as usual. I want to bash his head against a wall for not telling me what he means, but my brain and arms aren’t working properly due to the proximity of our bodies. I know I should push him off, but I can’t think of anything but the feel of him.

I hate him, but most of all, I hate myself for feeling this way.

“I’ll tell you the truth,” he says, “but it will cost you more than food.”

“What?”

“You have to earn it . . .” His words hang in the air, mischievous, sinful, and full of dirty promises.

“What do you want?”

“You.”

“I thought you wouldn’t take something not given?”

He lifts his hands, touching my jaw.

“Who says anything about taking?” He smirks.

“But you just said . . .”

“I said I wanted you, Ivy. And I do. I want to taste you. Feel you. I want to know what it feels like when you come apart under my tongue.”

“I hate you.”

“You don’t hate me. Let me show you just how much you don’t hate me. Your body will show you.”

He lifts his hands to cup my jaw. His fingers trail against my skin. “Does this feel like you hate me?” He continues his path down the hollow of my neck. “How about this?”

“Why then?”

“I have my reasons.”