Page 49 of Ghost Ribbon

I caught myself on the mattress and quickly stepped out of the jeans, heart racing. I started pulling the pajamas on as fast as I could.

I could feel Alexei’s presence even though he wasn’t looking. The countdown in my head was loud.

I finally got the pants on and yanked the shirt down over my stomach.

“Okay,” I said quickly, voice breathless. “I’m done. You can turn around now.”

I wrapped my arms around myself again out of habit, even though I was covered.

Chapter 15 - Alexei

I turned around exactly when the minute was up.

Marco stood there in the middle of his room, wearing soft baby blue pajamas that looked a size too big on his frame. The shirt hung loosely off one shoulder, and the pants pooled at his ankles. His dark curls were still a little messy from the towel, and his hazel eyes were wide as he stared back at me. He looked like one of those delicate anime characters, the fragile, pretty kind that always got protected in those shows. It was ridiculous.

My heart actually melted a little at the sight. The thought was so foreign that I almost frowned. I wasn’t the type to have soft reactions like this. But there it was, this weird, unwelcome warmth in my chest as I looked at him standing there.

I didn’t like it.

So I stepped forward without thinking, closing the distance between us in two strides. My hands came up and cupped both of his cheeks, fingers pressing in just enough to squish them together. He really did have cute cheeks, rounder than I expected, the kind that made him look even more delicate when they were puffed out like this.

Marco’s eyes went wide with confusion. He looked exactly like a startled duck with the way his cheeks were being held, lips slightly parted and pushed forward. His voice came out muffled and small.

“What are you doing?”

I kept my face completely blank, no emotion showing as I studied him.

“You’re really adorable.”

His eyes widened even more, and a deep red flush exploded across his face, spreading down his neck. His hands shot up and grabbed onto my shoulders, maybe to push me away, maybe just out of pure instinct. His fingers pressed in too tightly for a second, gripping the fabric of my coat. Then he suddenly shrank back, like he had been burned. I let him go immediately, dropping my hands and stepping back half a pace.

That’s when I noticed it.

Marco was staring down at his own right hand, eyes locked on the small smear of blood that had transferred from my coat to his palm. The graze on my shoulder from the ambush earlier had been bleeding a little through the fabric without me paying much attention.

He looked up at me.

“You… are… hurt?”

I kept my expression flat, voice even. “Just a scratch.”

He didn’t look convinced. His gaze dropped back to the blood on his hand, and the way his face changed made something in my chest tighten in a way I didn’t appreciate. He looked genuinely scared, not the usual nervous, stuttering kind of scared I was used to pulling out of him. This was different. This was the kind of fear that made his shoulders curl inward and his breathing go shallow.

I studied him quietly. Was this how he reacted when he first opened that notebook and saw my blood smeared across the pages? The same wide-eyed, frozen terror?

I wasn’t sure I liked it.

My original intention with leaving the blood on his notebook had been simple. I wanted to stain something of his with something that was mine. Mark it. Claim it in a way he couldn’t ignore. It had been between blood or cum, two very different but equally effective ways of making sure he remembered who he belonged to. Maybe I should have gone with cum instead.

Because I didn’t like seeing this particular expression on his face. It made something in me feel off-balance. Almost… irritated. Not at him. At the reaction itself.

Marco’s fingers twitched, like he wanted to wipe the blood off but didn’t know how. He kept staring at it, breathing a little too fast, and I could see the exact moment his mind started spiraling. Probably thinking about the rooftop again. About the body. About me standing over it with red hands.

I found myself wondering if I had pushed too far with the notebook.

“Sit down.”

My eyebrow arched. Did he just command me? The words came out of his mouth so quietly but they were still an order. From him. To me. I wondered if the blood loss from the graze was making me hallucinate.