Page 35 of Challenge Me

There was a smile on his face as he flipped through the notebook.

I stood in the doorway and crossed my arms. “You know it’s rude to snoop, right?”

“Stop me, then.” When I didn’t, his lips quirked again, but he kept his head down as he read through more of the words. “What’s your favorite?”

“I don’t have favorites.”

“Why not?”

“Because my moods change too fast to favor anything for long.”

“That doesn’t surprise me.”

He went to a page I recognized, and I snatched the book from him. My heart raced as I held it closed against my stomach.

His eyes were on me, making my skin feel like it was no longer a part of me. Clearing my throat, I opened it again but flipped to a different page before I passed it back.

“‘Your breath still lingers, heat upon my skin,’” he recited. “‘A fevered hymn where sin and worship din. Each shuddered gasp, a prayer I dared to taste; a holy ruin, carved in aching haste. The night became a chalice, dark and sweet; spilled fire burning where our bodies meet.’” His eyes flicked up to mine, then back to the page. “‘If lust is death, then let me gladly fall; on the reaper’s lips, I’d gamble life and all.’”

I watched a bird land on the balcony outside of my room. It strutted across the railing, then took off again. I thought about what that’d be like, to take flight whenever I felt like it. To go anywhere. See the world.

“Why are you staring at me?” I asked.

“I’m not.”

When I looked at him, my mouth curved from the way he focused on the page. “You were.”

“Prove it.”

I ran my tongue across my lower lip. His eyes returned to me, and I saw the same fire burning in them that I’d witnessed at my bar—restrained, just like he had been until he’d given up.

As I sat next to him, I tucked my leg underneath me. My thumb brushed across his mouth, which made him freeze.

“On the reaper’s lips, I’d gamble life and all,” I murmured.

He pushed my hand away from his face. “Don’t do that.”

“We’re stuck in this place together,” I said as I leaned back on my palms. “Might as well make it enjoyable.”

“Enjoyable is a stretch with people like you.”

“Tell me what you know about people like me, baby.”

“I know you immediately tried to exploit me when the opportunity arose.”

“That makes me a bad person, I assume?”

He stood and gave me an incredulous look. “You’re not stupid. In fact, I’m starting to believe you’re quite the opposite. So, what do you think?”

“I think you don’t know anything about me. Besides my favorite color, where I was born, what I do for a living, and a bunch of arbitrary information you can recite to dig yourself out of some perceived hole. You don’t even know if those things I said are true.”

“Are they?”

I lifted one shoulder. “You’re using me as much as I’m using you.”

“At least my reasons aren’t as selfish as yours.”

“Oh?”