Page 477 of Lessons in Cruelty

No need to fake the hardness in my voice. She still smells like Rooke.

I do, too.

Unless I’m losing my mind.

“I don’t want to play this game,” she blurts out, her voice trembling.

“Should have thought about that before you snuck out to meet him.”

“Enough!” She pushes at my shoulders, trying to shove me off of her, but I’m far too heavy. Far too invested in this twisted little game.

When we were just kids playing the Quiet Game, I’d pinch her, slap her, drag sharp sticks over her skin. Anything I could to make her gasp or yell in pain. She got better and better at keeping her mouth shut. So I had to be inventive.

Started taunting her with whatever shit came into my head.

Slut shaming her is far too real, but it’s the first thing I latch on to.

“Melissa called,” I lie. “Thought you were with me. But you weren’t, were you?” A sick thrill flashes through me when unease flickers over her face. “You were with him, weren’t you? Think I wouldn’t notice the way he looks at you? How you smile back at him?”

Fuck, how she struggles as I drag her over the back of the sofa. But she has her lips clamped shut, and she doesn’t make a sound when her back hits the cushions.

I walk around the sofa, catching hold of her black top as she tries to vault over the back to get away from me. The fabric is wet, silky, tight as I jerk her onto her back again.

A wild light flashes in her eyes, her lips trembling. She stops struggling, her chest rising and falling as she tries to catch her breath.

“Where were you tonight, huh? Because you sure as fuck weren’t at home!” I bellow at her.

Baring my teeth, I aim a hand for her throat again.

She knocks my hand away.

Once.

Twice.

On the third attempt, I latch onto her throat again, pushing her into the cushions so hard she chokes. Her legs drum behind me as I straddle her, and even a hard slap to her thigh doesn’t subdue her.

My cock does the trick though, when I roll my hips just the right way, and its hard length grinds against her pubic bone.

She goes still under me, only her chest hitching. Those blue eyes flicker over my face, and I bet she finds exactly the confirmation she’s looking for.

Some parts of me noticed back when she first started class. But the wiser, protective part of my psyche must have hid it from me, because it’s only now, now that I have her pinned, alone, vulnerable, at my mercy that I realize what I’d seen.

Everyone stares at Rooke when he’s presenting a lecture. But not everyone looks at him like she does. And I’ve had to watch her salivate over him this entire semester already.

The vein under my thumb pulses, and I feel her throat move as she tries to swallow.

“Can’t…breathe…” she puffs out, grabbing my wrist and trying to pull my hand away from her neck.

“Nine,” I murmur.

Her eyes widen with incredulity. Like she can’t believe I’ll try choking her out just to get her to ten. Jesus, has she forgotten what happens then? I get to punish her however I want. I called it ten minutes in heaven, but it was always hell for her.

I laugh as a heady, sickening feeling coils in my lower stomach, burying itself deeper, working its way to the base of my spine.

My cock is so fucking hard it hurts.

Haven’s face slowly darkens with anger and trapped blood, but those lips are fucking sealed.