His face twisted in delight and lust. I saw it in his eyes—as soon as I said those words, his mind drifted toward what it would be like to sink his cock between my legs. I felt a tingle and knew I was dripping, that my nipples were hard, and all the little hairs on my skin stood on end, but I couldn’t let him know that I wanted to sink along his shaft and ride him, that I needed to take his cock between my lips and suck him hard, moaning the whole time.
I needed it to feel alive again.
God, he was right, the asshole, the monster.
He released my hips.
“I’m not giving you what you want that easily, baby girl.” He stepped back, looking at me with undisguised desire. “When I’m ready, you’ll come to me and beg for it. You’ll get down on your knees, your cunt dripping wet, pooling between your legs. You’ll touch yourself, so desperate and needy, and only when you’re moaning my name and begging for my cock will I finally sink myself deep inside and make you scream.”
I sucked in a breath and turned my back, heart racing wildly.
“You can’t do this forever,” I said, and knew I was wrong.
“I can and I will.”
I walked away then. I was dizzy with need—something I’d never felt before.
Jarrod was a monster. He was the beast of Blackwoods College, one of the Four Horsemen, and he was going to devour me if I let him.
12
Cora
I sat in front of the TV watching the episode of The Office about the “Fun Run” for the thousandth time.
Routine soothed me. It was my way of turning off the constant chattering inside my skull. Otherwise, my brain moved a thousand miles per second and I couldn’t do anything but twitch around my room bouncing off the walls. Watching reruns of the same TV show helped settle the stream of intrusive thoughts, at least enough to let me wind down after class.
I kept thinking about that conversation with Jarrod. His hands left little dimples on my skin like it still remembered his touch. His lips were like fire, his body like heaven, and I was so afraid that I’d start to fill the aching gap in my chest with a need for him. I could feel it, hovering there at the edge of my mind, an obsession that was just as depraved and messed up as the fantasies that used to sustain me.
But without Dr. Silver to daydream about, I needed something else.
Jarrod was dangerous. I watched him cut the throat of a man he’d never met, all because I claimed to have been molested by him as a little girl. It was all true—I wouldn’t lie about something like that—but he still plunged the weapon into the flesh of that man’s neck based entirely on my word alone.
I got so mad at him when he dared question my story—but god, he was so right to when the stakes were so high.
I sucked in a deep breath and tried to steady myself. Thinking about Jarrod knocked something loose inside my chest, like just seeing his face in my mind’s eye was enough to get my knees shaking with need. I kept thinking about what he said to me, how filthy he was, how fucked up and delicious, and I wondered if he’d be just as incredible when he finally decided to take me.
I knew he would be. That was the worst part.
I turned at footsteps on the stairs. Sam came stampeding into the living room, slightly out of breath. Mom was at tennis and Dad was up in his office, and Sam looked wild-eyed and excited.
He pointed at the TV. “You’ve got to put on the news.”
“The news?” I laughed and shook my head. “What are you talking about?”
“That chiropractor. I was about to play Madden when—” He grabbed the remote from the coffee table and switched the TV onto the cable. “Fuck it. Look at this.”
I recognized the scene right away.
It as Dr. Silver’s house from the bottom of his driveway. It looked like a nice, quiet winter evening, and the pretty brunette girl talked into her microphone with a clipped professionalism.
“… releasing any details at this time. There is still an active crime scene in the woods, but Fox 17 received word that a single body was found, and it appears to be chiropractor Dannis Silver. There’s no word on what happened or how the deceased was discovered, but our sources suggest the police are looking into foul play. From Fox News 17, I’m Danica Smith.”
The TV switched back to generic coverage about a local school board election, but I couldn’t move.
They found him already.
I thought I’d have at least a couple days to prepare. Today was a wash—I was still in shock and processing what happened.