Obsession (Dangerous Love #1)

CHAPTER 7

____________________________________________

DANGEROUS DARES

______________________________________________________________________________

“Kath! Katherine, wake up!”

I mumbled in my sleep, waving my hand in the air to stop the annoying voice.

“You’re going to be late for school, wake up already.”

The voice became annoyed, and I winced as the blanket was ripped from my body. A wave of cold rolled over me that felt like an ice bucket. I sat up and looked around anxiously.

“Take it easy, honey. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

I noticed my father on the edge of the bed, watching me with an amused look, trying to reassure me. I muttered a few mental curses and rubbed my forehead with my fingertips.

“Thanks for the military wake-up call, Dad.”

He laughed, “Hurry up, you have to be at school in twenty minutes.”

I let my face sink into my palms and frowned at the memories of last night: the text message, the dream… Wait a fucking second! Twenty minutes?!

“Fucking shit,” I cursed and jumped out of bed, stumbling on my feet, one step away from falling on my face.

Why hadn’t I heard that stupid alarm clock? Oh yes, that’s right! Because I had forgotten to set it.

I ran to the bathroom and showered as quickly as I could, brushed my teeth and tried to tame the disaster that was my hair because I did not have time to straighten it. Growling, I quickly tied it into a low ponytail and ran the brush through it lightly. It looked acceptable now, even if I didn’t like tying my hair up that much.

I applied black eyeshadow and eyeliner, trying to cover up the redness that made my eyes look like beets. I ran back to my room, a sudden daze knocking me off balance for a moment.

Shit, I need drugs.

I could have taken my pills, but I doubt they would have done much good. There was no point in a sick person taking their medication if they kept drinking. I was in the same situation, and I had no idea where I could get ahold of drugs, I didn’t know anyone in the area who dealt them except…. Ahh, no fucking way , I wasn’t going to beg that demon like a hungry puppy.

I went through my clothes, not knowing what to wear. His text flashed in my mind: “Wear something sexy tomorrow!” Yeah, right. Where the hell did I put those damn sweatpants? I’ll show him sexy.

My dad’s voice interrupted my rummaging and I sighed angrily, abandoning my plan, and pulling on a pair of blue skinny jeans and a black top. My boots were still at school, so I put on my sneakers. It seemed warm enough outside that I could leave the house without a jacket, which was good because mine was still in my locker.

On my way out the door, I stopped and looked at myself in the mirror. How the fuck ? I had chosen clothes that actually looked good on me – both my jeans and the tight top. As simple as they were, totally not what I had in mind.

“Katherine!”

My father’s shout echoed throughout the house. I cursed, gave up on the idea of changing again, and headed straight out the door. I had a different bag, so I had to carry two of them after school.

Peachy !

“Come on, Katherine, for the love of God! How long does it take you to get dressed?” he scolded, almost angrily.

“Calm down, Dad, I’m not enlisting in the army.”

I felt weak again as I reached the last of the stairs. It was going to be a very interesting day.

“Shut up and eat something and I’ll take you.”

He moved aimlessly around the kitchen table carrying a plate of waffles. I froze in place for a few seconds, remembering how Harris had sat me down on it. After his text last night, what had happened in this kitchen seemed almost unreal.

“Don’t worry, I still have time to catch the bus if the others don’t come to pick me up.”

“Whatever you want. Oh, and thanks for dinner last night. You haven’t cooked since…” he paused, and I frowned.

He meant to say that I hadn’t cooked since my mother left. Before that, we used to spend hours together in the kitchen.

“Yeah, whatever…” I mumbled.

“If you think that’s how you get out of house arrest, you’re wrong,” he tried to change the subject and grinned slightly at me.

“Like I said, whatever. By the way, where were you yesterday? I called you like five times.”

His face suddenly changed as he was caught off guard. As he opened his mouth to talk, a car honked outside. Probably my friends, who had somehow found the best moment to show up.

“We’ll talk tonight, now go,” he urged me, ready to escape the interrogation.

“Yeah, if you’re home as usual, we’ll have a sizzling conversation,” I muttered, grabbing a banana from the food bowl, and sprinting out the door.

I looked up, ready to see my friends, when I stopped dead in my tracks. Parked in front of my house was that black monstrosity.

I swallowed and watched him.

He was leaning against the side of the car, his arms crossed in front of his chest, smiling at me. I blinked rapidly to make sure I wasn’t dreaming again and to suppress the instinct to pinch myself. He was really there. I shot him an angry look and marched towards him.

“What are you doing here?” my deep voice sounded like a growl.

He grinned, visibly unimpressed by my anger. “Did I forget to tell you yesterday that I was coming to pick you up?” He played innocent, but I wasn’t born last week.

After the text, he went back to being the perverted asshole I couldn’t stand.

“Yeah, it seems like you conveniently forgot to mention it. But I’m waiting for my friends. Go pick up your idiot girlfriend. I don’t need a personal driver.”

He smiled, seemingly pleased with my words.

He reached out his hand and quickly grabbed mine, pulling me against his chest. I let out a gasp, startled by his sudden movement. His hand rested on my lower back, dangerously close to my butt.

I gasped and tried to free myself from his grip. He didn’t know his strength, and he abused it quite often. He buried his face in my cheek and leaned forward even more.

My body turned to stone.

“Looks like your friends have abandoned you, because I don’t see them,” he murmured into my neck.

I blinked a few times to keep from passing out in his arms. God, what was this guy?

I swallowed under his lips, and I felt his smile over my neck. I prayed to God that my father couldn’t see us. I really didn’t need another one of his interrogations.

“I’ll take the bus then,” I replied, as if I couldn’t feel his lips on my skin.

I pulled away, but he didn’t let go of me.

“Mmm…” he mumbled again and pressed his lips to my cheek.

He ignored my rejection. Typical.

“What are you going to do with that?” he asked, pointing downwards.

I knew what he was talking about because I was still holding the banana. His naughty look was clearer than a porn ad. I sighed. Why did people feel the need to sexualize everything at the sight of this fruit? It looked like… what it looked like, but it was still one of the most delicious fruits. It should have received a little more respect.

I gave up on my breakfast and put the banana in my bag, knowing that if I ate it in front of him, I would open the gates to a constant stream of sexual jokes.

“Oh, why did you do that?” he pretended to pout as I averted my eyes from him, panting.

He chuckled, “Is that how you treat all bananas? I’d be very sad if that was the case.”

I turned my head towards him and frowned. I knew he didn’t mean the fruit, especially considering the way he pronounced the word. I clenched my fists to keep from knocking his teeth out.

“And you’re back to being the perverted idiot I knew you were; Yesterday you managed to fool me for a brief moment.”

He cocked his head to the side, considering my words.

“Fooled you how?”

“That you had something other than sex on your mind,” I furrowed my brows and he grinned.

“Said the girl who put her ankle on my shoulder in a position that would have made even the purest monk a sinner.”

I narrowed my eyes, and I already knew he was going to torture me with this for a long time.

He leaned over me. “You’re just as perverted as I am. Only I admit it.”

I was on the verge of beating the smugness out of him, but my anger only amused him.

“I have a little experiment in mind. If you resist and show no reaction, I promise to leave you alone, at least for today.”

I had no intention of falling into his trap, not again. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the bus approaching and Harris immediately circled my waist.

“Oh, look, the bus is here. What a shame we don’t have time to play,” I pouted, then grinned.

He didn’t really think I was going to fall for his games again, did he? I waved to the driver, who pulled up behind Harris’s car. I tried to leave, but his arm wrapped around me tighter.

“Let me go, Harris,” I spoke as calmly as I could, looking up at him. I wasn’t in the mood to make a scene.

He turned to the driver and jerked his head towards the road, and I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the bus speed past us.

“What the fuck?!” I shouted at him, looking at the bus.

Harris was giggling like the idiot he was. All the students on the bus were watching us, their faces glued to the windows. The driver didn’t seem much older than us, and I had a feeling he was scared of Harris too.

“You think you know me, Katherine, but you have no idea. So, you can come with me or wait for your friends, who I assure you will not be coming.”

I stepped close to him until our breaths joined and anger flared between us.

“You think you know me too, Harris, but you have no idea. If there’s one thing you need to know about me, it’s that I hate it when someone else makes decisions for me. Right now, I’d rather crawl to school than get in your car.”

I broke free from his grip and made my way to school. I pulled out my phone to call an Uber because I was tired of cabs after yesterday. It was surprising that my father hadn’t seen anything. He was probably in the shower, but it wouldn’t be long before he came out, so I had to leave before he could see Harris holding me like that.

I was annoyed, but it didn’t surprise me when I saw him following behind me in the car.

He slowed down, drove at the same speed as me and then rolled down the passenger window.

“Please, get in,” the change in his tone made me look at him.

Perversity gone, anger gone, both replaced by seriousness.

“Do you have some kind of split personality disorder?” I muttered, continuing on my way as he stayed on my heels.

“No, but what we’re doing right now is stupid.”

I laughed. “No shit, Sherlock! Like the text you sent last night after we had a somewhat normal conversation. Or you practically chasing the bus away?”

“I didn’t send that text,” that made me pause.

The car pulled up next to me, and I didn’t even want to think about how ridiculous we looked.

“I’m pretty sure it came from your number.”

“Jay took my phone and sent it because he wanted to be funny. He’s got a black eye because of it.”

I frowned at him, refusing to believe him even though he seemed sincere.

He sighed and bumped his head on the headrest.

“Come on, Katherine, why would I have sent that text? Especially after yesterday when I fought so hard to hold it in, like you said. And you don’t have to dress sexy, you’d be sexy in a hoodie five sizes bigger.” I swallowed. “Like right now, for example,” he pointed at my clothes. “I’m sure you thought that wasn’t sexy and you put it on to piss me off, but it didn’t work.”

Yeah, I’d noticed that too. I cleared my throat to get his attention when I realized his gaze was lingering on my legs a little too much.

“Then why didn’t you write back to explain that it wasn’t you.”

“Because I saw it three hours after it happened. He took my phone while I was sleeping. You didn’t answer it anyway and it was too late for me to call. That’s why I’m here now.”

I bit my lip, unsure if I should believe him or not. I could imagine he’d slept yesterday, because he’d been tired all day, and it would have been really stupid of him to write that to me after the way he’d treated me.

“Please, get in the car so we can talk like two normal people.”

More annoyed that we were attracting so much attention, I opened the door and got in the car. He drove off immediately, leaving my street behind him, then stopped the car and turned to face me. At least I knew that no one could see us through the tinted windows.

“I still want to try this experiment.”

I sighed, completely exasperated. “You never get bored of it, do you?”

“It’s not a game, more like a way to prove you’re not as innocent as you pretend to be.”

I narrowed my eyes. “I never claimed to be innocent, but that doesn’t mean I’m interested in your experiments. You keep forgetting that you already have a girlfriend.”

“It’s not a game,” he repeated, ignoring my comment about Amber.

I wanted to tease him more about it.

“Where’s Amber now, Harris? Who’s driving her to school?”

“I’m not her driver,” he replied matter-of-factly, and I raised an eyebrow.

“Maybe not, but you’re her boyfriend.”

“Stop changing the subject, I want to do this.” I opened my mouth to tell him he could shove it, but he spoke before me, “And I swear I won’t touch you.”

Suddenly I was curious.

Smiling because he had caught my attention, he relaxed in his seat and looked at me.

“Do whatever you want to me.”

I almost burst out laughing.

“Excuse me?”

“Do absolutely whatever you want to me, I promise I won’t move, but I want you to find out if you like touching me or not when you’re not feeling assaulted by me.”

I finally laughed.

“I can tell you this right now: I don’t like it one bit, I have no desire to touch you. Experiment over.”

Or not… I knew I was lying, and that annoyed me. Harris’s smile showed he knew it too.

“I’m the perverted asshole who jumps you and thinks about how to get you out of your clothes faster. Fine, I admit it. But you have to admit your thoughts too.” I clenched my fists and he continued, “You think I can’t feel the way your breath hitches when I touch you? How your body trembles, or how your skin gets hotter? Those little sounds you make are pure pleasure, love.”

I took a deep breath because I already knew he was reading my reactions, but he was more aware of them than I had hoped.

Did he just call me “love”?

“Even now; I’m sure you know exactly what you want to do with me, but you’re too stubborn to admit it.”

“Stop pretending you’re not daring me to do this for your own pleasure.”

“And not touch you? I really can’t think of a more agonizing torture right now, but I’ll refrain so I can prove to you what I already know.”

My lips pressed together into a thin line, if only because of all the talking. I was already late for school and also sure he wouldn’t stop until I proved him wrong, so I gave my hormones a mental kick, hoping to put them into a coma and not fall any lower afterward, then reached for him.

I pinched his chin between my fingers and frowned. “After this, you leave me alone. This is the last game I’m playing with you.”

He swallowed and nodded.

“And if you touch me, you lose,” he nodded again as he gripped the steering wheel tighter. “I can do whatever I want?”

“Absolutely anything,” his raspy voice turned me on, even though I had not done anything yet.

“Close your eyes,” I demanded.

“No.”

I frowned. “You said whatever I want.”

“You can do whatever you want, but I know you want me to close my eyes because you don’t want me to look at you. If nothing affects you, it shouldn’t turn you on when I look at you, should it?”

“You’re such an asshole,” I growled, and he chuckled.

He already knew me so well that I was beginning to doubt that I could fool him.

For the first time today, I allowed myself to really look at him. He was wearing the same type of T-shirt, clearly an Under Armour fan, and black jeans. I didn’t want to focus too much on that part, because the way his legs were slightly spread while something was clearly showing, even if he wasn’t aroused yet…. Damn !

He was rested as there were no dark circles under his eyes anymore, and he smelled so good I wanted to cry in a corner. His look gave me the urge to continue. I had him under a promise he wouldn’t be able to keep, and I wasn’t stupid enough to think he would actually leave me alone after that. I wasn’t fourteen anymore to be fooled by such things. As long as he knew what he was provoking, nothing would change.

But now he couldn’t touch me, and I was about to torture him until he exploded with tension. I didn’t want to prove that he was turning me on, I wanted to make him break his promise again. So that I could tease him with it later, just like he would tease me with the move I had made.

Smirking, I moved closer to him.

“Innocent? No, that’s something I’ll never be. But you make me want to torture you because I can’t escape you,” his eyes as he sensed the threat gave me such satisfaction. “You… capable of keeping your hands off me? I’m dying to see that,” I grinned as my lips pressed against his jaw.

He swallowed, suddenly tense. “You want to play, demon? Prove your effect on me? Let’s test your resistance, shall we?”

With my hands still on his jaw, I pushed his head to the side and attacked his neck, just as he had done with mine. My lips pressed against his hot skin and his pulse exploded on my tongue. I held nothing back because I was in the mood to unleash pure discomfort.

The effects didn’t delay their appearance; I heard the squeak of the leather, the sound that indicated how tightly he was gripping the steering wheel. He was still resisting me, but I liked that because I wasn’t focused on my pleasure, but on his suffering.

His breathing was intermittent, his body completely tense. The flesh on his bones burned hotter with every kiss. He seemed to grow even bigger next to me, even more menacing, and I was playing with the beast’s endurance.

“You want to know what satisfies me the most?” I whispered against his pulse line, and he swallowed beneath my lips. “Torturing those who piss me off.”

His growl elicited a devilish grin from me. My mouth traveled up his jawline, nearly making him buckle as he moved a little toward me but stopped himself.

I bit down on his earlobe and sank my teeth deep into it until a moan escaped his throat. He began to whisper and curse as my tongue traced thin lines on his chin, while his body tensed even more, if that was possible.

I grinned. It would be blasphemy to say I wasn’t aroused as hell, but in a traitorous way, because I was doing all this, and he wasn’t moving. His own game began to turn against him as another primal moan escaped him, and he banged his head against the headrest.

“Hmm, I don’t remember you making me moan like that.”

“You will… So much, and so loud. You’re going to moan my name in ways you can’t even imagine yet.” He looked at me the way a real demon would. I felt every word that escaped his clenched mouth, and those dark eyes seemed ready to devour my soul.

I wrapped a hand around the back of his neck, bit his earlobe again and then kissed his neck erotically. He growled and moaned at the same time and was on the brink of letting go of the steering wheel. His endurance waned as he was on the verge of ripping it off the dashboard.

I had to get him to give in soon, because my own actions were starting to turn against me. Everything was a fucking aphrodisiac. After every kiss, I wanted more. I was starting to fall into his trap, and I would have died rather than give him that satisfaction. His skin smelled like shower gel, but I could also detect a faint scent of tobacco and menthol. I couldn’t get enough of licking over his pulse, and that was bad. I could feel his veins pumping under his skin, swollen, pulsing on my lips.

The wildness that blazed inside him excited me the most. My stupid imagination went crazy, and I began to imagine what he would be capable of if I gave him the reins.

His body stiffened so much that I was afraid he would spontaneously burst into flames. He closed his eyes of his own accord and growled at the damn promise he had made. Finally, I realized the other effect I was having on him. His erection was almost breaking through his jeans, and I struggled not to swallow down the dryness in my throat.

To say it was… impressive would have been an understatement.

A plan formed in my head as I gave him a devilish grin.

“Are you ready to give in?”

“No fucking way,” he growled, narrowing his eyes. “Not until you lose that fucking control you can barely hold on to.”

I grinned. My control was fine, the satisfaction of watching him on the edge of agony was exquisite.

“Wanna bet I can make you lose it in five seconds?” I repeated the threat he’d made yesterday before he had slid his hand down my pants.

He swallowed but remained silent.

I sank my teeth into his jaw and gripped his throbbing member with my other hand. His eyes snapped open, and a powerful moan escaped his lips as I squeezed harder. It was difficult to do it through his jeans, but I managed.

His eyes flashed madly at me, and I grinned, running my hand over his length once.

That was all it took.

“Fuck it,” I heard his angry growl before he lunged at me.

I’d expected to be pulled into a kiss, but what he did was far worse for my hormones and my sanity. His hands, in which every muscle was already tense, gave way in the most insane way.

He grabbed my tank top and ripped it across my chest.

I gasped because that was the last thing I had expected. He pushed me back with both arms and then his mouth came down on me.

I couldn’t stifle my scream as his teeth dug into my breast, over my bra. He didn’t kiss me on the lips, he was too rabid for that. He wanted to bite, to cause pain, to give free rein to his rage. I let go of his erection and held on to his T-shirt. It was too late for me to stop it.

And… devil take me, I wasn’t going to stop it. I was the one who tortured him, but even my resistance had reached its limit, and there was no way I could stop what was happening, no matter what his plans were.

As his wild fury subsided somewhat, his mouth softened, but that was even harder to take, especially when his tongue began to run over my breasts and reach the space between them. He began to suck, lick, moan and completely unravel me. He pushed me back as far as I could go, manipulating my body, knowing what a dancer – who could bend in all sorts of ways - was able to do. Without years of training, I wouldn’t have been able to bend that far, my spine would have snapped.

Harris’ moans showed how fascinated he was. When I whimpered, a primal growl escaped him. He paused as his teeth dug into my bra. He took a deep breath and kept his face glued to my breasts. Breasts that pulsed with pain caused by the bites, pain that I was too aroused to feel properly, and while he cursed how much he had lost his mind because of me, he pulled us back to the starting position.

My head was spinning. Our breathing was frantic and neither of us had anything to say. We both swallowed at the same time. His tongue darted out to lick his lips, then his gaze slid down to my cleavage.

“Fuck,” he cursed, only now realizing what he had done to me.

I cursed too and tugged at my tank top, but there was no way I could fix it; it was ripped to my belly button.

Harris looked at his watch.

“First period started ten minutes ago, so there’s no need to rush. I can take you home to change.” He licked his lips and looked down at my breasts again.

I grumbled and curled up in my seat.

“You and your stupid experiments.”

He grinned.

“So, we agree that we’re both guilty of what’s going on? Maybe you enjoyed torturing me, but I felt every breath you took, every whimper. The way you moved told me you wanted to climb on top of me. And don’t even get me started on your reaction afterwards…”

“Fine,” I blurted out, trying to stop him. “I got it.”

He grinned like an asshole, started the engine, turning the car around in the middle of the street, the commotion sending me crashing into the door. He played with the car while he played with me. I was still trying to cover my breasts when he pulled up in front of my house.

Before I could ask him how I was going to get inside the house with my top like that, he took off his T-shirt and handed it to me. It was impossible not to freeze. There was not a woman in the world who would have remained stoic at the sight, maybe a lesbian, and I wasn’t so sure about the latter either.

“If you keep looking at me like that, you devil, I’ll drag you back here and you’ll miss school today,” he pointed to his lap, where his erection still hadn’t subsided.

Feeling like he’d emptied a bucket of ice into my panties, I shook my head and snatched the t-shirt out of his hand.

I wanted to torture him, fuck, how much I wanted to torture him and make him pay for those lines. I had gotten into this dangerous game with him, and I didn’t want to back out anymore, didn’t want to let him win, even if it meant I would end up even deeper entangled.

The top was already shredded and there was nothing more he could see, so I tore off the rest and took it off.

I heard another moan of perversity escape him and I threw the piece of fabric in his face, making him laugh.

“You’re a perverted asshole who I’m starting to get sick of.”

“And you’re a sexy liar who I’m starting to want more of.”

Oh, motherfucker.

I stared at him like an idiot and could not help myself. The muscles were obvious through his T-shirt but seeing them naked hit me differently. His stomach was covered in tattoos, a huge hawk on his chest, snakes around his ribcage – a fascinating entanglement that I didn’t allow myself to analyze. His eyes watched my every move as I got dressed.

His T-shirt was too big for me, and I didn’t want to know what he was smiling about.

I expelled a breath and didn’t even stop to say anything as I got out of the car. The cold air helped clear my head a little. Thankfully, my dad wasn’t home anymore.

I took off his shirt as soon as I got in because I didn’t want to go crazy from the smell of him or the warmth I felt while wearing it. I ran upstairs to my room and changed as quickly as I could, reminding myself that I had a fucking life outside of Harris’s games. As I looked at myself in the mirror, a whimper escaped my lips.

Besides the visible blush on my cheeks and the beads of sweat on my neck, my breasts were littered with bites. The marks his teeth had made were still visible, still burning.

I should have been angry, but I started to laugh.

Yes, what I was doing was so damn wrong. I was getting too caught up in his web when I knew all too well what he was after. But it had been a while since I had felt so alive, so… feminine. I realized that nothing else existed when I was with him, not the pain that had brought me there, not the darkness that had drowned me in the last few months, not even the hunger for drugs. This was his effect on me.

I pulled on a funnel-neck tank top so the bite marks wouldn’t show, then walked back to the car, trying to look relaxed. He had a lit cigarette between his fingers and took a few long drags before throwing it out the window.

I held his T-shirt out to him, but he didn’t take it. He just grinned and sped off.

I shook my head and turned it toward the window, because if I kept staring at his abs, I would have been completely doomed.

Harris must’ve realized I was no longer in the mood for conversation, so he turned on the music. The same music I’d heard before I saw him on Monday morning. The strong vibrations reached through my skin to my heart. “Maximum volume” had a whole different meaning for him, and I couldn’t complain because that was exactly the way I liked to listen to music.

He proved he was a 2Scratch fan, I was sure of that now, but the song he chose sent shivers down my spine.

He couldn’t possibly have played ‘She Wolf’ by mistake, and he didn’t look at me as he drove. He seemed relaxed; his left arm propped on the door as he rubbed his chin.

His lips moved to the music, repeating certain erotic lyrics.

I read the words on his lips and my whole body burned with anger and other much worse sensations, but he’d forgotten who he was dealing with. I relaxed in my seat and started to sing the words, because I knew them very well, even if my voice could barely be heard.

“Any bite can make you all her own.”

When I got to that line, I looked at him. His eyes darted at me as soon as I opened my mouth. He put the song on repeat just to test my limits, but once again he forgot who he was playing with.

He drove like a maniac, skillful or not, definitely a maniac. The scariest thing was that he was looking more at me than at the road. Despite all this, I wasn’t scared. Maybe because I was too absorbed in the looks of this maniac, in the feelings that this damn song evoked, in his gaze.

Last night’s dream came to mind: Harris and the strange way he had revealed himself to me when I was a little girl. He had told me that he would take care of me, that I was his… Jesus, stupid subconscious . What was that supposed to mean? What trauma did my brain inflict on itself without my permission?

By the time he pulled into the parking lot, first period was over. That’s how much we had lost our heads. Everyone outside turned their heads toward the car, and Harris turned down the volume.

“How are you feeling?” he finally spoke.

“Huh?” I raised my eyebrows.

He reached out his hand and touched what was left of the red dot on my arm with his fingertip. Suddenly I remembered the dizziness that seemed to have disappeared due to the aphrodisiac effect he had on me.

“I need another dose,” I whispered and closed my eyes.

I didn’t want to test my resistance again.

Without another word, he opened the glove compartment and pulled out a few items. A spoon, a lighter and a wrapped syringe. He fished a small packet filled with white dust out of his jeans, then tore open the plastic with his teeth, poured the contents into the spoon and lit the lighter underneath.

I watched in fascination as he prepared my drug, the poison which I readily accepted.

“How long have you been using?” I asked, watching the dust turn into a brownish liquid.

Did I need to mention that he was doing all this with his shirt off? It was fucking hard to concentrate because of it.

“Five years,” he replied without hesitation.

My mouth fell open.

“Have you ever tried to… quit?” I continued.

Five years, but he didn’t even look like a drug addict.

“Yeah, but I’m not really an addict. I have plenty of ways to get my adrenaline pumping when I need it.”

I stared at him; my eyebrow arched questioningly. What other methods were there? His gaze drifted to the dashboard of the car. I blinked in shock. He was already driving like a maniac; I didn’t even want to imagine how he drove when he needed adrenaline.

“That and other things, but let’s just say speed is the best drug for me,” he admitted with amusement, winking at me as he sucked the liquid into the sterile syringe.

I was glad he wasn’t using an old needle. Most drug addicts didn’t give a damn about such things. The syringe was tiny, and there couldn’t have been more than ten drops of poisoning energy in it. He shook it gently and carefully checked the brown liquid.

My mouth went dry as I watched him.

“Can you get dressed already?” I blurted out in frustration.

He grinned.

“And stifle all those hungry looks you’re giving me?”

I pressed my lips together to keep from cursing him and his damn muscles.

He reached for me, grabbed my arm, and lightly stroked the spot with his finger. He looked into my eyes, almost as if he was waiting for confirmation, and I nodded. The needle pierced my skin and pumped life into my veins, even if it was just deceiving death.

I felt nothing as his hands were surprisingly gentle. To distract myself, I examined his tattoos, apparently tribal markings of some kind. Then my attention went in a whole different direction, a wrong one.

Those fingers were so incredibly sexy.

I wanted them in… fuck! I bit my lip and shook my head.

His eyes darted to me.

“Does it hurt?” he whispered.

I denied.

If you only knew what goes through my mind.

“Then why are you shaking?”

I swallowed and forced a wry smile onto my lips.

“It’s just the drugs.”

And your fingers.

For the first time, he did not seem to be able to read my mind. Not even he would have expected me to be so insane.

The drug pulsed warmly in my veins, and I could already feel the energy blossoming inside me. He pulled out the syringe and bent his head to kiss the new red dot. I was grateful that he had injected me in the same place, because I did not want my arm to be full of red spots. His lips brushed gently and passionately over my skin. I shuddered.

“Tell me what’s wrong because I know… I feel there is something, and it’s not the drug.”

His lips were still so close to my arm, but they weren’t touching me anymore.

I couldn’t hold it back anymore, and I didn’t even try, because the drug had turned my brain to dust.

“Your fingers…” I blurted out.

“My fingers?”

“Yes.”

He stared at me, then lifted his hand and slowly touched my bottom lip with the tip of his thumb.

“Tell me where you want them.”

“Harris,” I almost groaned, but I managed to stifle it and closed my eyes.

He leaned closer to me until I could feel his breath on my cheek.

“All you have to do is ask, baby.”

I opened my eyes, but I didn’t look at him, the universe seemed to explode in front of me. I hadn’t heard him right; I was sure of it. The drug had played a trick on me. It was impossible that he had called me that.

He took my chin between his fingers and turned my head towards him, our lips so close it was painful.

“Ask me to do it. I need to hear you say it so you can’t back out anymore. Two words. Tell me where you want my fingers.”

Inside me.

Arousal howled so loudly in my ears that my eardrums almost burst. I gritted my teeth and looked straight ahead, my body moving without my permission, losing all sense of control as Harris’s hand traveled down my abdomen. It moved to the spot that burned like it had never burned before. He knew exactly what I wanted, but he was waiting for me to say it.

If I gave in, there would be no say where we would end up. We were still in the parking lot of the school, prying eyes watching us. I heard Harris’s teeth grinding in my ear, his control hanging by a thread, all his strength focused on not throwing himself at me.

With the last remnants of sanity, I grabbed him by the shoulders and pushed him back into his seat.

“We’re late enough,” I said quickly, searching for the bag that had fallen at my feet, so I’d have a reason not to look at him.

Harris sighed, all the pain in the world seeming to seep out of him. His fingers clenched into fists, then he ran them through his hair.

He leaned back and closed his eyes, his erection massive again. We remained silent until the excitement had subsided. The students outside should have been in class by now, but the courtyard was still almost full. Maybe it seemed like an eternity, when in reality it only took five minutes.

“You know this torment will turn against you one day, don’t you?” he spoke, his eyes still closed.

I frowned at him, “What do you mean?”

He opened his eyes and looked at me. Menacingly.

“I mean… When you tempt a monster too much without offering it at least a drop, it will eventually catch up, and when it does… it will be thirstier than you can imagine.”

I swallowed down a fist-sized lump. I wished I hadn’t understood the analogy so well.

“You are not going to catch me. What happened earlier was a momentary lapse in judgment.”

He grinned, pulling back, and opening the door.

“I’m going to catch you even if it’s the last thing I do. And I’ll catch you in your own traps. You’ll tell me what you want on your own, I promise,” he leaned over me and whispered just inches from my lips. “There will come a time when I’ll be on top of you, Katherine, and you will beg for all the things you keep to yourself now.”

I was petrified and showed no reaction at all. After everything that had just happened, that was impossible.

“But that moment is not now.”

His smile promised danger, then he pulled back.

My pulse exploded as I realized what he was about to do. He held the T-shirt in his hand, but he didn’t put it on, and he got out of the car as he was.

“Don’t,” I howled and reached across the seat for him, but I didn’t catch him.

It was not until he was sure the whole school had seen him that he pulled his shirt over his head.

A vein pulsed on my forehead. I didn’t care that he’d shown off his muscles in front of heated cheerleaders, but I was about to get out of the same car. Even the dumbest kid in the yard could put the puzzle together and figure out what had happened, especially because we had stayed inside for a while.

He grinned at me through the windshield, looking very proud of himself. He headed for my door when I made no move to get out.

“I hate you so much,” I whispered as he opened it.

He leaned over me and whispered back, “You can get back at me anytime you want, but I am not keeping my hands to myself a second time. Especially my fingers, now that I know how much you want them.”

He took my hand and pulled me out of the car, and I had to comply, so it didn’t look like I was being dragged out.

Fuck me!

I could see them, although I wasn’t looking at them. The usual noise had turned to silence, and I watched Harris so as not to notice everyone staring at me after I got out of his car.

So, it was clear that I had become his latest acquisition and there was no way to fix it, and that alone made me angry. It wasn’t just his fault; I had willingly and actively participated in everything that had happened. I’d even asked for it, like an idiot.

To make a bad situation even worse, he didn’t let go of my hand as we walked off.

“I can walk on my own,” I mumbled, trying to pull my hand out of his, but he only held me tighter.

I talked gibberish to myself the whole way, trying not to look at the people around me. The bell rang and everyone went to their classes, thank God.

“Don’t you have a class to go to?” I asked angrily.

After he let my hand go, I shoved my backpack into my locker.

“No,” he replied with a mischievous smile on his face.

He leaned against the locker next to mine with his arms crossed, looking like a sculpted Adonis. I grabbed my math book and closed the locker.

I decided to test my luck and turned to leave without exchanging any more pleasantries with him. I had gotten enough attention for one day. He immediately grabbed my hand, and my body was turned around and pressed against the locker. His palms clutched my hips as he felt way too close to me.

“Let go of me,” my voice sounded strained while a small, annoying part of me was in ecstasy, despite the many eyes surrounding us.

“Were you really going to leave like that?”

I frowned.

“You don’t want a kiss too, do you? In front of the audience?”

He just smiled.

“No, I don’t want that.” He squeezed my hips tighter. “Because now it’s my turn.”

He leaned forward and I felt the full force of his lips on my neck as he hungrily sucked my skin into his mouth. It probably only lasted a few seconds, but my brain was going to be scrambled all day. Just as quickly, he stepped back, let go of me and disappeared into the busy hallway.

I stood there, perplexed, and watched him leave. Now I understood why they called him a demon. That type of guy was impossibly unreal, but I had found myself one who was about to darken my mind. I shook my head trying to regain my composure. His kiss was still fresh on my skin, and the way he only kissed my neck felt more and more bizarre. But he’d told me that lips were the final straw, and he didn’t seem ready to pull it. I clearly wasn’t. Enough had happened already.

I tried to lose myself in the crowd and find my class, even though I was the center of everyone’s attention. In their eyes, I was no better than Amber, and I tried not to let it get to me. My life and my choices were no one else’s business.

***

Mr. Moris, our math teacher, was an old man, short and chubby, who talked about things I no longer understood. I focused on him obsessively so as not to notice the looks I was getting, especially Kristen’s. She came in after the teacher and didn’t have time to question me, but she was obviously up to date on the latest episode of the show “ Katherine and the Demon ”.

I could feel the drug blossoming inside me, a euphoric, frenzied energy taking over.

Kristen turned around in her seat, tore a page out of her notebook and wrote something on it. She crumpled it up and then tossed it to me. She couldn’t wait until the end of class. Had she never heard of this thing called ‘texting’? She and Candice were throwing notes like first graders.

“Are you insane?”

It was written in hasty cursive on the note. It could have been worse. I wasn’t going to reply via the same way, so I pulled out my phone and texted her under the table.

Me:

What do you mean?

I heard the buzz of her phone before she scowled at me. Yeah, sure, the teacher would hear that short vibrating sound from three feet away, but he couldn’t see her throwing paper balls around.

I watched as she quickly typed her answer while the teacher was giving out an assignment I didn’t bother to write down. My phone buzzed.

Kristen:

You fell into his trap.

I locked my phone and shoved it angrily into my pocket. I ignored her for the rest of the hour, but as soon as the bell rang, she was standing next to my desk.

“What the hell were you thinking?”

The whole thing was starting to bug me. Even if I accepted Harris, it was none of their business.

“You know what! This whole thing is starting to piss me off. I’m pretty sure I don’t need to explain my personal life to anyone,” I spoke a little too loudly and made an angry face.

“Fine! But leave us out of it,” she countered just as angrily.

“What the fuck are you talking about? Oh, and by the way, it would be nice if you gave me a heads up when you decide not to give me a ride.”

“Oh, that wasn’t our idea,” she interjected.

“What…” but I couldn’t finish my sentence.

Startled, I stopped as I saw the rest of my friends enter the classroom. Especially Zac.

My jaw dropped to the floor when he reached me, and I got a better look at the bruises on his face. His left brow bone seemed broken, his right one swollen, and purple marks stained his skin, even though he had tried to cover them up with concealer.

He looked down, seemingly embarrassed.

“Zac, what happened?” My words were shocked.

“Your boyfriend gave him a thrashing for daring to interfere yesterday.”

I turned to face her.

“My boyfriend?!” I repeated.

“He went to Zac’s last night, beat him up and threatened him to stay away from you. He picks you up, gets out of the car shirtless, you walk across the parking lot holding hands… what are we supposed to understand about all this, Katherine?”

I searched for my words, but the anger coursing through my veins was too strong to waste time speaking.

I walked past them, literally fuming with rage, not even bothering to pick up my book from the desk. I was going to find that fucking asshole and teach him a lesson.