Page 27 of Come Find Me Tonight

@Rook: I’ll be back in a few days. Feel better.

Turns out she needs a warning.

Chapter Thirteen

Appa

“Hmm, you keep your promises…”

I sit up, planting my palms flat on the mattress behind me, so my chest arches out toward him.

“Do you feel better?” Rook asks, walking into my room. Always in the dark and unrecognizable, but I know his body and silhouette now.

After our last interaction, the memory of his heat hums throughout my veins, only adding to the burn for him in my lower torso. He has to want me back, want this, and I wish he’d just rip the mask off and reveal himself.

I move to my knees. “I will…soon.” I grab him by the shirt and tug. He topples over me, crashing us back onto the mattress. He plants his clothed legs on each side of mine and sits up, pulling his shirt off. I reach up and graze my fingers over the cool metal that invades his nipples. It’s his signifier. That and the vicious scar on his right side that I want to drag my tongue across.

“I’m supposed to be the one grabbing you,” he says, pinning my wrists to the bed above my head.

I grin to myself in the dark. “You were too fucking slow,” I purposefully taunt.

“Mm, are you horny, baby girl?” He kisses my neck, swirling his tongue over my collarbone. “What do you want, Appa?” he asks against my skin.

He licks down my chest, leaving a moistened trail on my skin, and he shoves my camisole out of his way. “You. All of you,” I practically beg, clawing at his back. He shifts, and I instinctively grab his biceps. He gets up, forcing my arms to drop at my sides. The bed is lonely without him as he starts pacing. “What? What’s wrong?”

I’m obtuse… He probably meant ‘how’ I wanted it tonight.

“You don’t even know me,” he whispers so softly I nearly miss it. His words were soft, but they strike a fire in me.

I sit up again. “Whose fault is that?” I ask with furrowed eyebrows.

Oh, I shouldn’t have said that.

I get up too and wrap my arms around his torso from behind, brushing my cheek against his firm back. The abs are warm under my palms, and he flinches from my cool touch. He gently grabs my wrists and moves my hands away from him.

Even in the dark, I can see him shake his head. “Don’t act like you want to know me. You only want the version that fits your twisted fantasy.”

I sit on the edge of my bed, letting my feet dangle above the floor. I’m gutted, not making sense of how this is my fault when he shows himself online a certain way. I cross my arms over my chest and look to the side, away from him.

I rub my upper arms to warm them. “You built it.”

“And you wanted it,” he calls over his shoulder.

Rook isn’t a soft boy who would speak like this, so I call his bluff.

“Shut up and give me what we both want.” I can’t tell if my words enraged him, but I think most dominant men would be pissed at being told to shut up. It’s reckless, and sometimes, I can’t stop the Southern sass from seeping out.

“I don’t have to do this with you.”

I can feel him recoiling, the distance between us in my bedroom growing greater, and I can’t believe how much I misread this. Panic snakes through me as I get to my feet again, digging my toes into the soft carpet. “Please don’t slip away now.”

I know you care.

“Do you think I like this, Appa?” His voice is hoarse now. Tone rough, like it hurts to say.

“But you keep coming back for this because I’m the perfect girl-next-door type you want to wreck, right?” I raise my eyebrow at him, but I know he can’t see it.

He turns, and the room tilts as he throws me over his shoulder in an instant. “We’ve gotta do something about that mouth of yours.”