A ghost?
I was a ghost?
My head tilts back against Aiden’s chest as I study his features, searching to see if he’s joking or screwing with my head.
I should’ve known better since he doesn’t joke. At least not in this sense. His jaw is tightened and his thick lashes frame a darkened look.
“What is that supposed to mean?” I try to appear calm, but my pulse rises with every second until I’m afraid he can hear it.
“You’re not ready for what it means, Frozen.”
The fact that he’s using that damned nickname can only mean that he’s putting me at a distance.
Aiden isn’t exactly the closed-off type. He’s not ashamed to admit to all the fuckery in his head.
However, I’m not foolish to believe that he’d bare his soul to me that easily. He keeps a fraction of himself hidden behind the walls of his fortress.
Maybe I can’t escape his chessboard after all. One has to be in the battalion so they can take down the king.
“I don’t like it when you call me that,” I say, wiggling away from his hold.
“Call you what?”
“Frozen. I’m not frozen.”
“Hmm, but you are.” He pats his chest. “You’re so frozen, it kind of stings.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
Aiden flips me underneath him and rips the sheet from around me. Shivers break all over my arms as the air hits my skin.
His ferocious gaze dips to my nakedness as if he’s seeing it for the first time.
My heart hammers so loud, it’s painful.
There’s something about the way he watches me.
A possessiveness.
An obsession.
A… madness.
I hate how my body reacts to this unhinged side of him. Aren’t all girls supposed to be attracted to the white knight? Prince charming? Why the hell am I gravitating towards the villain?
I ignore the pool of heat gathering between my thighs, pull at the sheet, and drape it around my torso.
Aiden’s stormy eyes pierce through my soul as his fingers tug on the sheet. “Don’t cover yourself from me.”
“We’re talking.” I hold the piece of cloth with all my might. “You can’t just shut me off for sex.”
“Watch me.” He rips the corner of the sheet.
I gasp and roll away from underneath him, taking the sheet with me. Aiden wrestles me back. I push at him. Lust, hate, the need to win rush through my limbs. I love fighting Aiden. Judging from the wetness coating my thighs, maybe I love it a bit too much.
It doesn’t help that Aiden’s eyes are gleaming with too much pleasure. He loves the fight, too.
We wrestle for minutes or hours, I don’t know. My lungs are heaving and I’m sweating. Nothing changes in Aiden’s posture except for that spark in his eyes. Either he has impressive stamina or I’m just not that strong.
I pull myself on four and try to crawl away from his caveman clutches. He grips me by the ankle and yanks me back. I lie flat on my stomach, almost my entire back is bared.
Aiden crawls atop of me, his slick hard chest covers my back and he imprisons both my wrists above my head on the mattress.
He’s panting in my ear, his breaths making my eyes flutter closed. Being dominated by him pulls on my unhidden strings.
An urge.
A need.
A deprivation.
“Do you still want to fight, sweetheart?” he murmurs in my ear, his voice dropping to a chilling range. “Or would you rather I make you scream?”
He rolls his hips and a thick, hard bulge settles against the crack of my arse.
I don’t know if he’s hard because we fought or at the promise that he’ll make me scream.
Or both.
He’s sick. Absolutely, utterly sick.
Apparently, I’m sick, too, because my core is slick with arousal.
“You’re an arsehole.”
His hot breaths tickle my earlobe as he bites down. “Don’t tempt me into fucking yours, sweetheart.”
I gasp then go rigid when his fingers spread my arse cheeks.
What… is he doing?
He presses a calloused thumb against my back hole. “Hmm, this looks virgin to me.”
“A-Aiden… stop.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t fuck you here… yet.” He pushes the tip of his thumb, and I stiffen. “But when it’s time, you’ll let me, won’t you?”
He can’t talk about fucking my arse when I don’t even know what it feels to have proper sex.
“Or would you rather I take it, too?” He runs his erection up and down my slick folds while teasing my other hole.
Holy…
Why does this feel so… good?
Not only his touch, but also his entire presence at my back. The way he touches me feels like he knew my body for decades.
Like he owned my body for decades.
There’s something about his absolute confidence that reduces me to a mere marionette in his hands.
“I’ll own every one of your holes… eventually.” His finger leaves my arse to slide down to my soaked folds. “But I’m starting here. I’ll fuck the memory of anyone else out of you.”
The onslaught of his words is like having his tongue licking me in that delirious, maddening pace.
He nibbles on my earlobe, sending tiny bolts of pleasure across my spine. “You’ll let me own every inch of you, won’t you, sweetheart?”
My nerve endings are so stimulated, I can’t breathe straight, let alone think or speak.
A deep moan is the only sound that escapes me.
“Fuck.” He flips me so my back hits the mattress.
His stormy eyes study my face intently as if some mystical language is written all over my features.
A language that he’s the only one to speak.
“Stop me,” he murmurs in a strained voice.
“S-stop you?”
“Do it.”
How am I supposed to stop him? Besides… “Didn’t you say I’m not allowed to tap out or stop you?”
“This is the only time I give you the first move. Tell me to leave and I will.” He rolls his hips, sending a shiver of pleasure down my abdomen as his hand wraps around my throat. “I’ll let you live your last year in RES in peace. I’ll kill the fantasy. I’ll end it all.”
My mouth trembles.
That’s what I want, isn’t it? I’ll spend my last year in peace and Aiden will leave me alone.
Aiden will leave me alone.
My heart pounds, but it’s hard to concentrate with his erection stabbing at the bottom of my stomach.
“Are you playing a mind game?” I snap. “Is this the part where you laugh in my face and tell me I’ve been pranked?”
“This is the part where you lost your only chance to escape me.” He squeezes my neck. “You’re well and truly fucked, sweetheart.”
His lips crash against mine in an all-consuming, mind-crippling kiss.
A part inside me dies; the part that yearned for freedom, for the chance to escape Aiden. But the other part? That one fills me with an odd sense of relief.
A chill of terror crawls down my spine.
This isn’t me.
I’m not this person.
How could I be so… defective? So immoral?
I press a hand on Aiden’s chest in a fruitless attempt to push him away.
He doesn’t budge.
If anything, he crushes me beneath him. His torso flattens my breasts, his fingers squeeze my neck, and his knees immobilize my thighs.
I can’t escape even if I want to.
He’s had me completely at his mercy.
He can crush me, ruin me, and no one will know.
My mouth falls into a gasp as his erection nuzzles between my thighs. I’m thankful Aunt had me on the shot for a while now.
Stop.
I scream in my mind, not knowing whether it’s at Aiden or at my own body.
Aiden doesn’t get my virginity. I hate him. I despise him. He ruined my life.
Then why am I not saying it aloud?
Speak, Elsa. Freaking speak.
Even if I do, will he listen? Will Aiden respect my will?
A loud bang on the door interrupts my chain of thoughts.
Wait. What?
Aiden wrenches his lips from mine with an animal-like growl. “Fuck off.”
“Emergency!” Ronan’s voice comes from the other side.
“You better be fucking dying or I’ll kill you myself.” Aiden grunts and pushes off me.
“Come out, fucker.”
Aiden’s eyes darken as he pulls on his boxer briefs.
I reach for the tangled sheet and wrap it around my torso. I’m panting, skin sweaty and on fire as I blindly search for my scattered clothes on the floor.
Aiden cuts me a glare when I touch my bra. “Don’t even think about dressing.”
I let go of the piece of clothing as if I’m a kid who’s been caught stealing from the jar.
The moment the door closes behind him, I almost curse myself. Who does he think he is to boss me around?
Besides, this is my chance to stop this.
Whatever this is.
My fingers are numb. No, not numb. They’re too simulated that they feel numb.
Standing on wobbly feet, I quickly put on my clothes, trying to ignore the potent smell of sex in the air.
And his smell.
Damn his smell.
I feel like I’d be a ninety-year-old lady and will still remember the way he smells.
Aiden returns when I’m pulling my hair into a ponytail.
He narrows his eyes on my clothed body. “You’re lucky we’re done for today.”
We… are?
“Is your cousin taking you?” I ask, fighting the sense of disappointment hitting me out of nowhere.
“My cousin?”
“Levi King. I saw him earlier.”
“You saw him earlier,” he repeats with clear menace.
“Yeah. He said he’s here to get you.”
“Lev says lots of shit.” He raises an eyebrow. “Do you honestly think he can tell me what to do?”
No. It was stupid to even consider it.
Also, he calls him Lev. That’s the only time I hear him give someone a nickname. Hell, it’s rare to even hear him call anyone by their given names. Even his friends are last names to him.
“If it’s not Levi, then what is it?”
He narrows his eyes before he schools his expression. “Kimberly passed out.”
Aiden drives us and Xander sits in the passenger seat, staring at us through the rearview mirror now and again.
I cradle Kim’s head on my lap while she snores softly.
If it weren’t for the suffocating silence, it would’ve been funny that her snoring is the only sound in the car.
I have no idea how to dissipate the silence — or tension — between Aiden and Xander, so I just focus on stroking Kim’s hair out of her face.
She swats my hand away as if I’m a fly. The smell of tequila permeates the air. She’s so going to regret the hangover come tomorrow.
Ronan’s house is only a ten minute drive from Kim’s and I’m so thankful for the short distance. Aiden parks in Kim’s driveway.
“I could’ve driven,” Xander says in a bored tone. “I live here anyway.”
Aiden’s expression is stoic. “You’re not allowed near her when I’m not around.”
I’m not sure which ‘her’ Aiden means, and something twists in my chest at the thought that he could mean Kim.
They were childhood friends and practically raised together. Same schools. Same hobbies. Even their parents belong to the same circle. Maybe Aiden has a bond with her. He did hug her while she cried.
“You mean my girlfriend?” Xander turns around and winks at me. “You want me to drive you home, babe?”
Aiden grips the steering wheel so hard, I’m surprised it doesn’t crush to pieces.
When he smiles at Xander, it’s almost manic. “Do you have a fucking death wish, Knight?”
“Do you, King?” Xander’s expression hardens until his jaw ticks.
I swallow past the lump in my throat. Despite the bruises from last week, they still look like they’re on the verge of cutting each other from limb to limb.
There’s no football team to stop them from killing each other this time.
“Hey,” I try to sound nonchalant as I open the backseat’s door. “Can one of you help me get Kim out of the car?”
Xander breaks the murderous war of glares and steps out of the car. He pulls her from my lap with ease. I catch a whiff of alcohol from him, but it’s not as strong as the tequila on Kim.
He lifts her in his arms bridal-style with so much ease like she’s a rag doll.
Her eyes crack open the slightest bit and she groans, head falling against his chest. Then, seeming a bit awake, she checks him out and pulls at his hair.
“You!” She slurs. “All because of you!”
“Kim.” I follow them.
“Elliiie.” She grins, and it’s surprisingly charming considering that she’s drunk. “Let’s commit muuurder!”
I smile. “Not a good idea, Kim.”
“Noope! Best ideaaa,” she slurs as her fingers lazily plunge in Xander’s hair, almost… stroking it? “Xaaan, am I pretty?”
“No.” He doesn’t even hesitate.
Her eyes shine with tears. “Are you ever going to forgive me?”
“No.”
“Fuuuuck. Youuu.”
Xander halts and I do, too, to avoid slamming into his back. Some staring contest erupts between him and Kim. Her eyes fill with unshed tears while his darken under the garden’s dim light.
A strong hand wraps around my arm and pulls me back, closing my connection with whatever is going on between those two.
Kim falls limp again and Xander punches in the code to their house.
Wait. He knows the code?
“It’s the last room on the second floor,” I tell him.
“I know that,” he says over his shoulder.
Okay. That’s not weird at all.
I’m sure Kim’s mother won’t come out from her workshop or even if she does, she wouldn’t care much. She’s very… open.
Once Xander disappears inside, I meet Aiden’s narrowed gaze. His posture is rigid at best. What is he angry at me for?
“What?”
“Close your doors and windows. All of it.”
“Uh, the house has an alarm system. We’ll be fine.”
“All of it,” he grits out. “Don’t make me repeat myself.”
The hot and cold is giving me whiplash.
Even if he’s pissed off at Xander, he has no right to unleash his anger on me when I haven’t done anything wrong.
I hate it when people use a weaker opponent as the punching bag of their emotions.
A whip comes down my back and another and another. I scream so loud, my ears pop.
I flinch at the random vision. What in the ever living hell was that all about?
“Elsa?”
My gaze flicks to Aiden who’s clutching me by the shoulders as I almost topple over.
Wait. Did I just… lose time?
Aiden’s inquisitive eyes search into my soul. “What happened just now?”
“Nothing.”
“I don’t lie to you so give me the same respect in return and don’t fucking lie to me.”
“The same respect?” I wiggle free. “You and the word respect shouldn’t even be in the same sentence.”
“What happened to you just now?”
“I don’t want to tell you.”
How dare he demand that when he freaking triggered that vision?
“Either tell me or I’ll extract it out of you.” He grips my jaw. “I’ll find out anyway, the method is up to you.”
Screw him and his mind games.
All I want is to curl into a ball in a dark, small corner.
Just when I’m about to give him a piece of my mind, the front door opens and Xander comes out with a deep frown etched between his brows.
I take Aiden’s momentary distraction, run inside the house, and lock it.
I remain behind the door and peek through the lounge area’s tall windows. Xander has crossed over to his house. Aiden remains where I left him, staring at the door.
Ten seconds pass.
Twenty.
Thirty.
Sixty.
His poker face is on as he follows Xander.
My phone vibrates in my back pocket and I jump.
Aiden: A queen or a pawn.
Aiden: You don’t want me to make the move for you.
With a groan, I power off my phone and tuck it back in my pocket.
Screw him and his mindfuckery.
My eyes flutter closed and then open when that vision assaults me.
Only, it wasn’t a vision, was it? It was a memory.
Something that happened in my life.
