“Why not?” Colson gives the knot another tug for good measure and then drops the slack, letting it fall behind his back.
My eyes fall to Colson’s chest. I don’t want to talk about this, I don’t want to talk about Trey and his disappointing lack of prowess right now. But Colson tips my chin up with his index finger so I’m forced to look him in the eye.
“It’s because he could never measure up. He just takes. He’s not fit to walk through the same dirt as you. But don’t worry,” Colson’s mouth twitches with amusement, “that was the last bit of fun he had for a while.”
“Why—” I knit my brow in confusion, “what do you mean?”
Colson stares into my eyes, a devious look spreading over his face, “It was a shame he shattered his knee the next day…”
I long blink, thinking back to the beginning of the spring semester. The next time I saw Trey, he had a brace on his leg and was telling everyone he busted his knee snowboarding.
“Up on your knees, baby,” Colson taps my hip twice, “and stay wherever I put you.”
I do as he says and rock forward. He wraps one arm around my waist and lifts me slightly, positioning my hips right above his cock. Then he gently lowers me down so his tip is just inside me. He feels both amazing and excruciating.
“But if you—” my breath catches as gravity pulls me down, “how are you not in prison?” I still manage to sound incredulous.
“I know things about Trey,” Colson’s jaw drops and then he snaps it shut with a groan, “illegal things.”
Fine, he has an answer for everything. But there’s no guarantee any of it’s true…
I return to facts I can recall, “But I didn’t even see you at that house,” I whimper as my breaths gets shallower.
“No, I guess you wouldn’t have,” Colson hisses through his teeth as he slides another inch inside me, “but it’s why I decided to fuck with you at Cade and Anderson’s. You didn’t leave before I could talk to you, I wasn’t planning on speaking to you at all that night.”
When he says it, everything falls away around me and I just stare at him in shock. I haven’t forgotten that feeling, when Colson’s eyes glossed over me like I was invisible—like I didn’t exist. Then I had to tell my closest friends about it. And now I want to smack him upside the head.
I give the straps around my wrists a violent jerk, but the headboard is solid and might as well be made of iron. This makes Colson laugh, but only for a moment. As soon as it comes out, he snaps his mouth shut as though he realizes he’s being rude.
“I’m not proud of it,” he shakes his head, “you didn’t deserve that. I promise I’ll never do it again, make you feel like you’re less than. But I made it up to you—” the corners of his mouth curl, “I came to visit you.”
“You came to my apartment?” I ask as I tug at the strap again, but it’s hopelessly knotted.
The knot looks very specific. It probably has a name and Colson’s probably tied it thousands of times around things like trees and boats and posts and pickup trucks out in the middle of the woods.
“No,” he slowly shakes his head, his eyes locked on mine, “I took a trip to the lake.”
My stomach drops when Colson says this last unsettling word. He lets me slide down further and I let out a gasp as I feel him stretching me past what I thought was possible.
He stills and presses his forehead against mine, “Eyes on me.”
I take a deep breath, filling my lungs with air as he slides his hand between my thighs. I can’t concentrate on anything else. What was he talking about? Did he say he went to a lake? Which lake? I grew up on a lake…
Colson settles on my clit and starts rubbing slick circles around it, “You were made for me, sweet girl,” he murmurs against my cheek, “breathe for me and make me fit.”
I do what he says, feeling my own moisture seep onto my thigh as I rock back and forth and sink down further.
“Which—mmm…” I want him to fill me completely and fuck me within an inch of my life, “w-which lake?”
I know perfectly well which lake. But I want him to give me another reason—a logical one—why he went there. I want him to say that he and his friends decided, for some inexplicable reason, to drive up to tiny North Bay in December. But it’s dumb, and I know it. The ferries don’t run. The islands shut down. No one likes the wind and you need four-wheel drive to traverse the lake effect snow. It’s not even close enough to Cleveland for a weekend of bar-hopping.
“The one you can see from your bedroom window,” Colson whispers.
I gasp through the pain cut with electricity, “You watched me through my window?”
Colson shakes his head no, “I was on your balcony,” he grins and stills his hand as soon as he feels my muscles tense and my breaths grow short.
More games…
He waits a few seconds before he touches me again, “I sat on your railing, and you had no idea, even while you walked around naked after your shower. It was cold as hell, but I waited ‘til you were asleep to come inside. Thank God you went to bed at a decent hour…”
“I keep that door locked,” I snap, deciding he’s at least lying about that.
“Popping a sliding glass door isn’t difficult, sweetheart,” he drawls as he works my clit.
I lean into him, brushing my lips over his, “Do you do that a lot—break into people’s houses?”
“I’ve never had a reason to go inside any but yours,” he murmurs into my mouth. “When I saw you asleep in your bed, do you know how much restraint it took not to pull back your covers, climb between your legs, and give you the best dream of your life? You would’ve asked me to put you in a coma just so you wouldn’t have to wake up. But I didn’t, I just sat on the floor at the edge of your bed, right next to you, for hours.”
My chest tightens and it feels like a thousand spiders are crawling up my back.
“If you’re good, I’ll mark you as mine…then I’ll bind your hands, so you won’t run when I start telling scary stories…”
The voice of reason screams in my ear, assaulting my brain, bombarding me with logic, trying to pull me out of his grip.
This is bad. He is dangerous. There’s something wrong with him.
Even though my heart is racing and my arms are shaking as I tug at his belt in panic, Colson’s still nothing but pure euphoria. And he knows it.
