Page 20 of Boys Who Taint (Spine Ridge University #5)

Wait a minute … wasn’t Ghost pierced too? Or did I imagine it because of the delirium he put me in?

Apollo leans in, planting both hands beside my head, and I swallow away the lump in my throat.

“Don’t leave when the fun is just getting started.”

I’m not gonna let him intimidate me with that big dick even though it’s slowly rising.

“Is that what you tell all the girls who come in here?”

“I’m not gonna lie, I’m a man with needs,” he says, leaning in so close I can nearly touch those rippling abs. “But I’ll gladly push them aside if it means I’ll get to keep you.”

I snort. “Good one. No one’s keeping me anywhere.”

He removes one hand and tilts his head. “Go then, Freckles. Run off.”

I swallow and stand my ground, but then his towel drops to the floor, and my eyes can’t help but slip down toward the thing growing between his legs. Good God. The size of that could break just about anyone. If I had to guess, he’s at least eight inches, but who’s measuring?

“No one’s stopping you.” He doesn’t make any attempt to pick it back up again. “Or maybe that’s exactly what you want.”

“Enough with the semantics. You know what you did. Admit it.”

“Admit what?”

“Don’t play coy.” I plant a finger on his chest and push him until he moves backward. “You’re the one who’s been stalking me.”

He frowns. “ Stalking you?”

“You were the one who left that note in my room. You’re the guy in the mask, aren’t you? You just couldn’t stop yourself from groping me a second time in the gym after you already had your way with me in the auditorium.”

His lips slowly part as his eyes begin to narrow, but not a single word drops from those dirty lips, and that surprises me. He and that big ego of his would be more than happy to claim the truth now that it’s out in the open, right?

“I caught you,” I say.

A smoldering laugh finally leaves his mouth.

“Oh Freckles, you have the most amazing imagination. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t turn me on.

” He groans, his shaft bobbing up and down as he leans in.

“And I would definitely take you up on the offer if you’d ever give yourself as a willing victim to my chase. ”

I gulp.

He could be lying.

“But if it was me who touched you, you’d definitely know.”

“You called me a slut,” I growl back.

“Did I?” He scratches his chin. “I’ll call you whatever you want. I’m into everything, Freckles. No kink is a limit to me.”

No limits. No-holds-barred. That’s what he said.

I fish my knife from my pocket and aim it at his chest, but he grabs my wrist just before I puncture his skin.

“Admit it!”

“Knife play … now you’re talking. Is that what turns you on, Freckles?” He grabs a knife off the cabinet beside the door and slips it underneath my chin. “Two can play that game. You want a stalker? Someone to tie you up and fuck you like they hate you? I got you.”

My breathing is wildly out of control as I push as hard as I can to break his defense, but the knife won’t budge. “Are you or are you not the Ghost that’s been haunting me?”

He laughs again. “I’m more than happy to play along with your fantasies if that’s what gets you going.”

He directs my knife toward his shoulder and says, “Right here is where it feels best.”

I try to push him off, but it only digs the knife deeper into his skin until finally the blood begins to roll.

“Ah … fuck yes.”

“You’re insane,” I mutter, retracting the knife before I stab him completely.

But he suddenly drags me toward him with just one hand, the knife underneath my chin forcing me to look up at him and those wretched, haunting eyes.

“You make me insane.” He grins in a way that reminds me of my Ghost. “With all your fucking riddles that have nothing to do with me.”

“You said it yourself in the hallway! You asked me if I saw someone. You knew !”

It has to be him. It has to be.

His half-mast gray eyes look amused. “I was talking about myself, Freckles.”

My eyes widen.

No, he wouldn’t be that pompous. This is all a ruse. Right?

I jerk free of his grip and rummage around his room, throwing open every cabinet, every closet, every fucking drawer to find what I’m looking for.

“It’s gotta be here …”

“I have everything you’re looking for right here,” he responds, completely ignoring what I said.

“Where is the mask?” I yell, throwing his bedding to the floor.

He stares at me, still as hard as a rock. “What mask?”

“The one Ghost was wearing when he told me he’d kill—”

I abruptly end my own sentence, shutting my mouth before I say something I’ll never be able to take back.

But Apollo’s mischievous smirk already warns me he’s not going to let this go.

“Kill who ?” His bone-chilling tone gives me goose bumps.

His cousin.

Of course, he’d never say the words out loud.

No one would admit to killing their own family.

I march past him. “No one.”

I’ll find out who Ghost is. I’m not entirely convinced it isn’t Apollo, but is he really smart enough to pull something like this off? And would he truly kill his own cousin?

Goddammit.

I will find out the truth, one way or another.

“Don’t leave me hanging with a hard-on, Freckles,” he yells after me. “It’ll be a pricy mistake.”

I raise my middle finger just as high as his goddamn hard-on was for me.