Page 83 of Craving Venom (The Venomous Beauty Trilogy #1)

We stare at each other. My chest rises, his falls. The air between us thins until I feel the weight of his stare like a hand wrapped around my throat.

I bite my bottom lip. Wet it. I don’t know if I’m inviting him or if I just need him, but I bring my mouth forward, a kiss already blooming on the tip of my tongue.

Before I can press my lips to his, the door slams open.

“Faith!”

I jolt.

Zane doesn’t move.

But my body scrambles.

I yank away from him as if I’ve been caught doing something illegal. My thigh slams into the side of the bed frame as I tumble back. I grab the sheet and pull, covering myself.

Tria stands in the doorway with panic written across her face. Her eyes swing wildly around the room before locking on Zane.

Zane?

Zane smirks.

Fucking asshole.

He doesn’t look embarrassed. Doesn’t move. He just leans back on his palms. The tattoos across his stomach stretch and shift with every breath. The mask sits open on the floor by his boot. His coffee mug’s still on the nightstand like this is all perfectly fucking normal.

Tria’s mouth opens. Closes. Then opens again.

“Wh—what the fuck is going on?” she gasps.

“I can explain,” I blurt.

“You can explain?” She looks at Zane who lifts his mug and takes a casual sip. “Explain what? That you’re in bed with him? With this—” She gestures to Zane. “Is this a kidnapping situation? Did he drug you? Blink twice if you need me to call the cops.”

“Tria!” I shout, cheeks burning.

She stares.

I throw the blanket tighter around my chest, as if that’ll undo everything. As if the bruises on my thighs, the hoodie clinging to my skin, and the scent of him all over me don’t scream louder than I ever could.

Zane clears his throat. “I think this is getting awkward.”

I glare at him. “You think?”

He shrugs. “She interrupted.”

“I wasn’t—” I start, then cut myself off, turning redder. “Nothing happened.”

Zane grins.

Tria blinks. “Are you serious right now?”

“I hate everyone in this room,” I groan, dragging the blanket higher.

Zane lifts his mug in mock salute. “She doesn’t hate me.”

“I do,” I snap.

“Then stop looking at me like you want to fuck me again,” he says, sipping.

I throw a glare so sharp it could decapitate. “Stop talking.”

Tria hasn’t moved.

She’s still frozen near the door and her eyes are darting from me to Zane to the bed, trying to decide whether to call for backup or set the whole dorm on fire.

“If you’re done, can you please go?” I peek at Tria from under the covers.

“No. No. I’m not done yet.”

“Please be done.”

She crosses her arms. “Do you want to know why I actually came up here?”

“I assumed it was to interrupt the worst moment of my life.”

“No. I came because you sent me a peace emoji.”

“…What?”

Tria steps forward. “A fucking peace emoji, Faith. One you never use. Who the hell are you ever at peace with?”

I poke my head out from under the sheet, frowning. “I didn’t—”

“Yes, you did.” She shoves her phone into my face. “See? Right here. You were texting me normal updates, ‘All good, don’t wait up,’ ‘Still with Sebastian,’ ‘I’m under his protection, I swear’ and then this.” She jabs at the screen. “That goddamn peace sign. You never use it. It freaked me out.”

I blink. “Tria. I didn’t send that.”

She goes quiet.

We both turn to Zane.

He grins, lifting a brow. “I’m nothing if not thorough.”

“You—” My jaw drops. “You had someone text her from my phone?”

“I needed time,” he says, standing up and stretching. “And I didn’t want to be interrupted.”

“You issued a city-wide curfew just to fuck her?” Tria snaps.

I sit straight up. “You what?”

“Oh right,” Tria huffs, whirling to face me, “you must not have gotten the alert. Kind of hard to receive texts when he had your phone spoofed.”

“What alert?” My stomach flips.

“The one that said Nighthawk was planning to attack anyone within a two-mile radius of Veridian University,” she says, throwing her hands up.

She turns back to him.

“And looks like he just did.”

Zane just lifts his empty mug and pretends to sip.

“You weaponized an entire evacuation order to get uninterrupted sex?”

“I didn’t make the city evacuate,” he says, stretching his arms over his head. “I just encouraged it.”

“You,” I grab a pillow and hurl it at him. He catches it midair.

Tria doesn’t even wait for the dust to settle. “We had to evacuate, Faith. The entire west dorm was moved to the faculty lot. No one’s allowed within two miles of the courtyard.”

Oh my God.

That’s why the entire university felt deserted.

That’s why the elevators were empty. Why the rooftop was quiet. Why no one saw me. There was no one here to see.

I look at Zane again, but this time I’m not sure if I want to scream or kiss him.

I shake my head, still in shock. “You really emptied the school?”

“Every student within a ten-mile radius was told to shelter. All security redirected to the stadium. It’s their protocol. They’re predictable.”

“You’re a terrorist,” Tria hisses, pacing like she’s trying to keep from throwing herself out the window. “You’re literally the city’s most wanted threat, and I should call the cops.”

“You can.”

Tria grabs her phone, ready to call the cops.

“But I wouldn’t bother,” he adds. “The entire VPD building’s on lockdown. Someone triggered a gas leak in their server room around the same time the curfew went out. Funny how their emergency lines started ringing busy right after.”

My stomach drops.

“Might’ve been a coincidence but whole place’s been sealed for hours.” He checks the watch on the nightstand. “And it will remain like that for the next thirty-two minutes.”

I’m so mad I don’t even have words.

But my body…?

My pussy clenches.

Because I liked being hunted.

“Okay,” Tria places her hands on her hips. “You two are officially the most deranged pairing I’ve ever witnessed. One of you needs therapy, and the other needs to stop being the reason for it.”

Zane gives her a lazy smile as if she’s just complimented him. Then he turns to me. His gaze softens by a fraction.

“I should probably go.”

“Yes, you should,” Tria snaps before I can say anything. “Preferably before I call animal control.”

Zane chuckles, as if that wasn’t meant to be a threat. He steps around the bed, leans down and presses a kiss to my forehead. “I’ll pick you up at midnight tomorrow.”

He turns to leave, and I grab his wrist. I don’t know why. Maybe because everything in me is still spinning. I look up at him and ask the one thing I shouldn’t.

“Have you ever killed an innocent person?”

Zane meets my gaze and says, “No.”

It’s a lie .

A clean, effortless lie.

And I smile at him anyway.

Zane watches me for one more second before he turns and walks out. Tria sighs, moves to my bed, and drops onto it like she’s aged ten years in the last ten minutes. She stares at the ceiling for a beat, then turns to me.

“What kind of date happens at midnight?”

I slide down next to her and bury my face in my palms.

“The kind that... requires breaking out of prison, I guess.”