Page 55 of Make Me Bleed

“Right, yes. Very specific, thank you.”

“Fuck you, you know what I’m talking about,” he rebukes, and I sigh loudly, dragging my hand through my hair and yanking on the strands.

“Abel, I promise you, I do not. Now, just drop it.”

“Your promises don’t mean shit anymore.”

I stiffen from head to toe. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

Abel huffs and crosses his arms over his chest. “Nothin’.”

I release a growl and drop down on the wall beside him, fingers curled around the material until my nails scrape against it. My head is tossed back between my shoulders to stare up at the dark, cloudless sky as I force each breath through my nostrils.

When the fuck did it all get so complicated?

Oh yeah—literally the moment he walked into my life.

CHAPTER 14

ABEL

The car rideback to Peris’s place is quiet and tense with unnamed but nearly tangible tension in the air we share in the back of the car.

My jeans are plastered to me with dried cum, and it’s uncomfortable, but there’s nothing I can do about it other than shift in place and try to unstick them. But my panties are in the way, and every time I try to touch my crotch, Peris’s eyes dart over to me, and they get really dark, and I get hot all over, so I stop because my stomach flutters and curls, and I don’t know what is wrong with me, but I am too buzzed to properly deal with him.

I need to be sober. Or, at least, not drunk to handle Peris Baxter, but the gods have decided against me tonight, and it’s a battle of wills.

I’m clearly losing.

I’ve already come twice.

By the time we’re pulling up in front of a house, it’s only been fifteen minutes, and my throat is fuckingdry.I need water, and if I don’t get it soon, I’m probably going to lose my mind.

“So, this is where you live, huh?” I croak as Peris opens the door and steps out onto the grass. The blast of cool air mixingwith the warmth from the car makes me shiver, and I pull back, not wanting to be cold again, but Peris just leans in and wraps his fingers around my bicep and yanks me out of the car.

“Thanks,” he tells the driver, deadpan, before shutting the door and dragging me down the sidewalk.

“I can fucking walk, you know,” I huff and yank away.

“Fine.” He pulls away, and I stumble to the ground at the unexpected loss of balance.

“See,” he sneers as he stares down at me, and I can’t help but stare up at him with stars in my eyes as the own night sky’s surround him like a halo.

His longer hair curls around his ears, accentuating the tattoos going down the side of his neck. I follow them with my eyes, down the thickness of his neck, and across his shoulders to his arms, which are now moving to dig into his pocket as he pulls out a cigarette.

“Since when did you smoke?” I ask. I’ve been curious about it since the very first time I saw but never thought to ask until now. The Peris I knew would never fucking touch a cigarette.

“Since you left me,” he retorts just as quickly, and I flinch away from the sharpness of his words. The lighter illuminates his face for a moment, and the shadows I see etched there will haunt me for the rest of my life.

But then, they’re gone, leaving me to imagine what I saw.

“Ouch,” I mutter as I stare down at the ground. The cold concrete has seeped through my jeans and is now making my ass numb.

“Come on, get up,” Peris says, and his arm extends in my peripheral. I look up to find his cigarette dangling from his lips, arm reaching for me, smoke curling up toward squinted eyes, and my heart flips inside my sternum.

Jesus fucking Christ.

“Are you going to give me your hand or just keep fucking staring at me?” he snaps, and I shake my head to clear the fog.