Page 18 of Make Me Scream (Visceral #2)

I pull my phone away from my ear with a, “ What the fuck? ” but then, my door creaks open, and my heart shoots into my throat. Peris strides across my floor, swallowed in darkness and naked from the waist up. “Uh…” My eyes are as wide as the moon.

“Move over,” he spits.

“Wha…”

Peris rips my blankets out of my hands, causing a huge draft to flutter over my bare skin. I shiver, staring up at him with huge eyes, not sure what the hell he wants from me.

“Abel, I’m not going to repeat myself again.”

Without a word, I slowly scoot toward the wall, and when there’s enough room, Peris slides into bed beside me and drapes my blanket over his body. He draws his arms behind his head, and I can’t help but stare at the way his biceps bulge obscenely in that position.

He, of course, catches me staring, his eyes having adjusted to the dark. “Like what you see, puppy?” And like the dickhead he is, he flexes his muscles, and I almost drool on myself watching the muscles roll.

I flush hotly. “Fuck you.”

“Nah. Not tonight.” He turns his head back to stare up at the ceiling, dark wavy hair brushing across his forehead as he does.

I curl onto my side—facing him to keep him in my line of sight—and curl my hands under my face. “What are you doing in here, Peris?”

He’s quiet for long moments, not acknowledging that I asked him anything. He simply stares up at the ceiling as I stare at him. Eventually, he says, “I don’t really know. Just wanna be.”

“We’re kinda fucking crazy,” I tell him.

“Yeah, puppy,” he laughs, shaking his head before glancing over at me with a small smirk. “You’re telling me.”

I huff, and my breath blows my hair out of my face.

As my eyes adjust even more to the dark, I can’t help but watch Peris closely.

The way his chest hitches every fourth breath—like he can’t quite catch it—how his eyelids flutter occasionally, long lashes fluttering against his prominent cheekbones.

The throb of his pulse in his thick neck—a neck I want to bite and mark permanently, cover in bruises and indentations of my teeth.

“This is weird, isn’t it?” I ask softly, trying to turn my thoughts away from that specific one as my dick twitches.

“Nah.” Then, Peris reaches out and shoves his arm under my head, fingers twining around my neck, and yanks me toward him until I’m practically on top of him.

“What—” I fall atop his chest with an oomph.

“Just shut up,” he mutters as he adjusts my limbs across his body, spreading my legs around his waist and wrapping my arms beneath his until I’m suctioned to him like a fucking vacuum.

“Are we really doing this?” I complain as I nuzzle my face into the side of his neck, skimming my nose along his pulse point.

“Are you going to keep bitching, or are you going to go to sleep?” Peris mutters as he slides his arms around my waist and palms the globes of my ass, squeezing tightly. I gasp at the pain, and my hips gyrate further of their own volition.

Peris halts the movement. “Don’t fucking start, runt.”

“Hey!” I nip his neck, making him hiss. I smirk in satisfaction as I smooth the sting with my tongue. “You fucking started it, baby.”

The shuddering intake of breath makes my eyes burn, for some reason. Peris’s fingers tighten on my hips, fingers curling around the edges of my ass but not in a sexual way—more in a… possessive way.

I lean into the touch, arching my back just enough for him to squeeze a bit tighter, needing moremoremore.

“Don’t fuck with me, runt.”

“Whatever do you mean, Peri boy?”

He huffs, and his hot breath slithers across my skin like a serpent ready to spill its deepest secrets. I relish in the burn, gasping and aching for more. But when I lean into it, Peris pulls away slightly and reaches up to twine his fingers into my loose hair, blunt nails scratching at my scalp.

I moan at the sensation, and my entire body melts into his until we become one entity.

“ Ohhh , someone likes that, doesn’t he?” Peris chuckles as he tugs lightly on my strands, causing goosebumps to burn a trail down my spine.

“Fuck off,” I mumble into his throat—then, I decide to bite his Adam’s apple because he deserves it. It’s kind of hard, yet also squishy between my teeth, and I like the sensation.

“Jesus, Abel!” Peris yelps, and I laugh with his flesh between my teeth as I slowly pull away, grinding his skin as I do. Peris grits his teeth, fingers tightening past the point of pain until I release him.

By the time we’re both free of each other’s painful holds, we’re both out of breath, skin and muscles throbbing in discomfort—but it’s that sensation that makes it feel most comfortable to be in his arms, to be held by him.

“You’re a fucking brat,” he mutters, one hand gripping my ass tightly, the other back to playing with my hair.

“And you’re a bitch,” I retort, just as quickly.

He harumphs, making me laugh. “A bitch, huh?”

“Yeah.” He twines a strand of my hair around his index finger, looping it around, untwining it and back again. I find the process methodical and relaxing. My eyelids begin to droop.

“I can’t stand you, Abel.”

I smile into his throat. “Then why are you in here, Peris?”

His arms tighten around me, even as silence descends upon us. I let my eyes fall closed and allow myself to fall into the deep lull of his breathing and mirror the intake of his every breath with my own until we’re matched, and I can feel sleep scratching at the surface of my consciousness.

Peris’s fingers still, causing my eyelids to flutter open in surprise.

“Because I can’t stay away from you.”

“I guess we’re one in the same, then,” I mumble, then allow myself to succumb to the lull of sleep, feeling fervently content in the arms of another for the first—and only time—in my life.