Page 292 of Ominous: Part 1

“Eden. Are you mine, or is this just a fucking game you play?” His words are low and throaty.

I move my hands from between us, my fingertips slick with me, and I swipe my fingers over his lips before I thread them through his hair, but my neck is still arched, exposed to him, tendrils of my hair falling into the pool.

I don’t speak, taunting him without an answer, and he pulls out slowly, just to the tip, then he’s slamming into me, our hips colliding with a sickening sound, my back scraping along the cement of the pool. I relish in the sting. “I know what you want to do.” I lower my chin, meeting his dark gaze as his chest heaves between us.

“Yeah? And what do I want to do?” He fucks me softer, slower while he waits for an answer.

I tighten around him, gasping with the feel, then I pull his hair, lifting my head to stare at him. “Push me under.” I think of all the shit he studied, on his computer. The words he whispered in my ear.“Letting me control you? Your breathing, your whole fucking life?”

His gaze flickers to the pool. The lust in his eyes is heavier than it would ever be looking at Luna, or anyone else. Maybe even me.

For a moment, we don’t breathe, or move.

I’m stretched around him, his hips are melded to mine, and it’s hard to breathe with the depth of him, with my pulse flickering beneath his hand and my heart held there, too.

But he seems to make a split-second decision. All at once, he’s not just holding my throat, he’s moving me by it. My jacket scrapes along the cement, my head hangs over the pool, my shoulder blades just off of it.

“You could get hurt,” he says, like a question. Like he’s torn.

And I don’t know why, except I just have thisneedto do something drastic and rash and stupid, I say,“If it’s for you,I want it. You could kill me, if you wanted.”

There’s a pause, broken by his jagged laugh.

Then his hand comes to my face, and he leans down close and whispers in my ear,“Hold your fucking breath.”

Then he shoves me under.

The cold is the biggest shock.

His hand over my nose, my mouth, my eyes, it’s the next. If he had held my throat, I could have lifted my head, or at least tried.

But I can’t now.

I grip the back of his neck, one hand pressing against his chest as my entire body starts to tremble while he moves inside of me. It’s so much worse than I thought it’d be.Stupid, stupid girl. Playing with fucking fire.He was right. I’m just… trying to be edgy, aren’t I? The reality of death, it’s more painful than I realized.

I protect you.

No.

He wants to drown me, so I can never break free. Come above the surface and realizethis isn’t good for either of us.

But I won’t let him take the easy way out, showing me how bad it can be. How badhecan be.

I can be evil too.I can hurt you back.

I reach up with my fingers, straining my arm as I wrap my index and middle finger around his choker. I pull it as tight as I can, my face numb from the cold, my head dizzy without oxygen in my lungs. I bring my other hand to his face, scratching down it, over his eyes, his jawline. My body aches, fear settles in my bones, but I keep scratching, raking my nails over and over, pulling at his lips as I try my best to choke him, his fingers flexing over my face.

My limbs feel heavy, pins and needles, and I lift my hand, taking all the strength I feel I have left, and dragging my nails as deep into the side of his face as I can, feeling his skin curl up beneath my nails.

Something happens then.

His hand on my face slips. The pressure on my chest loosens. He pulls out of me.

I grab his throat with both hands and yank myself up, cold, crisp air freezing me to the bone as my hair drips down my back, soaking my jacket. A chill sets in, and I’m trembling, blinking chlorine from my eyes as I see he has a hand pressed to his face, fingers over his eye. His rings gleam in the lights around the pool. Red, jagged marks curl beneath his fingertips.

“Fuck.”He whispers the words. “What thefuck,Eden?”

I don’t wait to do more than catch my breath for half a second.