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Temptation: to be tempted with what one must not want or have.

H ow long could I truly resist?

I felt drunk. Maybe I had gotten more alcohol at the party than I thought because here I was about to kiss my professor.

Slam!

A door opened to our left. My best friend stomped out of the professor’s bedroom, and the spell broke. That invisible wall of lust and temptation shattered, bringing a chill to my heated skin.

Sasha looked between us, blinking and smacking herself in the head.

“Fallon? Am I dreaming? Are we having a three-way with Professor Hottie?”

Professor Hottie growled and pushed off the floor, walking away from us. The chill his absence left grew, making me wrap my arms around myself.

“Faye…mind explaining what the ever-loving fucker-doodles we got into tonight?”

I bit my lip, chewing the damn thing to a pulp. I didn’t have an answer to that question. What did we get ourselves into?

And what the hell was I about to do…

The song echoed in my ears. His rasp and beautiful tone made me feel like a rockstar was singing to me.

“I don’t even know, Sash,” I answered honestly.

She looked at the man looming around in the kitchen and crouched down beside me.

“What honestly happened between you and him, babe?”

I put my head in my hands, refusing to look at her or over at him. I just didn’t fucking know.

A loud ‘beep, beep, beep’ pierced the air and made me jump.

“Fucking hell, what is that?” he barked, covering his ears and walking around to locate the shrill tone.

Oh no…

He picked up my phone from underneath the bar, the small device wailing at a deafening pitch. Ferdinand was sending a locator signal. I was being fucking summoned.

“Fuck,” I scrambled to my feet, unrolling the contraption he made with the gauze and ice pack.

When she saw me wrapped in a towel, Sasha gave me an even more interesting look. I tried to ignore her, my face heated with embarrassment.

“Here.” I looked over at the outstretched hand beside me.

Pharaoh handed me a shirt. It was a white button-up, and draping it around me made me feel ridiculous. This man was so damn tall. I didn’t know exactly how tall, but well over any height I knew. The garment went to my knees, but at least it covered my freaking thong.

“Thank you,” I said, not looking at him.

“Sasha, come on. We gotta go.” My friend protested when I grabbed her arm and snatched my phone out of the professor’s hand.

“I will be seeing you again, Little Voyeur,” he said, a promise that made my skin heat.

Asshole.

I was clearly still drunk, and this shithead took advantage…so much for a rescue. I pulled Sasha forward toward the door and only glanced back when I opened it wide.

The goddamn giant was shirtless, standing there, toying with the towel in his hands that had been wrapped around my body. Shivers licked up my spine at that image.

Damn, you…

“Bye!” Oh god, that sounded way too cheery, but I forced myself out of the apartment.

Sasha protested the entire time I tried to explain that I needed to be home. After dropping Sasha off at her house, my phone was still blaring when I got back to my house.

No one fucking got it.

The monster owned me.

Standing at the door, I knew the loud ass siren noise would wake up my sister, so I chucked it in a flower pot and went inside. Even with the door closed and locked, I felt…vulnerable.

I walked to my room, trying to watch for the minefield of creaks on the floor, hoping to get past my sister’s door.

I turned away from the vacant, empty room that used to be Noah’s.

The pain was still too fresh to even look past the dark.

It was too painful seeing it empty. It was too painful with his posters gone.

All that remained was the outline of where his half-naked cheerleader prints resided for twenty years.

God damnit Noah. I hate you for leaving me .

My brother was the only one to protect me.

He was the only one to keep me safe from the monsters that weren’t made up of closet fluffballs but real people from my life.

Tears slipped down my cheeks, and I brushed angrily at them with the white shirt I was still wearing. It still smelled like him…Pharaoh.

What kind of name was that? It was one thing to look like a god, but to have a god-like name, too? I huffed, and my irritation at the whole situation of tonight burned my face scarlet with shame and anger.

“You are a slut,” I said to myself, walking past the bookshelves and making my way to my door.

Sighing and shaking my head, I pushed open the door and looked for the light switch.

“Hello, Pet. Wherever have you wandered off to tonight?”

I froze. My entire body flashed numb with fear.

What the fuck was Ferdinand doing inside my house? Inside my room?

“Ferdinand?” I paused, placing my mask of calm and indifference on my face, the mask of the perfect docile fiancé.

He was sitting in my computer chair, his legs crossed with an eerie anger written all over his face.

“You didn’t answer me, Fallon,” he said, taking in my appearance and the oversized shirt. He stood, and I instinctively backed up to the door. “Excuse me, dear. What is that?”

He fingered one of the buttons on the shirt. I swallowed the lump in my throat and tried to feign nonchalance.

“Oh, this? I spilled some beer on my dress at the party, so I borrowed some clothes from a friend.”

He tilted his head, cornering me against the door’s wall and sliding his long, bony fingers along the lapel of the shirt.

Inhaling deeply, he glowered at me.

“Fallon,” he said, getting in my face. “This friend is a man? You aren’t to take anything from a man. I give you everything you could ever need. I am the only man in your life. Are you unhappy with the gifts I adorn your halls with, Pet?”

His voice rose in volume.

“Should I have your sister removed from her position? How about school? I can call the superintendent to remove you from your studies. What will you do when you’re nothing but a non-educated, impoverished dropout, dear? What man would want you then?”

I stiffened, chewing the inside of my cheek so hard I tasted blood.

The pain felt good, numbing me from the sickening words spewed at me.

I knew he was right. I needed him to keep this stupid family afloat.

He could do what he wanted to me, but messing up my sister’s life because of my disobedience was not okay.

“No…” I said, the words feeling sour on my tongue.

“Tell me you are nothing without me,” he demanded, grabbing me in the same damn spot he always did. The bruises there were starting to heal, but now they ached and pinched because of his pointy nails.

“I am nothing without you,” I said, and I was pretty sure I sounded like a robot.

“Your family is nothing without me,” he said, and I parroted.

“Good girl. Now take that atrocity off so I can see to its disposal.”

I hesitated. I felt weirdly safe with this stupid shirt on. It smelled like him. I didn’t deserve to keep it, but I didn’t want the monster to destroy it.

“Who gifted you this tent?” his voice dipped, and there was that dangerous air to it.

I flinched, knowing that with this, it always came.

Smack!

My body fell to the ground. My cheek burned with the strike, and my head felt dizzy.

“When will you learn, silly little girl?” he said, staring at his hand while standing over me. “You defy me, and I will punish you for your indiscretions. No one wants a whore, Fallon dear. This is for your own good.”

I covered my head, not wanting to get any other damage to my brain tonight.

He ripped at the fabric, the buttons popping and flying throughout the room, leaving little clicking noises as they bounced on the ground away from me.

“This body belongs to me,” he continued, fondling my breasts and tearing at my underwear.

My stomach rolled with nausea, and I prayed this wouldn’t last long.

“You don’t show another man what is mine.”

I closed my eyes, not wanting to look at him as he took from me. I tried to think of something else. My mind landed on the man with crystalline green eyes and tattoos covering his body, his dangerous words echoing in my ears, blocking out the grunts of the monster on top of me.

I will be seeing you again, Little Voyeur.