Page 108 of The Truths We Burn

“Pyro, remember?” he interjects, looking me up and down slowly. “That’s what you used to call me when you thought I was a psycho with mommy issues who was going to kill you.”

That still might be true, I think to myself. Actually, that is definitely still true.

“I know better now,” I mutter. “I know you better.”

His grip tightens in anger, his body closing in on my own as he forces his way between my thighs. They clench on instinct, my core starting to ache at the heat he’s radiating. The flash of his Zippo catches the light, and in seconds, a hot orange flame shoots from the top.

I tense up. With Rook, you never know what is racing through his mind, what he will do on a whim just because he feels like it.

“You think I won’t kill you?” he asks rhetorically, his left hand crawling higher up my thigh, shoving the material of my dress up and revealing my red panties. The flimsy lace material is the only thing hiding my already wet center from him. “You think I won’t burn you alive if I sense even an ounce of betrayal from you?”

“I—”

“I will not hesitate to bury you for good this time, Sage. In a hole so fucking deep, you will never be able to crawl out,” he continues, meaning every single word.

I jerk away from him or try to when he pulls the side fabric of my underwear away from my body. He stays in place, his hand holding me painfully still. He’s so close, his smell all around me. And God, his eyes—they’re incinerating me, never wavering from my concerned gaze.

What is he doing? What is he doing to me?

My mind and body are at odds.

My body, which had received nothing but pleasure from him in the past, trusts him, but my mind knows just how far he’s willing to go for revenge.

“What are you—”

My heart jumps to my throat as he drags the searing Zippo flame towards the material, barely touching it with the blaze before it snaps cleanly in two. I feel the heat from the fire against the sensitive skin of my hip. It’s soothed almost instantly when he pulls it away, the cool air aiding the sting.

“If you double-cross us, if you put my friends at risk, if you jeopardize them, I will ruin you. Just like I should have a year ago. I let you get out unscathed last time. Never again.”

I think he’s done. I want him to be done—it’s killing me having him so close. I can taste him on my tongue, and yet, I can’t touch him. But I also missed having him this close. I thought so many nights about having him this close.

“I’m—” I choke out as he shifts his fingers to the other side of my body, dipping one finger between my body and my underwear, playing with it. “I’m not the same person I was then. I changed inside there. It was—”

Snap.

He lets go of the fabric, making it crack against me. I suck my bottom lip inside my mouth, biting down on it hard.

“Save me the sob story. Poor little sweetheart Sage locked inside a looney bin—get the hell over it. Welcome to the trauma club.” His words almost pack a harder punch than his actions.

He’s playing with me, pulling me in just so he can drop me on my face.

I know that. I know what he’s doing.

But I still want it.

I want whatever he gives me because this feels good. Even when I know it would end in him leaving, still bitter towards me.

It is so good. Too good.

The way his angry breath splays across my lips, how his fingers return to my panties, grazing my flesh just enough to make me all hot and breathy.

He may think he doesn’t know me, that I lied. But Rook, he knew my body.

That was the one thing that could never lie to him, even if it wanted to.

But I’m also not the girl who would ever lie down and take it. When it comes to him, my fight always comes out to play with his demons.

“You have no fucking clue what I went through inside that place, Van Doren. Don’t act like I had it easy in there. While you were out, free, trying to fuck me out of your memory.”