Page 22 of Forbidden Heart

Why don’t you do everyone a favor and fall off the edge of the earth? That’s what I want to say, but I can’t. I can’t speak at all. Why does my voice always leave me around Silas?

Silas starts to push past me, and I barely avoid stumbling into a bed of roses lining the path.

“Hey!” I rasp, too quietly for Silas to hear. At least, I think it is too quiet.

But Silas freezes and turns to glare at me.

He leans in toward me, so close I can feel his breath tickle my lips. I pull back, my heart pounding under his smoldering gaze. I try to back away, but the roses lining the path block my escape.

“Did you say something?” he challenges with his snake bite grin.

My eyes lock on his lip piercings, and I can’t respond. I also can’t tear my eyes away.

“You clearly called me back for a reason.” He leans even closer so we’re nearly touching. “Don’t act all innocent now.”

His skin, his heat, his cocky attitude... the way his breath grazes my lips. The way he’s staring at me. It’s all too much.

When he leans forward, I melt into liquid lava. Then he tilts his head, and his breath grazes my ear. “Well, Roonie, did you have something to say?” he hisses like a snake.

What? I think, though I can’t get the actual word to squeeze past my lips.

Silas chuckles. Then, to my complete shock, he gives my earlobe a gentle bite.

The unexpected sensation makes tingles shoot down my arms and race down my spine.

With a yelp, I thrust my laptop forward and shove Silas away.

His eyes widen in surprise and he takes a few stumbling steps backwards, right into a rosebush. Except he staggers and trips over an ankle-height fence that outlines the edge of a flower bed.

His feet fly out from under him and he rolls backwards, shrieking as his tight T-shirt catches on a sheet of wire fencing. It is ripped to shreds, revealing his toned chest and tight abs.

I cover my mouth and gasp. Silas keeps rolling.

He thuds down a hill and lands heavily in a cluster of prickly roses. Slowly, he raises his head and glares up at me. His long hair falls in front of his eyes as his face turns red with rage.

“I’ll get you for pushing me, Roonie Hill!”

Squeaking, I leap back and hide behind a rose bush.

I hum to myself to calm down, in harmony with the chirping birds and chattering squirrels and the screaming Silas. I can’t help but feel like the roses are reassuring me, telling me that this is not my fault. Silas, however, has a different opinion.

He screams up the hill at me, unintelligible and furious. I can’t make out his words, but his intentions are clear. The only thing on his mind is to make me pay.

Chapter 10

“I’ll get you for this, Roonie Hill!” Silas shouts in outrage, and I realize that the rosebush I’m hiding behind won’t protect me. No one can protect me!

I jump to my feet and run.

I race past rows of roses, back toward the dorms I’m not allowed inside. Marcus the RA is gone, but his words stay with me. You can’t go in there.

My key card burns a hole through my pocket, but I ignore it. Maybe the door will just happen to open and let me in? Like a castle’s drawbridge that keeps dragons and dark princes out, but lowers for the true princess. Maybe it’ll let me seek refuge inside and leave all the darkness out.

“Does your key card not work?” a familiar voice calls out from behind me.

Tate!

I instantly stop singing and spin around to face him. He’s with Charles, but there’s no sign of JJ.