Page 53 of Twisting Beauty

He reached his fingers out for my cheek, his gold signet ring catching the light.

I stepped back, avoiding his touch. “Touch me and I’ll smile when they wheel you into the ER.”

He laughed, but it was brittle now. “Feisty. I like that.”

“I don’t care what you like.” I angled to slip past him.

He mirrored me, then used his width to back me up against the wall. He stuck his arm out to block me from slipping out.

I grit my teeth. “Let me go.”

Elias pouted. “Come on, sweetheart. We’re just having fun.”

Students looked straight at us as they passed. One boy’s mouth twitched like he found the whole thing funny. Two girls slowed just enough to take it in before carrying on.

Nobody stepped in. Nobody even pretended to care about what Elias was doing.

The normality of it made his violation even uglier. The way Ravenwood let a girl get cornered in broad daylight and kept moving.

I could not decide which felt worse, the actual violation or the certainty that none of them would do a bloody thing.

Elias just grinned at me as if this was just banter, as if their indifference gave him permission.

Fear twisted in with my rage, making both burn hotter and sweat gathered at the base of my spine.

Men like Elias always counted on hesitation. They counted on girls being too polite, on calculating the risk of making it worse by protesting, on swallowing a scream because no one would help.

“Move.” I tried to step out again.

But this time he blocked me with his whole body, his expensive cologne mixed with a sourness that made a scraping sound in the base of my skull.

I cringed at the violation as he brushed his groin up against me. “Elias, fuck off or I’ll scream.”

He chuckled as he pressed closer. “Oh, yeah, I’d love to make you scream, baby.”

His breath was hot on my cheek as I turned my head away and readied to knee him.

Something shifted in the air, sudden and sharp, as if a cloud had swallowed the sun.

The hairs along my arms lifted as the scraping noise in my skull splintered into violin strings, the scent-song that only ever meant him.

“Montgomery.” Lorcan’s voice cut the air as his shadow fell across us.

I froze. Shit. The last thing I needed was for Lorcan and Elias to gang up on me.

Elias glanced over, still grinning. “Bit busy, mate.”

Lorcan stood with his feet planted and his hips squared to us. His shoulders looked loose, almost lazy, but both his hands were curled into fists at his sides.

Behind him, students passing by had stopped to watch. Like things just got interesting.

Lorcan’s gaze dropped to where Elias had boxed me in, then came back up cool and flat. “It is always embarrassing watching a man beg this hard for attention.”

Someone nearby gasped.

Elias’s grin slipped. “I’m just talking to her.”

Lorcan’s mouth moved at one corner, not quite a snarl. “If you have to block her path to manage that, ‘just talking’ isn’t what you’re doing.”