Page 75 of White Noise

“Oh, little echo.”

Static finally flickers across one shoulder, but instead of looking bothered, Silas seems amused by it.

“You really want to stand there and pretend you didn’t just choose me?” His grin sharpens.

“You ran from me. Fought me. Cut me. Told me to go fuck myself every chance you got.” Another ripple of static moves through his chest. “And then you kissed me.”

I glare at him. “Don’t get fucking sentimental.”

Silas steps closer anyway, even as the signal starts pulling harder at the edges of his body.

“Sentimental?” He gives a quiet laugh. “No.”

His eyes move over me with slow, possessive satisfaction.

“I’m just making sure you understand what changed.”

“Nothing changed.”

“Keep saying it.”

The distortion spreads up his neck.

Silas reaches for my jaw one last time, thumb brushing over my skin while he still can.

“You can lie to yourself all you want.” His voice drops lower. “But you gave me your mouth. Your body. Your whole fucking signal.”

My stomach tightens and his smile turns vicious. “And now I know exactly how fucking good you sound when you stop fighting me.”

“Get fucked, you piece of shit.”

His laugh breaks apart with the static.

“That’s the spirit.”

More of him disappears, but his black eyes stay locked on mine.

“Enjoy pretending you still have boundaries, little echo.”

The room hums around us.

“Next time, I’ll show you how many of them I can fucking erase.”

Then the static takes him, and he’s gone.

The room falls quiet.

I stand there staring at the empty space where he was, trying very hard not to think about the fact that I just fucked an actual fucking monster and somehow managed to have the best sex of my life while doing it.

More concerning is the way my body still feels tuned to him. My skin remembers the current. My pulse jumps at the smallest electrical hum. Even now, with him gone, I swear I can feel a faint trace of static waiting underneath everything.

First he took my devices, my security, then my condo.

Tonight, I made the choice. I know that. I kissed him first. I wanted what happened afterward, and I refuse to let even Silas rewrite that part for me.

But the thought does absolutely fuck-all to settle the fear curling through my stomach.

Because I wanted control back.