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I swallow as he caps the empty bottle and tosses it down the hall. I start as it hits the wood floor and rolls, emphasizing how quiet it is up here. “I think you’ve had enough,” I say gently.
“Have I?” He closes the distance between us, grabbing my shoulders and forcing me back against the wall.
I reach for the first lifeline I can think of. “Brittany has been following you around all night. She’s going to come looking for you.”
He smirks. “I could tell her to hold your fucking ankles for me and she would. I don’t give a fuck if she comes looking for me.”
I hate that my gaze drifts to his lips, but I find it lingering there, looking for any hint of change to the color. I didn’t try out the lipstick myself and I haven’t been paying attention to other people. I don’t know how dramatically the color changes when you kiss someone—I suppose it depends on the kiss—but I know Brittany is wearing yellow, just like me. Landon grabbed a blue, so if he kissed her tonight, there should be at least a hint of green, right?
It’s too dark in the hall to tell for sure, but I think his lips are blue.
Unconsciously, I lick mine and look up at him.
There’s heat in his eyes and alcohol in his veins, and that is a lethal combination.
I know I have to get him back downstairs before this can go bad, but my mind isn’t clear enough to think of a way out.
This feels too much like sophomore year when he got me alone in a dark room, but it feels different, too.
We’re older now.
And he has leverage he didn’t have back then.
I didn’t even know hewantedleverage over me back then. I didn’t know anything, and now I know more than I want to.
“We have to go downstairs,” I say. It’s not clever or compelling. It’s just what needs to happen.
Of course, Landon doesn’t have any fucks to give about what needs to happen.
Rather than see reason and follow me back downstairs, he looks me over slowly, like he has all the time in the world. He grabs the hem of my dress and I gasp as he drags it up, the cool air hitting my exposed thighs.
“Landon, stop.” I push the dress back down. He lets me, but only so he can grab my wrists and force them together above my head.
“Landon! I swear to god.”
He holds my wrists with one hand, then uses the other to lift my dress again.
“Don’tdothis. I don’t want to have to…”
“What? Tell on me?” He smirks, leaning forward and using his muscular body to pin me against the wall. His hand roams over my hip, then teases the waistband of my panties before he lets a threatening finger push past the band to touch my bare flesh. “I don’t think you will, Parker. I think you like my dad. Not in a sick way, hopefully, but you definitely like the guy more than I fucking do. I can see it every time you talk to him. You get this excited glint in your eyes, like you’ve found a kindred spirit. You’re weird, so our world is probably a little lonely for you, huh? My dad’s an academic, too. Driven. Focused. You probably relate to him.” He lets go of my hip so he can drag his fingers along the curve of my jawline. “That’s all it is, right? You don’t have some kind of crush?”
“That’s sick,” I whisper, turning my face away from his touch.
He shrugs, forcing my gaze back to him and leaning in to kiss my jaw. “So, if you wantmydad to be your new daddy, you can’t do the thing that would break the family up. You can’t tell on me because then your mom will make you guys move out.” His lips move toward my neck. “I can do any-fucking-thing I want to you, Parker, and you’re not going to say a word. You’re my favorite toy, and no one’s going to stop me from playing with you.”
“I am not yourtoy.” I jerk my face away again, but this time when he grabs my jaw, it hurts enough to startle me.
“You’re whatever the fuck I tell you to be.”
I shake my head, my heart pounding as I look up at him. “This is not how this is going to work. You’re right, I do want to keep the family together, but…”
You don’t have to be part of it.
He doesn’t know that Hayden said he would kickLandonout if Landon couldn’t respect boundaries and tried to hurt me again.
I can’t bring myself to tell him, either.
I’ve known since we agreed to move in it was a card I could keep in my back pocket for emergencies, but this feels like an emergency, and I can’t bring myself to play it.
