Filed to story: Eat You Alive Novel by Eden O’Neill Read Online Free >>
An untamed rage lined his chiseled features, and I didn’t understand it. “Ares—”
“It’sWolf, Red,” he growled, sounding like an actual wolf. He looked it too. The charged gleam that hit his eyes was nothing but deadly, his teeth showing below it. “Cry it out. Breathe it…”
He got so close once he said that, a soft heat over my jaw, and I grabbed his hand on my throat. “What are you doing?”
The words came out struggled, strained. His crazy-ass friends had already done a number on me, and with this now, I barely had a voice. I kicked, and he grabbed my thigh, squeezing that too.
“Careful, Fawn,” he crooned, and when his breath touched my ear this time, I smelled him. His prickly jaw hinted with spice. He didn’t smell like sex, but something sharper, sweeter. “Because those psychos? I make look like kid shit.”
As if to prove the point, he parted my legs, his hand trailing heat up my thigh. My hip thrust because he had my leg, and all that made him do was chuckle.
“You were so quick to think I forgave you,” he said, coming forward. He was inches away from my face, his large body craned over me. He studied me. “Like you weren’t completely opportunist as shit and deserved that.”
“I never asked you to come between me and that ref,” I gritted, snapping. He had me in a completely vulnerable position, but I didn’t give a shit. He was acting like a bully, a monster. I snarled. “So, I’d be careful,Wolf, because your fragile masculinity is showing.”
The wrong thing to say, and his fingers literally dug into my neck when his stark-white teeth flashed. His lip curled above, beautifully full lips he used to spout venom, lies. He completely bullshitted me this morning in the conference room. He tilted my head. “I can break you, Red. A fuckingphone call,and I can end your entire world as you know it.”
He kept calling me that,Red, and how original. I wondered if I had green hair, he’d call meGreen.“What are you talking about?”
He didn’t tell me at first, scanning my face. He got really close, and I made out every varying shade in his dark eyes. He even had freckles, darker than mine, but they blended into the rich tone of his skin. Ares “Wolf” Mallick was a beautiful guy.
Too bad he was an asshole.
“Your internship, baby,” he said, and when I blinked, he grinned. “That’s right. Your pretty little internship, and hell, even your enrollment at Pembroke. Gone at the snap of my fucking fingers.”
I blanched. “You can’t do that.”
“Can’t I?” He wasn’t even holding me now, his hands on the door, his long reach crowding me. I really could smell him now, the thick aroma rich with a hint of smoke.
I wet my lips and God… dammit. I hadn’t smoked weed in a while, but I missed it. Ineededit most days, but I couldn’t take the chance. I’d been clean of anything since I was fifteen.
I scanned Wolf’s eyes. “So what? You call your daddy? Blackball me?” I recalled his father being friends with Kurt, and Wolf had said his dad donated money to the school. I lifted my head. “Real big of you.”
I was acting braver than I really was, making myself. I refused to let this man-child see any weakness.
Even if I was dying inside.
Even if I killed…bledat even the thought of losing either. I couldn’t lose either and especially that internship.
He had to be bluffing. Had to.
He didn’t look like it, his smile shifting into a smirk. It was arrogant, devious, and how stupid I’d been for falling for hisburying the hatchetshit before. It’d been too easy, and I’d given this guy way too much credit. His head cocked. “Wouldn’t even need to call him,” he said, peering over my face again. He did that a lot. Like he was looking for something, digging. He leaned forward. “After all, a background check would do the job just fine.”
My heart stopped, and he became translucent before me. He blurred, and I jumped when he touched my face.
His chuckle followed.
He drew a lazy line down my cheek, his thumb brushing over my lower lip. It came away red, my lipstick.
“Thought that’d get your attention,” he said, smearing my mouth more. I moved my head away, and he jerked it back with my hair. Tears pricked my eyes, but all that did was make him grip it more.
“Stop it.” I tried not to cry, beg, and I think his threats hurt more than his actual hand in my hair. I shook my head. “I’m sorry for what happened. I’m sorry if I hurt you but,please,you don’t need to—”
He got my jaw, his mouth hovering over mine. He dampened lips, and when he did, my eyes flashed. He looked like he’d kiss me.
Instead, he laughed.
All too quick he let go, his laughter full as if taunting me with the very thought. I gazed away, and he reached into his pocket.
“I’ll be texting you a time and a place,” he said, acting completely normal as if he hadn’t just threatened me. His thumbs tapped his phone casually. “Get your phone out.”
I did despite myself. He asked for my number, and though I didn’t want to give it, I did.
I wasn’t sure I had a choice.
He had so much power,informationthat could ruin my world. This school and that internship I’d been working toward for longer than this guy probably even had any goals for himself beyond masturbation and smoking weed. They were goals I was fighting for. Goals I needed.
Goals we needed.
I saw my life flash before my eyes when his line flashed on my screen. I didn’t answer but didn’t have to when he hung up.
“And when I do,” he said, continuing on with his earlier thoughts. Dark eyebrows narrowed. “You are to show. I don’t care where you are. I don’t care what you’re doing. You show up, and once you do, you might have an actual shot at me not making your life the complete and utter hell you deserve.” His expression chilled. “Because I haven’t forgotten about that shit you pulled. I won’t, but I might have a way to look past it.” He folded his arms. “I suppose that’s up to you. You show up, and when you do, we talk about a way you can repay your debt.”
He made it sound like I owed him something.
I supposed in his sick mind I did, and his friends were right about him. This guy was nothing but an animal, a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
And I’d somehow become his next kill.