I could feel tears burning my eyes every time I blinked, but I refused to let them fall. Preston didn’t deserve them. He could do whatever he wanted, and I would die without giving him a single drop of my misery.
“Aww, Little Bird, look on the bright side.” Preston leaned forward and braced his palms on the bed beside my head. “Maybe you’ll bore me, and I’ll kill you quickly.” The smile that washed across his face sent a chill through my bones. “But your family will be alive.”
I no longer cared that he was straddling me or that he had a gun. The only thing I cared about was getting away. I swung my arms, smacking Preston in the face and chest while wriggling with all my might to get out from under his heavy body.
My fight lasted point two seconds.
Preston’s large palm cracked off the side of my face, bringing my struggles to a grinding halt with one stinging blow. A loud ringing stilled my entire body. My cheek was on fire, and my sight was hazy, but I still held back my tears.
“That was for your own good.” He waved his finger in front of my face as if he was scolding a child. “If you kept that shit up, your parents would’ve come in here, and I’d have had to kill them. And you don’t want that, do you?”
Didn’t I?
I lay there, tasting the coppery tinge of my blood while staring at the teddy bears on my faded wallpaper. My father put that wallpaper up when I was five and obsessed with Teddy Ruxpin. I hated coming in here and seeing it. It was like the walls decorating my bedroom were a constant reminder that my parents thought I was a naïve child.
I wasn’t that naïve. I knew the truth about who my parents were. Just like I knew if Preston did kill them, they’d deserve it. So, why was I wondering if that wallpaper would be the last thing I had of my father?
“Answer me, Marnie,” Preston demanded. “Do you want that?”
“No,” I whispered because my sister loved them.
“That’s a good girl.”
The next thing I knew, he was folded over me, petting my head. It was weird laying there in the moonlight while the devil stroked my hair. I could hear his fingers dragging through my brown locks. It mingled with the sound of his breaths in this odd rhythmic chorus that, despite my fear, had my body relaxing.
Then he spoke again.
“You are a good girl, aren’t you, Marnie? Not a slut like your sister.” His lips grazed across the shell of my ear, sending a cold chill down my spine. “If you’ve so much as touched another cock our deal ends here.”
I knew what he meant. Just like I knew if I lied, the deal wouldn’t end with him simply walking out and leaving me alone.
“I’m a virgin.” I’d never been so happy to say those words in my life.
“Good.”
Preston speared his fingers into my hair and yanked my head back, dragging his nose up the side of my neck. I closed my eyes as he inhaled deeply, then released a feral growl.
“You have no idea how hard it is not to fuck you right now. Tell me, Little Bird, will you lie down and take my cock?” His tongue reached out, pulling my earlobe between his teeth. “Or will you fight me?”
I twisted my neck to glare back at him and winced at the burn tearing across my scalp. “Don’t worry. I’ll have lots of experience by the time I graduate.”
My sister made me shake my head at least twice a day. But if acting like her saved me from the clutches of darkness, I’d date every guy in school.
All hint of amusement washed off Preston’s face.
“Wrong answer.” His grip slid from my hair to my neck in the blink of an eye. “Consider yourself in a cage Little Bird, and if your finger so much as peeks through the bars, I’ll punish your sister.”
Fear welled up in my throat, forming a lump of dread I couldn’t swallow past his tightening grip. Trina and I might not always see eye to eye, but I’d do anything to keep her safe.
Last year, some guy raped her while she was passed out at a party. If I could’ve traded places with her, I would’ve. Even when she told me to drop it, I exposed the asshole in the school paper. She still hadn’t forgiven me for that.
She probably wouldn’t forgive me for this either.
“I’ll be good,” I croaked out through my constricted airway.
“Prove it.” Preston eased his grip and sat up. “Kiss me.”
Time stopped, and I was unable to move.
