Page 33 of Monster Made
I find her ass and pinch her hard. She squeaks, getting up on tiptoes to escape my grasp, but I keep a firm, punishing hold on her. “You’vealwaysbelonged to me.”
“Yes, yes, okay!” she cries out, and I let go of the flesh I’ve been torturing between my fingers before rubbing away the burn.
She sags against me, panting hard.
“How did he bully you?” I question, willing myself to focus on Ray instead of on my hard-on. Which is no easy matter.
I’m stroking her ass now, and she moans against my chest, relaxing into my arms. “Just normal stuff… calling me names… making fun of me… hitting me…”
She lets out a little whimper of regret as I abruptly pull her off me. “Hittingyou?”
“It’s nothing,” she says quickly. “Honestly, Quill, it’s nothing.”
“Hehityou?”
“I actually prefer that to the insults,” she says in a pleading voice probably meant to mollify me. “I would rather get a punch to the face than be mocked and insulted and—”
“Hepunchedyou?”
“Really, Quill. It was nothing. I handled it! I went up in front ofthe school and humiliated him!”
I don’t even bother to remind her that she didn’t do a thing but make an idiot of herself. I also don’t add that she put herself in more danger than she could possibly realize. Instead, I let her go and start to pace around the room, fisting my hands at my sides.
I’ve never been so furious. My chest is tight with rage, I’m seeing white, I don’t know how to handle the surge of emotion rising up in me.
It takes every particle of self-control not to punch the wall, not to destroy every single thing in this room, not to shake her and ask her why she kept that to herself.
Unless she’s used to it. Unless she’s gotten bullied far worse, and she’s used to it.
It feels like I’m going to explode from the sheer rage coursing through my veins.
The thought that someone laid a hand on the girl I’m in love with makes me spiral worse than I had thought myself capable of spiraling.
It makes me spiral even worse than realizing that she’s the girl I’m in love with.
In fact, that last thought doesn’t make me spiral at all. I never thought I was capable of love, and yet, nothing has ever felt so obvious or so right.
I’m in love with the girl I spent my entire life trying not to kill.
I’m in love with Piper Day.
Have I always been?
“Please, Quill,” the object of my strange emotion stammers. “Please don’t be angry with me.”
I turn to her, too choked up to manage to speak. I can’t even reassure her. She looks freaked out, far more freaked out than when I said I was going to kill Ray.
If there was any doubt about that, it’s gone. I’m going to fucking end his life, and I’m going to make it hurt.
But Piper is shaking like a leaf, and I force myself to rein in my emotions for her. I still can’t say a word, but I can hold her to me, rubbing her back until she’s calmed down.
The first words I’m able to speak are, “When did it happen?”
“A week ago,” she whispers. “A whole week ago. Sunday. Not yesterday, the Sunday before that. My bruises are gone. See? It doesn’t matter. It’s over.”
She misinterprets the look of sudden, violent relief on my face. “So we can just forget all about it, okay?” she continues. “My bruises are gone. I shouldn’t have gone up in front of the whole school and… and… made an ass of myself. Let’s just forget it happened. Okay? Can we forget about it?”
I kiss her to stop the flow of nervous words spilling out of her. Then I kiss her again, because it feels so fucking good.
