Page 157 of Stay Scared

Heat runs through me.

“How inconvenient for you.”

His thumb presses once into the inside of my wrist. “It is.”

I pull my hand free. Ash lets it happen. I touch the sealed mouth of the mask. His whole body goes tighter.

“You built this face so nobody could tell what you wanted.”

“I built it so wanting did not matter.”

“And now?”

Ash’s hand closes against my hip and stays there, every finger tense with the pull he leaves for me to choose. I can feel the restraint in his hand.

“Now you can tell when I’m lying about it.”

I kiss the sealed mouth. Plastic meets my lips. Ash makes a rough sound behind it. His hand digs harder into my hip while the other stays clenched at his side. I kiss the mask again, longer. His head follows when I pull away, barely, but enough.

“There you are.”

Ash’s grip tightens. “Do not say that like you found something.”

“I did.”

“You found a man standing in a room he built.”

“I found the part that wants to shove me onto that table.”

Silence fills the mask. I move closer until the front of his coat brushes me. Ash’s hand slides from my hip to the small of my back, hard and possessive. His fingers spread against me as though he can control the room again by controlling the distance between us. I let him pull me an inch, then plant my palm against his chest. He stops immediately. The halt is so violent I feel it through his body.

“You still want control.”

“Yes, I do.”

The answer is rough behind the mask.

“How much?”

“Enough to make this room feel like mine again.”

I look around. “It isn’t.”

His hand flexes at my back. “Not anymore.”

“Do you?”

Ash lowers his head until the mask almost touches my forehead. “I am trying very hard not to prove otherwise.”

That sends heat lower than anything polished could have.

I catch the strap behind his head. “Take it off.”

The clasps release, and Ash removes the mask. His face looks flushed beneath the harsh light, his eyes darker than before. I keep one hand on the back of his neck. The mask hangs from my other.

“Much better.”

“That is debatable.”