Page 40 of Merciless

I stare at his hand, my pulse thundering in my ears.

I hate this. I hate that he’s touching me and I’m eating it up like it’s the first meal I’ve had in years.

“I can’t help you if you don’t tell me,” Elijah murmurs. He strokes my bare skin with his thumb.

Swallowing hard, I lift my gaze to his face. “There’s nothing to tell.”

Why am I protecting my bully?

It would be so easy to say that someone broke into my dorm and made me suck his dick. That he’s been texting me for a long time now, each threat becoming worse than the last.

The disappointment in Elijah’s gaze is enough to make me wilt even more.

It’s hard enough being back on campus where the bully is. Disappointing Elijah is like the nail in the coffin, and I don’t understand why. He’s nothing to me. His approval holds no weight. And yet, I don’t want him to stop touching me. I don’t want to let him down.

I am truly and utterly messed up in the head. My moral compass is off-kilter.

Elijah squeezes my thigh one last time before he ends the not-so-innocent touch. “I’ll walk you to your dorm.”

I nod and get out of the car with him. The walk through campus is silent between us. I expect him to touch the small of my back to guide me forward, but he doesn’t do that. He keeps his hands to himself, depriving me of the good, funny feeling.

Why am I acting like this? I want nothing to do with him, especially anything romantic.

It’s lust. It has to be.

I hold my head high and watch the people we pass, fully expecting them to yell at me or chase me down. It never comes. They glance at us, then move on.

Elijah was right about keeping me safe. His popularity acts as a protective bubble for me.

We stop outside my dorm room, and I pull my key out to unlock the door.

“Thank you,” I mutter. I slip inside and go to close the door.

Elijah catches it and fills the doorway. I jerk my gaze up to his face and inch backward as he crowds my space.

“Remember, eleven sharp by my car.” He rests his hands on my waist and leans down as if he’s about to kiss me.

I hold my breath, my eyelashes fluttering shut. I wait for his lips to meet mine. Instead, he gathers my hair in his fist and gently jerks my head to the side to expose my throat to him. I suck in a breath as he kisses below my ear.

Heat floods my body, and I shudder.

It could have been an innocent kiss. But nothing about Elijah is innocent. The rumors about him being a playboy can’t be for nothing. He knows the right buttons to push, and he’s already getting beneath my skin.

I’m a fool for falling for it, and yet I can’t help it.

His lips curve against my skin. He knows that he captured me.

“I’ll see you later, birdie,” he whispers into my ear.

I release a shaky breath as he backs away and leaves me standing alone in my room.

Now that he’s gone, my head clears the lust haze. That’s what it is. Lust. For my fucking stepbrother.

Fuck me, he played me. I promised myself that I wouldn’t get tangled up with a man. And here I am, with Elijah coiled around me like a snake.

And I want more.

CHAPTER 16