Page 31 of Devious Knight
That must be it, but I’m stuck here in a nightmare and I have to find my way out.
I weigh my options. Should I run away and leave my stuff? I could do without my bag, but my phone has all my pictures, notes for art projects and contacts.
It has the one contact I have in England. The art professor I met at the gallery when I was fifteen. Her name is Charlotte. She's now head of the art department at Cambridge University, and her boyfriend is now her husband.
“Maybe it started just like this,” Dmitri taunts. “I think that caretaker met the student here on a night like this.”
“I think you’re right,” Logan agrees. “I think he watched and waited for the right moment to strike.” On seeing my distress, he waves my phone in the air.
“Why are you doing this?”
“I actually think he planned to meet her here.” Dmitri ignores me.
No one ever confirmed whether the student was a guy or a girl. The idea that it could be a girl seems to interest Logan.
“Maybe he was in love with her, and when she told him she couldn’t be with him, he slashed her throat.” Logan focuses on me and comes closer. As close as Dmitri was. “What do you think, Isabelle?”
He walks me back until I crash into Dmitri again, then the two of them have me sandwiched. My blood heats as I realize I’m pressed up between their hard bodies. If anyone were to see us like this out here in this deserted area, there’s no way they would think this wasn’t sexual.
The shocker would be seeing me. Me, Goody Two-shoes Isabelle, looking like she’s about to have a threesome with two of the most popular guys on campus
“Tell us what you think, Isabelle.” Dmitri’s lips are at my ear. “Do you believe the caretaker killed the girl because she broke his heart?”
My nerves are on fire and I’ve lost control of my heart. It’s beating out of cadence like a broken engine on a truck that won’t start properly.
“Give me my things and let me go.” My voice is whisper-soft and careful.
Logan answers by coming close again. He brushes his lips over my nose. “Answer the question, Lolita.”
I glare back at him, hating the nickname more than ever.
“How do you know it was a girl?” I stutter. “Maybe it was a guy. Maybe the caretaker was just crazy and he felt like killing.”
Logan laughs. “Listen to you talk. It’s always the sweet ones who surprise you most.”
He moves back and the space frees me from the awkward position.
I back away from them, but they follow me.
I take another few steps backward until I’m pressed flush against another hard wall of a chest that wasn’t there before.
I freeze, knowing who this has to be.
Kade.
One large arm slips across my chest, holding me in place. At his touch every nerve in my body stands on end, as if I’ve been pumped with electricity. Then a thrill races through me from the top of my head down past my toes.
An unwelcome blush follows in its wake and suddenly I’m so hot I can’t catch my breath.
With his free hand he creeps his fingers along my hip, feeling the bare skin under my sweater.
He moves to my ear, his hot breath tickling my skin and I feel him everywhere.
How many times have I imagined him touching me? Now that he is, and I know he hates me, I should want nothing more than to run far away, out of his grasp.
Except the thrill still moving through my body tells me that I’m secretly excited to have him so close.
The uncanny, fucked-up thought paralyses me further, spreading heat all over me.