Page 17 of Trust the Fall
I KNEW YOU WERE TROUBLE
I stare like a pathetic teenager completely entranced by some gorgeous rock star. Awestruck and useless. It makes me instantly livid, because I know this isn’t about the man in front of me, but this Godforsaken place. It plays tricks with the senses.
River’s brows both lift in amusement, and a close-mouthed grin spreads across his lush lips.
Damn it... he’s trouble.I’min trouble.
Mix him in with this lust-inducing Hell pit, and I’m on a one-way train to Doomsville, Population: Me.
The image of him on his knees at my feet floats through my mind and my cheeks warm just considering what he could’ve done. WhatNoldacould’ve done. At that moment, I would’ve allowed it. I begged for it.
I have to get out of here.
River coughs, smothering it with a fist.
His boyish grin shows he’s finding too much humor in all of this.
“It isn’t funny!” I cry, but it sounds more like whining than anything else. It grates on my ears and prickles my already frayed nerves.
“Sorry,” he practically chokes. “I forgot about how... swaying Hell can be. Especially for the likes of you.”
I bristle at his insinuation that I’m weak because I’m fallen. “For the likes of me?” I glower.
“You know what I mean.” He says it so offhandedly that I have to force my jaw to unclench before I break off a tooth.
“I most certainly donotknow what you mean.”
He motions around the room. “You’re not used to this place. I am. It’s just like adjusting to Earth’s emotional pulls.” He shrugs. “Eventually you get used to it. Until you learn to temper its effects, you’ll act like... well, this.” He gestures with his hands toward me, and I have the urge to dislodge both arms from his body and beat him with them.
A deep rumble bubbles from my chest and out through my clenched jaw. He knows he’s hot, and my reaction to him only gives him more reasons to gloat. It pisses me off because he also knows this place is making it ten times harder for me to ignore the fact, yet he’s still teasing me about it.
How damn embarrassing that I’m stepping right into Hell’s snare. Me—an angel. I might be fallen, but I’m no less angelic.
You have no power here.
I growl again, and this time, River throws his head back and laughs.
Damn him and damn this place.
“Too late for that, princess. That ship sailed millennia ago.”
“Are you reading my mind?” I snap.
“Nope. You said it out loud. Would you like an up close and personal demonstration on just how damned I am?” He walks toward me with a swagger that’s lethal to a woman’s willpower. “I could help you with your current problem.”
His words curl intimately around my body, warming me from the inside out. My legs clench together tightly, and a harsh breath escapes my parted lips.
“You... animal,” I hiss. “Youarereading my mind.”
River shakes his head. “I’m reading your body. It’s pretty clear how you’re feeling.” His eyes glimmer with something like amusement. “Who exactly has you so paranoid where mind reading is concerned? They did quite the number on you.”
I hate him.
River halts his approach, sucking his bottom lip into his mouth trying not to laugh, likely realizing how on fire I am and how badly I want to injure him.
I don’t want him or anyone else to see me like this. It’s humiliating.
Nobody here is worth my attention. Not even a being who doesn’t belong to Heaven or Hell.Keep telling yourself this.