Episode 5
1435 Words
ANNALISE
To say my eyes grew wide was a complete understatement.
My eyes nearly fell out of their sockets with the way it bulged.
A gap left my lips.
“You're very silly!” I cried out.
A smooth but deep laughter left his mouth as his head fell back.
“Don't be so shocked, sister,” he teased, coming closer.
I didn't not hear the mocking tone he had used to call me “sister.”
My hands shot out, to slap him, but his reflexes were fast enough.
What did I expect from an active hockey captain anyway?
His body shifted back with the speed of lightning, avoiding my blow.
“Well, well,” he grinned.
A sharp hiss left my mouth. I drew my hands back to my side.
“Watch what you say to me,” I warned him even as a familiar heat was crawling up the sides of my neck.
A dry scoff was his reply.
“It's just a bet,” he shrugged, “I don't know why you're acting like the world is about to end with this.”
My eyes rolled in their sockets.
“Shameless pervert,” I snapped. “You had better focus on the class, otherwise I'll just walk out of here and inform the teacher you spent the entire session trying to hit on me.”
His brows rose.
“Is that so?” He mocked, crossing his arms across his chest.
My betraying eyes couldn't help but notice the way his biceps flexed.
A warm lump rose in my throat.
I swallowed it down rather quickly before the intense heat that came with it would spread to the entirety of my body like an unwanted virus.
“Why’s your ears getting red sister?” He pressed, grinning ear to ear as if he were a little monkey.
Then, suddenly, his hands raised, his palms going to cover his mouth.
He was trying to create a look that would make him seem shocked.
“Or, is it that you also want this, sister?” He drawled, his hands shifting from his mouth.
My breath quickened.
But what I hated was how my body reacted to the words he let out.
I needed to shun him.
My body leaned in closer before my mind could be in sync with it.
“Make one stupid comment and I'll slap your down and out face so hard you would not be able to speak for the remainder of the week,” I promised through gritted teeth.
He made to speak.
“You wouldn't kn–”
I cut him off crudely.
“Dare me.”
The amount of anger and seriousness I was able to convey in that short sentence amazed even me.
His face morphed into one of mock surprise and subtle delight.
“Alright,” he raised his hands in the air in mock surrender. “The ship is all yours, captain. Steer it wherever you want, to your satisfaction.”
The way his voice dropped really low on the last sentence caused my breath to hitch quite loudly.
A knowing smirk curved the corner of his lips at the sound.
The bastard! He knew what he was doing. He f*****g knew!
My hands raised and slammed against the table surface in the rage that was slowly rising inside of me.
“f**k you!” I spat.
I stood abruptly, the chair almost toppling behind me.
“Wait,” he called. His hands shot out and grabbed mine around the wrist to hold me back, keep me from moving.
I tried to pull my hand from his grip and failed at that too.
“Let go of me. We're done here.”
He shook his head, his facial features morphed into a pleading look.
“Please, don't go. I’m so sorry,” he stressed. “I was just trying to get you to loosen up a bit,” he added.
“By making s****l jokes?”
He shook his head.
“Not my intention. Those jokes were meant to make you feel comfortable, with me, sister,” he explained.
For some reason, I found it hard to believe him despite the remorseful look sitting on his face.
And his next words proved to me why my intuition was right.
“Didn't know you'll get so uptight about this though,” he muttered lightly under his breath.
But I heard him.
Anger flared inside of me.
“I heard you.”
He grinned, looking up at me.
“He, he, he—I was just making stupid comments. Ignore it.”
I quirked a brow at him.
“Sit, sit,” he urged me. “I am ready to learn now, Sensei,” he added.
Reluctantly, I sat down and we continued the classes.
“Will you do your exercise and stop staring at me, Knox?” I asked him when I could no longer ignore his heated gaze fixed on me.
“I'm only wondering how on earth you manage to maintain that mass of hair,” he gestured with pursed lips towards my waist length hair.
My fingers ran through the parts of my hair within my reach.
“Love, and patience—somethimg I do not think you will ever have.”
His mouth fell open, possibly from shock at the unexpected jab.
“I- I was just-” he stuttered.
A soft laugh left my lips.
“Do your lessons and stop trying to play the observant brother.”
His eyes rolled.
“Your call.”
He went back to his exercise, and I watched him work.
Soon he was done, pushing the book across the table to me.
“Check it out.”
My eyes fixed on his book, going over the stuff he had written.
He had improved.
“Better, doesn’t mean you put in as much effort as you should.”
His head tilted.
“Stop putting your efforts into something not profitable–like your stupid jokes from earlier. It'll do you more good if you focus that energy on this and get better grades.”
He cleared his throat.
“What do you mean by that?”
I opened my mouth to explain but stilled the moment he moved.
He reached across and let his hand slide deliberately up my thigh.
I gasped.
“You mean this?”
There was a smug look on his face as he watched my face the whole time.
“Pervert!” I spat.
Reaching out, I slapped him.
It wasn't hard enough to move him.
But it landed with a sound that made me feel like I had done very well.
He sat back down with that infuriating smirk already curving his stupid lips.
"Feisty," he said.
I glared at him.
"Don't touch me again."
He leaned forward again in order to close the space between us.
His mouth was just hovering inches from mine, breaths mingling.
Our lips were not touching.
And he just remained there, just close enough for me to feel his breath.
He was close enough that my brain stopped producing useful thoughts and started producing only static.
My heart slammed against my ribs.
His eyes dropped to my mouth.
My breathing grew ragged.
The front door opened downstairs.
We both froze.
Voices floated up from the entrance hall.
It was his father's laugh.
My mother was speaking in the background too.
Knox pulled back slowly.
My chest was heaving.
His dark and unreadable emerald gaze remained on my flushed face.
My hands shot forward to grab my textbook which I shut so hard.
I didn't wait.
I didn't even say goodnight to my mother or his father—my new step father.
My heavily breathing ass rushed straight up the stairs and into my slightly cool bedroom.
The door slammed shut.
I pressed my back against the closed door.
Then I stood there in the dark, panting.
My chest was heaving.
Why wouldn't it when my heart was still beating too fast?
I hugged the text books to my chest.
My eyes stared at the ceiling.
Knox had bullied me for a year.
He had mocked my tics in front of crowds.
He had grabbed me by the throat in a school hallway and threatened me.
So I needed someone to explain to me, clearly and slowly, the exact reason my pulse was still racing as if I had just sprinted in a marathon?
And why the heat in my cheeks had nothing to do with the immense anger I should be feeling instead.
- Writer
