The Gravedigger by Kacie Clement (short books for teens .TXT) 📕

my growing smile. Or the wetness that seeps between my legs. He pulls away, taking in the scent of what’s dripping just for him.

“Answer me,” he hisses, tightening his grip on my hair.

“Yes, sir,” I purr.

Joss tosses the other room a glance. None of them bother to lift their heads from their game. Joss has always taken what he wants from the mercenaries here. It’s what we understand when we sign up. Partially, because I am a Purist, Joss waited many years for me to mature before he ever laid a hand on me. He prowled at a distance, not bothering to get to know me until days after my eighteenth birthday.

It had bothered me then. Someone else had taught me to fight. Someone else had helped me train my Human eyes to catch the movement of things that anyone else would not have noticed. I’d always been put under someone else’s charge to learn and grow into a valuable mercenary. But everyone knew Joss typically does that job. I’d thought he hated me. Turns out he just prefers his women to be of age, whatever their race.

Nearly a week after my eighteenth birthday, I’d come to know exactly what Joss wanted from me. I’d been helplessly addicted ever since.

My feet keep up evenly with the tilt of my upper body as Joss pulls me by my hair into the closest room. His office. He doesn’t mess with the light as he rushes us in and slams the door behind us. The force of it blows my cloak around my back. I drop my belt as gently as I can against the floor.

With one pointed nail, Joss pulls at the string around my throat. Before the fabric of the cloak hits the ground, his lips press into mine with such force my teeth ache. He tilts my head, opening my kisses to him. Like sugar, his kisses taste sweet.

He rips his mouth from mine, pulling me across the room. I hear him hum as I gasp and stumble behind him. In the dark all I can do is touch, feel, listen and try to remember the layout of the room. His immortal Vampire eyes do not need the light, but my much too Human eyes do. He knows I’m blind and he relishes in that fact.

The grip he holds on my hair disappears as he stops. I wobble on my toes for less than a second before his fingers wrap around my throat, pulling me in for another kiss. In comparison, his kiss from moments ago felt almost gentle. This kiss, this kiss is primal. His teeth dig into my lip, piercing the flesh. Narrowly, he avoids my scar. I bleed for him. When he swipes his tongue over my lip and tangles it with mine, my body unwinds.

Here with Joss, I don’t need to make any decisions. I don’t need to hold onto my protective exterior. I don’t need to pretend to care or not to care. I just am. And that’s enough.

“You’ve been with someone else while I was gone?” he says against me. Blood drips down my chin and he chases it with his tongue. The heat of his words as they travel against my skin sends a shiver down to my core.

I had. I hadn’t been willing to wait for him to return for his job that lasted more than a couple weeks. It was a frenzied fling in a restaurant’s bathroom, not too unlike the one I’d mistakenly killed in tonight. The man had been as handsome as a Hybrid could be, but he was too gentle with me. And Joss and I are not necessarily exclusive.

“Yes.”

“You’ll be punished for it.” He squeezes my throat harder, breath struggling to reach my lungs. “I can still smell him on you.”

“Yes,” I reply, but it’s just a wheezing gasp for air.

My body jolts forward and I land face down on what I realize is his solid oak desk. Both palms slap against the wood, making my hands burn with the force. Joss’ body is on me, his teeth sinking into my neck. The room seems to shift as his jaw works against the open wound. He poisons my mind with each sip he takes. Pleasure, a blissful euphoria that relaxes every muscle in my body follows.

Both his arms wrap around me, his hands trailing down the front of my body over my breasts and down to my pants. He unbuttons them. The burning sensation of his teeth comes free from my throat only so he can push my pants down my legs.

Using his knees, he nudges my legs further apart. Hot against my skin, he slips a hand under my top, pushing against my back until my face is pressed against his desk, ass lifted over the edge. The smooth plain of his palm is soft against my skin. For now.

“Had you waited I would have rewarded you,” he growls through his teeth. The sound hums against my flesh. “Now I can’t give you any pleasure, only pain. I’ll use your body as my own fuck toy.”

I close my eyes, welcoming the idea. Pain isn’t foreign to me. Pain revives me. Pain reminds me to take my next breath.

Give it to me. Give it to me. My thoughts chant.

With his free hand, he reaches for his pants, undoing the button and tugging the zipper down. His belt jingles and then whispers as he pulls it from its loops. “Nilsa, I’m going to hurt you and you aren’t going to make a damn noise. Do you understand?”

“Yes, sir.” I swallow.

“Say it again.”

“Yes. Sir.”

A stinging searing line slashes across my ass and partly up my back. The force surges me forward, banging my knees against the desk. My hands reach for anything to hold onto, sending pens and paper rolling or drifting off