If you participated in the "pick your poison" game on my Facebook page, you probably helped pick this winning snippet chapter. :) The winning word was "ribbons," hehehe
***may contain minor spoilers***
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---Excerpt
“No.” That simple word shattered everything like a piano note played out of tune. “Things have changed, Eleanor. Should I tell you what it is that I desire from you now?”
My breath caught on that dangerous word. Desire.
“N-Nothing?”
“Perhaps ‘desire’ isn’t the right word,” he continued as if I’d never spoken. “Crave. Should I tell you what it is that I crave from you, Eleanor Gray?”
Suddenly he was in front of me. Icy fingers brushed my shoulder before skimming the cropped length of my hair, where he seized a curl and twisted it around his thumb.
“Fear,” he said simply before I had the chance to respond. “I want to know what terrifies you, and when I win our wager, you will tell me.”
“W-Wager?”
“Do try to keep up, Eleanor,” he scolded with a firm tug on my hair. “You owe me. Remember?”
“But it’s obvious.” I gulped. “You terrify me.”
“No.” His voice was flat, annoyed. “No, I do not. You may tell yourself that, but deep down … I merely amuse you.” His words echoed in my ears, even as he let me go and turned away.
He amused me? It was the same accusation he had made that night at the ball. A part of me flinched from the memory and I grasped for a change of subject.
“What do you mean by wager?” I wasn’t sure that I truly wanted to know the answer; a sinister voice inside my head was whispering tons of possible suggestions.
“What do you think?” Deliberately—as if making sure that I couldn’t help but notice—he reached into his pocket and withdrew something slender and black, like string.
A solid minute passed before I realized what it was; a length of black ribbon, only in his hand it might as well have been a metal chain.
“You claimed to be corrupted, but do you even know what true corruption is?” He wound the ribbon slowly between his fingers. “It’s total submission. No questions. No resistance. You relinquish everything in exchange for nothing more than …an escape.”
“But I’ve already given you everything—”
“No you haven’t.” Every word was as cold and hard as his expression. “Not everything.”
I didn’t know what was more confusing, the thought that I hadn’t already given him my body, blood, and soul? Or that he still wanted more?
“What else is there?”
“It is simple.” His breath ghosted my shoulder. I hadn’t even seen him move, but now he stood behind me. The moon taunted me through the window glass as his glacial chill ran down my spine.
He reached over my shoulder and I could only stare as he threaded a ribbon over the delicate bones of my wrist, as innocently as a makeshift bracelet.
Or a shackle.
“Control, Eleanor,” he said finally, lips brushing my earlobe. “I want you …to lose control.”
My mind was spinning. Every molecule of air in my chest congealed as I watched ebony silk rasp over my skin. Once. Twice. Again.
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Drain Me *SAMPLE CHAPTERS ONLY*
Romance"Red coated his lips, vibrant against that ivory skin. He was the devil incarnate, dressed impeccably in Armani, and I had never seen a sight more terrifying." _________________ When diagnosed with a fatal illness at the age of twenty six, Eleanor...
