There was something crawling under her skin, begging to be released, to be allowed to run untamed, to want and take and have, to satisfy a craving for something more, even if giving in meant the ruin of everything she'd tried so hard to protect.

They say still waters run deep, but they have no idea how much of a lie the calmness is, because if Melissa allowed everything she felt to show--from inside herself, and from others--the world around her would dissolve into a emotional maelstrom.

It's different from her usual way of blowing off steam, curling up on a sofa in a place so far removed from the house she grew up in, with takeout and a movie and an ex-Marine who for all intents and purposes should be the "enemy," but Melissa's pretty sure she hasn't felt this comfortable and relaxed in a long time.

Each press of the needle into her skin is a reminder, and each mark a binding, tethering her more tightly into her own skin, countermanding the breathless rush that pulls her ever outward into other souls and other worlds.

Her skin itches, and her scars burn, and she wonders if she should just yield to the desperate yearning and give up trying to contain whatever power it is within her that's always crying out for more.

It was possible you could define her tugs this way and that on the captured threads of his emotional strings as manipulation, but Melissa figured it was fair enough given that: one, he knew she was doing it; two, it was her only way of leveling the playing field; and three, he'd been the one to bring the full realization of her skill out in her

Some people might call her craving for pain a kink, a deviance, an aberration, but she doesn't know how to explain to them that it's one of the only ways she's found to stay grounded in this world instead of being pulled into another.

Sex was always something she could take or leave--a nice enough distraction if you had the time, but who did--until he taught her what it meant to crave more than just a cover shot as famous and enlightening as the "Afghan Girl."

There's blood in the air the first time she lets him take her in his arms, and the shell she wears cracks around her to let something frightening free.

There's something else, something other, crawling inside her veins these days; something wild and feral, twisting around and pulling out the shadows in her soul as it draws her focus into the darker places behind the bright facade of buildings that kiss the sky; something that whispers secrets in her mind she never wanted to know, along with the ( Read more... )