Sexting With A Vampire
Chapter 9

Stella

It's super awkward climbing out of Evan's car outside Ashley's mansion. We hadn't spoken a single word during the entire ride. Yet my heart is thudding and performing somersaults. Why does Evan has to be so intense?

I'm feeling ready to collapse. But I have to keep myself standing while picking up my bag and a few books from the seat. Evan watches me in silence, and right now, his eyes are purely blue, not a hint of that aggressive red. He looks at me, and I find myself wondering why.

I look back at him, and he breaks the silence.

"You..." Evan hesitates and stares at the wheel. "Take care, okay?"

Take care? Evan the cold-hearted vampire prince is actually talking to me? I blink before my lips curl into a shy smile. I guess this is Evan's attempt at trying to be friendly. "You too," I clear my throat. "Take care."

Evan doesn't meet my eyes, yet I feel happy that he hasn't hissed at me or ordered me to get the f**k out of his car. I close the door and walk up to the mansion with a smile.

Sadly, it falters when I find Ashley waiting for me inside. She doesn't give me a break. When I take off my shoes in the hallway, she watches me with crossed arms. A tiny vein has appeared in her perfect forehead, and her red-smeared lips are pouting. Her anger is unmistakable.

"You're late."

I take a deep breath and don't meet her eyes. "I'm sorry."

Ashley ignores my apology, and taps her fingernails along her arm impatiently. "Not only that, but Evan was forced to find you and escort you home. He texted me that Ryker and Joshua had given you trouble. Yet that is no reason to show up late-you have embarrassed me by forcing my fiance to drive you home, Stella."

"I'm sorry-"

"Stop talking, you little slut!"

My heart stops when I hear the hatred in her tone.

Dread settles in my stomach like lead. I can't move even as Ashley approaches me. It won't serve a purpose. My punishment will come, and fighting her will only make it worse.

So I don't even flinch when she grabs my chin and forces my back against the wall.

It hurts, but I won't blink.

I hold back the tears even as blood trickles down from the area where her sharp red-colored nails puncture my skin.

"Evan is the man I will marry. He is my future husband," Ashley narrows her eyes and hisses at me. Her eyes are bloodshot red, which tells volumes about her inner wrath. "Which means you can't keep embarrassing me in front of him. You're little stunt today? I bet Evan doesn't think I have enough control of you."

A soundless yelp gets swallowed when Ashley lifts me off the floor. It hurts my neck. I want to scream, groan and cry, fight her to the death, but I'm a packless werewolf.

I wouldn't win.

And even if I did, there is nowhere for me to go.

"Just to be clear, Stella, your only assignment is to talk to Evan and pretend to be me. You've done a good job of making him pick me up for school every day, but you're not supposed to hang out with him alone. He can never know your true identity. He is mine, you hear me?"

Since I can't nod in my current position, I hand her a smile while trying my hardest to keep breathing. There is a current of lightning traveling underneath my skin, wanting to fight back. But now isn't the time.

"Good," Ashley releases me, and I slump down on the floor. "I will head to bed to get my beauty sleep. Don't come home late again. You're my servant and should always be here when I ring the bell. If you pull this s**t again, then I won't hesitate to beat you up, do you understand?"

I nod.

"Great, you're free to go now, little miss useless. Go and read in your room, or cry in your bed. I don't care. I only need you to be breathing to be my slave. You don't have to be happy. That is how the world works, and how it will always be. You're my little servant and nothing will ever change."

I narrow my eyes but don't speak against Ashley. I know my place, but at the same time, I have a feeling things might change in the future. Raphael is in town-perhaps he will save me? And what about Evan?

Is he my friend or enemy?

A blush spreads over my face. Images of Evan f*****g me against the walls inside the school corridor comes to mind. I can't shove them out and take a deep breath.

It does nothing to calm down my hormones.

Tonight, I will be touching myself to the thoughts of Evan. Our races are enemies, and we might never be friends. Yet he will be my guilty pleasure, no matter how wrong and forbidden it is. Werewolves and vampires don't mate.

Yet it doesn't prevent me from being drawn to Evan.

He is hot.

So very beautiful.

I hurry to my room in the garage and close the door.

My breaths are coming out in cropped little pants. I take off my clothes and then lose all sense of reality in my blankets. And the face on my mind is the one belonging to Evan. Ashley's future husband.

***

The following day is as awkward as usual. I'm sitting in the backseat while Evan is driving Ashley and me to school.

Evan hasn't said a word, nor has he been given a chance-Ashley has been talking about her cheerleading buddies for the last few minutes. I'm now informed about who everybody is dating. "You should watch my practice sometime," Ashley smiles at Evan when she opens the car door. "It would be fun."

Evan doesn't reply. He squints at the sun, and my attention travels to his finger-he isn't wearing a daylight ring. Is he powerful enough to withstand the sunrays?