“It’s a game. One person says ‘never have I ever,’ and they insert a random activity into the sentence, and the other people have to say that they have or they haven’t done that thing.”
“Never have I ever thought about kissing someone in a closet with a hostage situation going on a few hundred yards away.” Cabe was apparently hell-bent on proving that he could sabotage all of my game ideas.
“I have.” Noah laughed quietly.
“I have,” I said, somewhat grumpily. For some reason, they both went quiet. “What now?” I prompted.
“Wasn’t expecting you to admit it, pretty girl.”
It was several hours before any of our phones vibrated again, and I had been passed back and forth between Noah and Cabe so many times that I’d simply given up trying to sit with them, and was now crouched in the middle of the closet again.
“No,” Noah answered whoever had called him. “It’s not. It’s hell in here. No, nobody’s hurt. Because it just is, trust me. I’ll put you in a dark closet with the little devil one day and you’ll understand. Fine, here.” He handed the phone to me.
I put it to my ear, whispering, “Hello?”
“What the hell is Noah talking about?” Silas sounded frustrated.
“I don’t know.”
“Are you still under a desk?”
“No, we moved to the closet.” I pulled my knees a little tighter to my chest, feeling the ache in my spine grow worse.
“Do you still have your clothes on?” His tone was too even, too calculating.
“Yes.”
“And the others?”
“Yes.”
He was silent for a moment, and I felt a small pressure squeeze around my heart.
Finally, he let out a rough breath. “Keep in mind that I’ll force you to tell me everything they do to you; and whatever it is, I’ll do it twice over as soon as I have my hands on you. Those are the new rules. So be sure that you’re ready for whatever you do. Think about it before you do it. Understood?”
My tongue was stuck to the roof of my mouth. I couldn’t seem to find the words to reply to him. He was unerringly patient, waiting for his words to sink in and take hold, wrapping around me in a promise of something that I couldn’t quite understand. Or, at least my mind couldn’t quite understand it. There was an undercurrent to what he had said, and my body was the only part of me that seemed to be receiving the message. It heated immediately.
“U-understood,” I finally stuttered.
He hummed some sort of approval and told me to hand the phone to Cabe, which I did. I crouched there, blinking in the darkness until the curiosity finally got the better of me and I turned toward Noah, crawling over to him. He tensed as soon as I was before him, but he reached for my face, swiping a comforting touch along the curve of my jaw.
“What’s wrong?” he whispered.
I worried my lip, trying to force the words out before Cabe was off the phone. I had no such luck, however, because he hung up before I could even think of how to phrase my question.
“Seph?” Noah prompted gently.
I was suddenly too embarrassed to ask him, and I ducked my head forward even though he couldn’t see the blush staining my cheeks. I burrowed into the side of his neck, and his fingers threaded into my hair.
“Never mind,” I mumbled.
“Don’t be embarrassed.” He passed his hand down over my back before sweeping it back up to my hair again. “Ask me what you need to ask me.”
“How did you know I needed to ask you something?” My words were slightly garbled since I still hid inside the crook of his neck, but he must have heard me.
“You’re practically vibrating with a question. Ask, Seph.”
“It’s embarrassing.”
“I can handle it.”
I pulled back from his neck, but I still couldn’t face him, even in the darkness, so I rested my forehead in the same spot. “Do you remember when we went to the beach after Poison’s party?”
He stiffened, and I could even hear Cabe suck in a breath. Crap, that was right before Jayden had taken their memories.
“Yes.” Noah’s voice was hoarse, laced with trepidation, and I immediately wanted to soothe him.
“Do you remember…” I trailed off, fighting through my discomfort. “When you bit me?”
The tension drained out of him immediately, but a different energy now hung in the air. His hand dropped from the back of my head.
“Does this have something to do with Silas?” he asked.
I nodded, slightly, and Noah pulled against my knees, dragging me over his lap the same way Cabe had earlier, though his hands didn’t push into my shirt.