Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 85490 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 427(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85490 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 427(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
I stare at him and try to imagine it. “That must’ve been incredible.”
He nods slowly. “It was, but it was also stupid.”
“Did you ever win?”
“Every time. I went out until my friends had to beg me to come back over. They’d haul me up even when I told them not to.”
“You must’ve really trusted them.”
He shrugs, tilting his jackal-face from side to side. “I wouldn’t say that. I just liked the view, and I’m a competitive person.”
“Would you do it now?” I ask him, the idea strangely appealing. “If I went to the edge, would you hold me down?”
He turns and stares at me. His eyes are gray, a strange light blue, almost like a slate. It’s disconcerting, the contrast between that color and the deep black and gold of his jackal face.
“You don’t know me. Are you sure you want to take that risk?”
No. Yes. Absolutely fucking not. But more than anything in the world. My heart’s skipping beats at the idea of looking out over the city backward, hanging over nothing.
“Yes. I am.” I walk away from him, over to the edge, and get down on my knees. I feel a moment of dizziness rush over my head as I look down. Cage is a tall building, even though it’s only three floors, with enormous ceilings. Falling from this height onto the concrete parking lot below would definitely kill me.
I hear Jackal coming up behind me. He puts his hands on my shoulders and I nearly scream. I haven’t been touched by a stranger in a very, very long time, but for some reason his fingers send an excited shiver down my spine. Maybe it’s how vulnerable I am, or maybe it’s the masks, but either way I don’t recoil from him the way I might’ve under any other circumstances.
It’s strange and intoxicating, being able to be touched for the first time since I was a teenager.
“On your back, little demon,” he whispers.
And, god, I obey him. I turn around, wriggling my hips, and lie down so I’m staring up at the stars. I feel the edge of the building at the top of my head, my ram horns jutting out into the space behind me. His knees rest on my ankles and his hands touch my legs, and I’m aware that my tight bodycon dress is pulled up to my hips, but I don’t care.
I wriggle backward. My head goes over first and Jackal shifts his weight and his hands until they’re on my hips, pushing me down. I pause for a moment as vertigo hits me.
“You can stop,” he says gently. There’s no malice or judgment. “You don’t have to keep going.”
I don’t listen. I shimmy forward, my head spinning at the mind-bending view. The buildings, the stars, the sky, and the feeling of gravity trying to pull me down. My core activates and I hold myself up as I go further, my shoulders over, the middle of my back. The edge scrapes my spine, but I don’t care.
I see the entire universe above me. The tops of the buildings are at the bottom of my view, but the stars, god, all the stars, even though there are so few in the city sky at night, they still feel infinite. Skyscrapers are nothing, entire blocks are nothing, the highway system and the arteries of this entire country are nothing compared to the gaps between those stars, and I feel like nothing, like a piece of dust floating in an empty room, like an atom at the tip of a microscopic hair.
Jackal’s weight is on my middle. His hands grip my hips and the snout of his mask presses against my belly. My bare thighs are wrapped around him, and my core is pressed into his chest, and I’m pulsing with excitement, both erotic and existential. I feel more alive than I’ve ever felt before, my life in the hands of this total stranger, the weight of the galaxy pressing down on my brain, making me go haywire.
I start to move out further, but Jackal stops me. “No more.”
“You went further,” I say, gasping. My mask starts to slip and I have to hold it in place. Hair falls free, dangling over the drop. “Don’t lie to me.”
“I had at least five people making sure I didn’t fall. I’d be very unhappy if you dropped to your death, little demon.”
“Then make sure I don’t.” I start to shimmy again, but he holds me tight.
“No more.” His voice isn’t afraid, but there’s a firm note in his tone. Like this isn’t a command anymore. “Stay right there for as long as you want. I’ll hold you. But no more.”
I sit up, abs working hard, and I look at him, suspended in the air. He’s staring at me, face unreadable behind the mask, gray eyes shining in the city light behind us. I’m tempted to tell him off, to make him let me go. I could drop fast and hard and for a few seconds, I’d be happy.