Stay With Me

Chapter One

I narrowed my eyes at his wrist, trying to figure out what was the most enjoyable thing to do with his hands. Bite them? Nah, I might be accused of being a vampire and likely be burned to death. However, if I break his fingers, he will howl in pain and cause more disturbance. Chop them off? Oh no, that would be too kind.

“Oh wait," he said while continuously spinning the book. Leaning his head to the side like someone is whispering to his ear, he added, "The floor said it wants to read. So…" he grinned. With a flick of his thick wrist, the book flew a few feet away and stumbled down the wooden floor.

The image of the book painfully bouncing off the floor replayed in my mind. I continued to stare at the book that was now lying face down, its pages open and some are even hideously folded.

The guy on the left spoke, "Hey, sweetie. Don’t stress too much. Your ass deserves better.” He reached out his hand to my butt and my reflex took over. My left hand shot up and grabbed his frail wrist. My hand was positioned above his, secured in a hyperflexing wristlock. It's not really a wristlock, I just did it as close as a wristlock can be. I stared directly at his eyes that look like they're going to fall out from his too-deep eyeballs.

“Are you reading that book or what?" I asked, gesturing to the book in his other hand.

“I— It’s…" he stammered while trying to break free of my grasp. I bent his wrist down some more, causing him to flinch. "Shit, take that damn book."

I grabbed the book and placed it on the table, in front of me. The biggest guy opened his mouth to speak but the guy whose wrist is in my hold shot him a warning look. The big guy obediently complied and shut his mouth. I guess this big-eyed guy is their leader, after all.

Without any expression etched in my face, I let my eyes travel to each one of theirs, lingering to the guy with his wrist in my hand. “Go back to your school. This is not the right place for you to mess up with.”

The guy huffed in annoyance and I let go of my hold. He stood up nodded his head toward the exit, and his minions followed him. But before they went out, the three of them scowled at me, but I was too tired to care.

I closed my eyes and breathed deeply, calming my nerves. Just then I remembered that there are other people in this library. Opening my eyes, I looked around to see if I had an audience. Luckily, most visitors and readers are in the front and there’s only one person in the bookshelves area. None of them seemed to notice the scene. My eyes stopped to look at Mrs. Worth who was in her librarian station, smiling gratefully at me. I returned her warm smile. After retrieving my book on my table, I walked to the fiction area of the bookshelves to return the two books. I approached the area, frowning slightly as I notice that something’s different. The location of the genres are not the way it used to be. So this was what Mrs. Worth told me about renovating the library. Rearranging the location of the books.

That's quite a renovation.

 I wandered around, checking the genre that was typed in paper labels above every shelf. The fiction section was located on the last three rows. After putting back the books, I walked back to the librarian’s desk.

But as I passed by the shelves, a book caught my attention. I picked it up, trying to decipher the meaning of its cover. It has a beautiful bright red satin ribbon floating on the cover, contrasting the black background. The ribbon is tied tightly to a wrist. It was just a hand and the wrist that's in the cover, but I'm sure it belongs to a woman. The hand seemed so delicate.

I was intrigued by the book, so I looked up to see the genre of this, posted above the shelf. And then I saw it, written in big, bold letters:

Erotic Literature. For mature readers only.