Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 82199 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 411(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82199 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 411(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
He grunted and backed up. “Doesn’t matter.” Stepping aside, he pointed at the open door. “Ladies first.”
Undiluted fear injected into my veins. “Where...where are you taking me?”
His forehead furrowed, and he shook his head as if his patience regarding me had run out. “You wanted sunlight. I’m giving you sunlight.”
I didn’t move. “You’re taking me to a bedroom upstairs?”
He swallowed, his throat moving with sinew and power. “No.”
“To the library?”
“No.”
“To the living room?”
“No.” Crossing his arms, his nostrils flared. “Move. We’re running out of time.”
Goosebumps prickled and stayed on high alert as his biceps bunched. He attempted to look unruffled and unaffected, but he’d forgotten I could read him well. And beneath his masked deception lurked the truth. The jumpy adrenaline. The twitchy need to get whatever this was over and done with.
He hasn’t asked for a sexual favor. He hasn’t given me the option to serve and survive another day.
More ice layered the frost already on my skin.
He’s finished with this.
With me.
How I knew, I didn’t fully understand. Was it in the torment in his eyes? Was it in the tension in his body? He’d changed, and there was no hint of the man who’d fed me, almost kissed me, and sometimes showed a heartbreakingly vulnerable pain buried deep within.
This man was locked and chained. His silvery scars seemed to shimmer in the light, bringing forth persecution instead of pleasure.
I backed against the wall. “On second thought, I’ll stay. Tomorrow, once you’ve gotten some sleep, perhaps—”
“Not tomorrow. Today.” He snapped his fingers. “Come.” Striding toward me, he bared his teeth. “You only have two choices. Walk out of here by your own free will or be dragged out by your hair.”
I froze. My eyes tangled with his, searching, seeking, desperately trying to understand where our little deal had gone wrong. “Did I do something to offend you?”
He chuckled blackly. “Of course. Your very presence offends me.”
I flinched. “Yet you came quite happily by my hand...and my mouth.”
His eyes turned dark; his brow lowered. “Two mistakes I’m about to rectify.”
“I’m not a mistake. I’m real. I’m human. I have a heartbeat. A home. A family!”
“And I used to have those things.” He shrugged. “Didn’t stop bad things from happening to me.” Reaching out, he grabbed my wrist.
I snatched it out of his hold. “Don’t touch me.”
“Then do as I say.” Stepping away, he pointed at the door again. “Move.”
I moved.
If only to give myself time to figure out what the hell had happened.
Keep him talking.
As I stepped from the cell, my back crawled as he followed on my heels. Glancing over my shoulder, I asked, “Where did you go before? I was prepared to do what you asked. I ate the food you gave me and I’m grateful. I’m grateful enough that I would’ve pleasured you—”
“Enough.” He winced and worked out his bruised and bleeding hand.
“What happened?”
He scowled. “I was reminded of something.”
“Of what?”
“Of why I like to live alone.”
“No one should live alone. I live alone, and it sucks.”
He looked up, catching my stare. “I should. I did. And I will again.”
My heart lurched. “What does that mean?”
He didn’t reply, waiting for me to scale the steps before pointing down the hallway to the kitchen. My knees quaked as I went where he directed. Common sense told me it’d only been a few days since I’d entered this house, but somehow, it felt as if a year had gone by. As if the kitchen was an old friend and the threshold was a hug from the last piece of safety I’d ever know.
“Get outside.” His anger pushed me forward.
As my socked feet stepped from inside to out and daisies crushed beneath my soles, the scrape of metal on stone ripped my head around.
Oh, shit.
“Hey...wait.” I held up my hands, backing away as fast as I could. “Please. You said you wouldn’t. You agreed.”
He hefted the heavy shovel in his hands. “I agreed to a day-by-day basis. Yesterday, it pleased me to keep you alive. Today, it does not.” The tonelessness of his voice petrified me.
It was as if he’d buried every part of himself that made him care. He looked trapped. Utterly, horribly trapped and controlled by things he couldn’t break free of.
Even now, even when faced with my murderer, I suffered a pang of sympathy.
I spread my arms as if to embrace him—cruelty and confusion and all. “You want to be alone again? Okay. Fine, I’ll leave. Right now. You’ll never have to see me or anyone else again.”
“You’re determined. I’ll give you that.” He squeezed his eyes closed as if my voice physically hurt him. “But you’re not leaving. Not by your method, at least.” Opening his gaze, he pointed the shovel in my face. “Now, walk. Get away from my house.”
My heart tripped over itself in panic. “Please...whatever your name is. Please, don’t do this.” God, why hadn’t I pushed for his name? Why didn’t I try harder to connect with him? He needed connection. He needed something.