Total pages in book: 139
Estimated words: 135378 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 677(@200wpm)___ 542(@250wpm)___ 451(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 135378 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 677(@200wpm)___ 542(@250wpm)___ 451(@300wpm)
“I know, but it’s all still very new. You’ve only recently acquired me, so I wouldn’t expect your passions to cool yet. I’m wondering what comes next now that you have me.”
He stares at me. “Now, I enjoy having your crazy little ass.”
I bite down on my lip to stifle a smile at his annoyance. “Right. But after that.”
He stares at me for another moment, then he takes out his cell phone. I frown but wait for him to finish texting. When he does, he grabs the chicken and puts it in the fridge. He turns the stovetop off.
“What are you doing?” I ask. “We need to make dinner.”
“No, we don’t. I have servants and an inheritance so large I could buy a small country if I wanted one. You don’t have to lift a goddamn finger to do anything ever again if you don’t want to. I’m not indulging your self-sufficient bullshit tonight.”
My jaw drops. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me.” He grabs my wrist and hauls me out of the kitchen. “I want to make a few things very clear. First, it isn’t your fault I zeroed in on you. It’s not your fault guys like Dylan or your professor did, either. Belief in a just world is a fairy tale that people tell themselves so they can feel safer. ‘That could never happen to me because I wouldn’t do the things she did.’ It’s self-soothing bullshit for people who can’t cope with reality. The world isn’t just. Bad things can happen to anyone, and you can’t always protect yourself. There are much worse fates than being vulnerable to hurt, Sophie. Being hurtable does not mean something is wrong with you, and having something bad happen to you is not an indictment of your inability to protect yourself.” He stops in the hall to look back at me. “There is nothing you could have done to protect yourself from me. You didn’t do anything wrong to catch my attention. If you had dropped out of school Monday morning and moved away, I would have hired an entire team to find you. If you had gone underground, I would have razed the city and searched the rubble until I located you. I’m glad you’ve bent as much as you have because I prefer your happiness, but not having you was not an option. If you had fought me tooth and nail at every turn, I wouldn’t have given up and released you. I would just put you in smaller and smaller cages until you eventually gave up. These aren’t healthy impulses. I know that. But I don’t care. I feel a certainty when it comes to you that I wish I could share with you because if you could step inside my mind for a single minute, you would never again doubt my devotion to you. I’m not going anywhere, Sophie. Whether you believe it or not, that’s the truth. It’s okay if you don’t trust it yet. It annoys me because I don’t understand why you think you’re so easy to leave, but time will show you I mean what I say. I adore you. I worship every cell of your being. I will never let you go. This feels like too ordinary a phrase to even bother saying, but I love you, Sophie, and I always will. I can’t show you any roadmaps to ease your mind because I’ve never traveled this road before, and I never will again. You’re it for me. You’re my path. There is no alternate route.”
He grabs my waist and pulls me close. His eyes are green flames as he speaks to fears, desires, and needs I don’t even fully understand.
“You can rely on me, Sophie. I promise. I’ll be here for you, loving you, until I draw my last breath.” He slides his hand into my hair and pulls me closer.
I wrap my arms around his neck and rest my body fully against his.
“I know you don’t always ask for what you want, but I wish you would. You can ask me for anything, and it’s yours. But since I know you won’t, and I want to take good care of you, I have to pay close attention. Every time I figure out what it is that you want, I’m going to give it to you.” He tugs my hair to pull me back and looks down at me. “Have you ever heard the saying ‘closed mouths don’t get fed’?”
I shake my head.
“No? Well, it reminds me of you.” He presses down on my bottom lip, then leans in and kisses me. “Fortunately for you,” he murmurs with our faces still close together, “I’ve found pretty effective ways of opening this pretty little mouth. Going forward, I’ll make sure to find a few more.”