“Look at me, Royal.”
His eyes lock on mine.Trapped.Devastated.Mine.
I lift his hand and place it on my throat.His fingers tremble.His pulse surges.I lean into him, offering him the one place he always grabs when he loses control.
“This is what you wanted,” I whisper.“This is what you were trying to break.”
He lets out a sound that is half growl, half confession.His forehead falls against mine.His breath shakes against my lips.
“You ain’t winning this,” he murmurs.
“I already did.”
He snaps then, not with violence but with terrifying clarity.He seizes my waist and jerks me off the bed.My body slams into his.The chain clinks against the frame as my arms slide around his shoulders in a challenge, not surrender.I refuse to surrender to a man who pretends he doesn’t already kneel for me.
Our mouths hover too close.He pushes me away, just far enough to keep from falling into the fire.
“You ain’t seducing me,” he says, voice cracked and ragged.
I tilt my head.“Then why are you trembling,”
His eyes slam shut.He can’t look at me because looking is falling.
“We are done,” he whispers.
“No.We ain’t done.”I take a step, chain tightening.“We are just beginning.”
He turns like he is running from something burning.Maybe he is.Maybe it is me.
I watch his back.I watch the tense line of his shoulders.I watch him breathe like staying upright is hard.
“You and Legend are no better than my father,” I say.
He stops.He doesn’t turn around, but his breath stutters, a crack in stone.
My voice lowers.“You lock me up.You drag me by chains.You tell yourselves it is for my own good.That is the exact thing he always said.”
His hand tightens on the doorknob.He still doesn’t turn.
“You think I haven’t been in that basement before?”I say, softer.“You saw what he does to girls he calls sinners.Did you ever once wonder what he did to his own sinner?”
Royal flinches.It is small, but I see it.I see everything.
“Don’t act like you care.Don’t lie to yourself,” I say.“You hurt me on purpose with that girl.You wanted me to feel it.You wanted me to break.That is what the mask was for too.”
He turns sharply, eyes wide, breath sharp.He doesn’t deny it.That is how I know.
“You think I didn’t recognize you,” I whisper.“Behind that mask.The way you touch me.The way you breathe.The way you watch me like you’re starving.”
His expression falters.His fingers curl.This time the denial never comes.
“You are the man who dragged me off my bike,” I say.“You are the one who held me down in the cemetery.You are the one who whispered my name like a secret.Claimed me already.”
He takes a step toward me before he realizes it.His eyes go dark.Hungry.Cornered.
I press the advantage.I always press the advantage.
“You think you chained me,” I say.“But you’re the one locked in here with me.Your obsession.”
