“Eww. No. I would never think of him that way. He has a boyfriend. And he’s myfriend.How is that so hard for you to digest? Vin is—”
“Vincent,” I corrected, fighting an urge to spank her.
“What?”
“His name is Vincent. Not Vin,” I bit the last word.
Did she just roll her eyes? She should know how hard and repeatedly I could make her do that. “You do know Vin is the short—”
I cradled the back of her head and yanked it downward with her hair, forcing her eyes to meet mine upside down. “I don’t want to hear his name on your lips tonight.”
Her eyes did a left to right sweep of my face about three times, as if in search of something, then the smallest hint of a smile appeared. “I don’t get why you’re jealous of him. You literally have no reason to.”
In fact, I had every goddamn reason. One, he hugged her like a fucking child anytime he wanted. There were times he even pecked her, that son of a dick. He’d met Ainsley in Melbourne for the first time three years ago and they barely kept in touch until she moved to South Highland and saw that he lived here. They’d bonded so quickly it was infuriating.
I hated him ever since because I wanted Ainsley to come back to this town miserable—isolated, with no one to lean on. But he was always there for her, offering a shoulder to cry on whenever she needed it.
It crushed me all over again.
That she came back.
That all the time I spent tormenting her life, trying to make her suffer, had been for nothing. Yesterday, I tried to convince myself that she was just sleep-talking. But deep down, something didn’t sit right with that. If she had come back and seen me—seen that I’d fallen—why didn’t she report it? Why didn’t she tell anyone about the kidnapping or the possibility of me falling.
It was as if that night never happened. Like my mind had twisted the memory, filling in gaps with a lie to cover up what really put me in a coma for a year.
“What are you thinking? Can you let me go now?” she asked, searching my face.
I cocked my head. “I’m thinking if it’d be a good idea to succumb to the hungry part of me and fuck you for coming here. It’s growing beyond control now.”
Her throat worked with a swallow, her pupils dilating as she pushed against me in the slightest. “Then why haven’t you given in and fucked me?”
I groaned, liking that we were on the same page for the first time. “Because people such asVinwill never be able to hug you again, or give you a fucking kiss. When I fuck you, I want to believe every part of you belong to me—your body, your soul, your smile, your eyes, this pussy, everything. So when I see you in public, I won’t see a girl I’ve forced to make mine. I want to see a girl who made me hers and willingly became mine. You think I’m worse now, wait until I claim your body and can’t get your taste out of my mouth.”
She took a moment to let it sink in. “I don’t know if I should be scared.”
“Judging from the way you ran here because of the camera, I think you should be.”
Ugh, why did I remind her?
Her eyes blazed, and before she’d start thrashing like a child, I turned her around, still keeping her hands pinned above, and pushed her back against the door, closing in.
“If you act more stubborn, I might just forget it and put you on your knees.”
“That was not good at all,” she breathed in the space between us, referring to the cameras as she stared up at me.
“I’m sorry.”
“Did you put any in my room?”
“No.” I didn’t miss a beat.
“I don’t believe you.”
“You don’t have to. Check your room. I put it everywhere else though.” I had no clue why I confessed to that.
“Everywhere else.” Her jaw locked. “Why?”
Because I want to monitor your every waking moment, see when you sleep, see when you cry, see when you laugh, see when you act like nobody’s watching. I want to see what everybody else doesn't see. And mostly because I can’t go a day without knowing what you are up to, without checking if you’re okay, even if I’m the cause of your problems. It’s something beyond my control.
