My exhale is shaky. “But I’ve already seen you murder a man right before my very eyes. What more can you keep from me? You’ve already shown me your worst.”
“There’s always worser things in this world, Susanna. Trust me.”
“That’s the thing: I don’t trust you. Not one bit. You’re an evil man. I may have my own secrets, but I’m willing to bet they pale in comparison to your secrets.”
“Possibly. But my point still stands. We’re similar. We have a darkness in us.” He settles his hands on my hips and I gasp, mostly because it feels a lot better than it should. In fact, I find myself leaning into his touch. Or at least, I don’t pull away.
“Speak for yourself.”
“You have a darkness in you, Susanna. I clocked it the second I first saw you.”
“What are you trying to do? Brainwash me into falling in love with you?”
“That would be fun, wouldn’t it? But no. I’m just talking. Pointing the obvious out. That’s all.”
“See, I don’t believe you. Not at all. So I don’t believe a word you’re saying.”
“Fair enough. So I’ll be transparent with you. I want to have some fun with you. You’re a beautiful woman, that much is obvious. It would be fun to corrupt you. Take your innocence.”
“Rape me, you mean.”
“Not rape. It would be much sweeter if you gave yourself into me. Don’t you think?” His lips are hovering above mine. “I could so easily kiss you right now. How would you respond?”
“How do you think?”
“Let’s test it then.” He brings his lips onto mine so suddenly, I don’t know how to react. But it only takes me a moment torespond to his kiss. It’s electric and sexy and powerful and all consuming.
And then I remember that Gabriel is my kidnapper, not my boyfriend.
I pull away from him and when I try to slap him again, my hand connects to his face before he can stop me. “Don’t kiss me. I didn’t give you permission to touch me.”
“For just a moment, Susanna, you gave into the kiss. I think that will haunt you for the rest of your life.”
“You don’t know what will haunt me. You don’t know anything about me.”
“You’re wrong. I know there’s a darkness in you. I know you’re itching to break out of your boring, mundane life. Why else did you keep causing problems for people when you were younger? It’s because you’re bored. And I can relate.”
“Are you saying you do all of this just because you’re bored? Youkidnappedme because you’re bored?”
“Not exactly. I want Luca to hurt and you were the easier target. Going after his wife again would have been too hard. But it also helps that I like some excitement. Just like you.”
“We’re nothing alike.”
“Keep telling yourself that. But answer me this: if you had the chance to kill Chip, would you?”
“Chip?”
“Just answer the question.”
“No,” I say. “You’re trying to bait me into this. You’re trying to get me to say that I would kill him if given the chance and then you can say we’re the same when we’re not.”
“But Chip hit you. He’s been nothing but rude to you. Doesn’t that make you angry?”
“Of course it does. And sure, would I be upset if he were dead? No. I also wouldn’t be upset if you were dead. Because you both kidnapped me. But that doesn’t make me evil like you.”
“You’re right. It doesn’t. But it does make you morally grey. I will bring out the darkness in you, Susanna, and I believe you’ll love it. And that will be sweeter than just taking Luca down. Bringing you into the darkness with me.” He turns the shower off, plunging me into coldness.
Without a word, he gets out of the shower and wipes himself down before putting his clothes back on. I don’t have any clothes of my own anymore.
