“I don’t know the real you,” I gasp.
I don’t want this monster who’s holding me captive. He’s not the fiercely protective man I fell for.
“Liar,” he accuses coolly.
He releases my throat, and oxygen floods my system.
Horror hollows out my chest when his touch trails lower. One strong hand keeps my wrists above my head, and the other deftly palms my breasts in the way I like best—just hard enough to threaten bruising pain.
My nipples peak against the inside of my bra, and a sickening pulse starts up between my legs.
“No,” I moan in pure revulsion.
He knows my body. I told him my darkest secrets. He lured me into trusting him, and now he confidently manipulates pleasure from my deepest shame.
He’s going to wield it against me like a weapon. It’s far more devastating than the helplessness inflicted by the drugs.
“You do want me.” It’s a command, an edict. “You want it to be this way between us.”
A drop of his blood drips from his tight jaw and sears my cheek. It mingles with my hot tears, and despair swallows me whole.
34
ABIGAIL
Dane frowns, and a furrow creases his brow.
I drag in a shuddering breath when he releases my breasts to brush away the wetness that sears my cheeks. He lifts his fingers to inspect them, and his frown deepens. His crimson blood is diluted by my tears, and the two mingle into a glistening red stream that rolls down his palm.
He looks…puzzled. Like he can’t fathom why I’m so distressed.
Or maybe he can’t believe that I actually fought back and made him bleed.
I lift my chin and glare up at him with open defiance.
“If you violate me, I will hate you,” I hiss. “My body will respond, but I will hate you.”
His eyes glitter when they fix on mine again. He’s peering at me like I’m some alien creature he doesn’t understand.
“But you like when I make you cry.”
I gape at him even as my stomach turns at the truth in his words.
“Not like this.” I force the denial through my constricted throat. “And never again. I trusted you. I thought I knew you.”
His eyes flash. “You do know me. I’ve let you see me in a way I’ve never shown myself to anyone. You chose me. You love me.”
“Stop saying that!” My words are roughened by desperation. I think I’ll vomit if he says it again. “How can I love a stranger? How can I love the masked man who assaulted me?”
He shakes his head, as though my words irritate him like swarming gnats.
“You weren’t supposed to find out about that.”
“You think that’s the problem here? That I found out, not that you attacked me in my home?” I glower at him, allowing him to see the depth of my disgust. “I know what you really are now. I could never love you after what you did to me.”
He blinks, and his expression smooths to stony, unfeeling planes once again. “You’re upset. I understand that you didn’t agree to leave Charleston. But things will be better for you now. You don’t have to scrape by with your barista job anymore. You don’t have to live in that shitty old apartment. I’ll provide a life for you that you deserve, Abigail.”
My jaw goes slack for a moment. The depth of his delusion is truly unfathomable.
