“Okay.”
He starts sketching again. He knows she’s watching him, studying his responses. Nothing makes him more uncomfortable than someone watching his every move. It’s ironic, since he used to wish that one person in particular could watch him—just once.
“So? Do you think the world ever saw her the way that you did?” Gemma asks.
Gritting his teeth, he peers at her through the hair that has fallen forward over his eyes. “No, I don’t think that they did,” he finally answers, “but I think you do.”
He can tell she wasn’t expecting that answer, because she tilts her head to the side.
“What do you mean?”
Continuing to sketch, he looks at her blonde hair, now messy from his hands. The long, soft strands are still ruffled from where he held her as he pushed his cock between her lips. He can’t help the stiffening between his thighs.
“I mean youseeher. Every time you look at her, you see her as I did. They didn’t, and they still don’t.”
She nods as she sits up in the chair, leaning forward to rest her hands on her knees.
He knows that she is about to ask a question he doesn’t want to answer.
“Whydo you think they don’t get it? Why didn’t they see what you do? Or, for that matter, what I do?”
He wonders if she is prepared for the answer.
“Because they were too busy looking atmeand how I looked at her,” he states. He knows he’s talking to her in riddles, but he also understands this is the best way to explain it.
“I don’t understand,” she tells him.
“Haven’t you noticed the things that your colleagues have written about me?” he asks, voice full of venom. “They were all so busy writing aboutmyobsession andmyperversion of the poor little blind woman that no one bothered to get to know her. No one bothered to look closer.”
She blinks, trying to comprehend, and then swallows. “I’m looking closer,” she finally whispers.
Phillipe stands and walks over to where she is seated. “And what do you see?”
Licking her lips, she stands, wanting to keep them on even footing. “I see a man who is broken from an experience he couldn’t control. I seeyouin a way thattheydidn’t.”
Phillipe shakes his head. “God, you’re so naïve. I’m not just broken. I’m twisted inside my own fucking nightmare that never goes away. I’m fucked on the inside. You’re onlyseeingwhat I want to show you.” Agitated, he firmly grasps the sides of her face. “There’s a part of you, Gemma, that’s so fucking sweet, and I want to steal that part of you, even though I know I shouldn’t.”
He cups the back of her neck, tugging her in close to him. She places her hands on his chest. Leaning down, he presses his lips to hers.
“They said I took something beautiful and destroyed it. Slowly, image after image depicted a tale of seductive debauchery. People ate that shit up. They loved it. Until, of course, they got their biggest story:An alluring mixture of dark eroticism that is now enhanced by its devastatingly hauntingsadness. The angels must be weeping.”He pauses, letting out a deep breath. “Shewas the fucking angel. That’s what no one understood.”
I feel his breath slide inside of me and can sense the tension rolling off him in waves.
“Why, then? Why didn’t you tell everyone they were wrong? Why did you make it seem like she wasn’t allowed to talk to anyone?Whykeep her hidden?”
His eyes narrow as he drops his hand from my neck. He takes a step away. “She didn’twantto be in the public eye. That washerchoice. I respected it, but no one understood that. They all just assumed that I brainwashed her, leading her astray and making her strip down so I could have my wicked way with her.” His whole body seems to be vibrating with tension. “What do you think, Gemma? Was she brainwashed? Should the story of her innocence be retold?”
Shaking my head, I move a step closer to him. “No. I think she was in just as deep as you were. The way she wrote about you showed the level of her own desperation. She was enamored with you.”
“And what about you?”
I place my hand on his strong, solid chest. “I’m entangled with both of you. If the way you wanted her was perverse in any way, then I am guilty too. I’m guilty of wanting you both with a hunger that I’ve never had before. Maybeyouare the common denominator, but now, I’m just as much a part of this equation as she was. Phillipe, no one is brainwashing me.”
His mouth pulls into a tight grimace. “Well, maybe you’re the fool, because the public—the people outside of here that youdedicate your life to informing—is just waiting for me to fuck up.”
He grabs my shoulders and squeezes them tightly, then pulls me in to crush his mouth down onto mine. I gasp at the brutal and violent fury behind our kiss as I feel the familiar stirrings of desire sliding between my thighs. Just as quickly as the kiss began, he pulls back, pushing me away from him.
“You have no fucking idea what they did and what they still do to me or to her. Isn’t it enough that my heart has already been ripped out of my fucking chest? Why does the world think it’s okay to walk all over a memory that has already been destroyed?”
