“Oh.”
“I looked up his condition and the medicine he takes. One glass of whiskey won’t hurt him. I promise.”
My heart thumped harder.
“You looked it up?”
“Well...yeah.”
“I normally do that stuff alone. There’s no one else. Just me and Dad. As much as I love reading and learning, all the medical stuff is so hard for me to make sense of.” I turned to face him and found him watching me. The intensity of his gaze felt like a weighted blanket slipping over my body. Maybe it should’ve freaked me out, the way he watched me and researched things about me, but I didn’t feel freaked out. I felt comforted, like maybe I could let go of the reins a little bit without panicking that everything would fall apart.
“You’re a little strange, aren’t you, Sutton?”
I nearly choked on my laugh.
“I was just thinking the same thing about you. Not in a bad way!”
He nodded and tilted his head, studying me.
“I know you don’t find it bad. Which is what makes you strange. The way I am, the…oddness…it freaks people out. You’re not scared of me, though.”
I reached out and touched his arm.
“Those other people sound like fools.”
“No. They have every right to be scared of me. It’s their lizard brain telling them danger is near.” He inched closer. “Why aren’t you scared?”
I could tell he was genuinely confused by it and it made me hurt for him that he couldn’t understand why I liked him. I could understand people being concerned over him but if they talked to him, they’d understand that he was a sweetie. I rested my hand over his heart and smiled up at him.
“You’d never hurt me.”
He shuddered and pressed his hand over mine. “Never.”
“So why would I be afraid of you?”
“I’m different. I don’t function like normal people. I obsess and consume.” He brought his other hand up and picked up a strand of my hair. “It’s never happened with a woman before. I don’t know how far I’ll go, Sutton.”
There was probably something majorly wrong with me. Maybe if I had better insurance, I’d visit a therapist and work on it, but the things Theo was saying to warn me were making me burn with need the same way Dominic had on the observation deck.
“I’m still not afraid of you, Theo.”
His fingers tightened on that strand of hair.
“I want this.”
He had me under his spell. In the back of my brain, I was feelingveryconcerned about what I was doing. It felt like I was on the edge of falling into something bigger than I could handle.At the same time, I shucked away my own accountability by telling myself I’d basically signed up to let them do what they wanted to me. As a means of getting Dad the care he deserved. It was pathetic of me to not be able to admit I wanted the things being held out for me to take.
I swallowed and tilted my head.
“You can have it.”
Theo moved even closer, until our bodies were sharing one small patch of grass. He was silent as he pulled a knife from his pocket and flicked it open. He cupped the side of my neck with his hand and stopped breathing as he brought the knife close to my skin and cut the tiny chunk of hair. The knife disappeared and then he brought my hair up to his nose and inhaled deeply. The shiver that went through him made me breathe harder. He was so affected by me. I’d never experienced anything like it.
A sudden thought occurred to me.
“Are there cameras everywhere?”
He shoved my hair into his pocket and stepped back, letting his hand fall away from my neck. He seemed nervous and that was the answer I needed.
