But I wanted more, more of her cries, her moans, the tears she was readily offering. I wanted her ruined, dirtied and broken.
My hand hovered over the neckline of her top, my fingers hooking around the first button. And with a commanding and unyielding tone, I uttered, “Take it off. All of them.”
Then I lifted my weight off her, stepping away from the bed.
She didn’t answer to my request. Didn’t even flinch.
My jaw tightened. “I said, take them off.” My voice came out low, controlled, but prompting.
She finally sat up on shaky limbs, before slowly dragging the top over her head, pulling off her skirt, and then her lacyunderwear. Her motion was slow and distant, like she was obeying something she didn’t fully understand.
She bundled the materials in her hands, putting them aside gently, but still, she didn’t look away from me. Like most would do when in this situation, she didn’t look for an exit, didn’t search for mercy, for anything but me.
She just…watched.
Her breathing was uneven, her hands trembling where they rested at her side now. Yet her gaze remained fixed on mine as I worked on my shirt’s buttons. It almost looked as though, she was trying to solve something, something she couldn’t fully understand.
Peeling my shirt off my body, my hand went for my belt, loosening it, the small sound cutting through the silence. Her focus on me never broke. Yet I could see it in her eyes; fear. It was in the tensing of her shoulders, in the rapid pulse at her throat.
Yet it wasn’t the kind of fear I was used to.
She wasn’t shrinking from me.
Instead, she was waiting.Interesting.
Pulling off my pants and then my boxers, I moved closer to the bed. She instinctively shifted back. No, not scrambling away, not pleading…just making room for what was coming, confronting it.
“You should be screaming now.” I tilted my head, observing her. “You should be trying to run away again, Elizabeth.”
I heard her breath catch, chest rising sharply, but she remained where she was.
I climbed onto the bed, a creak of wood piercing through the room as my weight settled on it.
I hovered over her and she pushed her legs from under her knees, lowering on her back, being so fucking obedient, no longer fighting.
My finger brushed her jaw softly as I leaned over her. “You’re not fighting,” I stated, almost disappointed.
Her body quivered under my touch, lips trembling, but she didn’t flinch away. She looked at me the way you looked at a memory you couldn’t understand.
And in that moment, I truly knew.
There was something inside Elizabeth. Something that was drawn to my darkness, my rot, like a magnet.
“You can feel it, can’t you?” I whispered, studying her face, my finger stroking her cheek. “Maybe you don’t fully understand it. But I know that you can feel it.”
My hand trailed down, settling over the rapid rhythm of her heart.
“Elizabeth.” I dragged the next words like heat against her skin. “I am fascinated by you, undeniably. And right now, I am curious about you. But I do not like you, still. I don’t fancy your existence, not when it’s interfering with mine.” My thumb stroked her quivering chin. “And I have decided, long before I met you, what would happen when we finally meet.”
Her throat tightened.
“I have to kill you, Beth Fraser.” The words left my mouth without conviction. There was no anger, it wasn’t loud either. Just…truth. “I am going to kill you.”
I watched her carefully, waiting for panic. But it never came. Her fingers curled into the sheet instead. Then her lips parted, though no scream. But it was clear. She was terrified.
“But before I do.” My hand skimmed her chest, my voice a gentle murmur. “Before I kill you. I want you to understand something.”
My forehead lowered until my lips almost brushed her ear. “You won’t die confused. You won’t wonder what you did wrong.” I paused. “I’ll try to be gentle at first. Then I’ll take you like my desire is to break you. And when you shatter around me,panting, breathless…” My voice dropped to a low whisper. “I’ll end you.”
