No, no, no, no?—
“Your body doesn’t lie.” His voice wraps around me like smoke. “Even when your mouth does. You want me, Violet. Dream about me. Moan my name in your sleep.”
“That doesn’t mean?—”
His thumb pulls my lower lip down slightly. His hand on my waist slides up. Slowly.
“It means you’re ready. Even if you won’t admit it.”
His hand stops just below my breast. A breath away from touching.
“Tell me to stop.”
I can’t speak. Can’t breathe. My heart slams against my ribs so hard he must feel it.
“That’s what I thought.”
His hand moves up?—
I shove him.
Hard enough that he actually stumbles back. Hard enough to put three feet of blessed distance between us.
“Fuck you.” I’m shaking. Rage or want or both, I can’t tell anymore. “Fuck you and your twisted mind games.”
He doesn’t follow. Just watches me with that infuriating calm.
“It’s not a game.” Absolute certainty in his voice. “It’s inevitability.”
“You think because my body responds to biology, that means I want you?”
“Yes.”
“Ihateyou.”
“I know.” So calm. So accepting. Like my hatred is just another fact he’s filed away. “But you also want me. And soon you’ll stop fighting it.”
I storm out.
Slam the door so hard it echoes through the corridor.
But his words follow me anyway.
You’ll stop fighting it.
I’m terrified he’s right.
I avoid him for the rest of the afternoon. Stay in my room. Pretend I’m not wondering where he is. Pretend the memory of his hand almost touching my breast doesn’t make my skin burn. When the dinner summons comes, I almost don’t go. Almost.
Everything is different tonight.
Candlelight flickers across the table when I arrive, softening the sharp angles of his face. Making him look almost gentle. Almost safe, I know he’s neither. Wine sits untouched in crystal glasses, expensive and dark. And for the first time since this started?—
There’s a second chair.
Elio gestures to it. “Sit.”
Notplease. Not a request. Just a command.
