“Although a psychopath might have a sense of humor,” she added. “The things they find amusing might be appalling, but they still probably find them funny. Where as you . . .”
“Have no feelings? Find nothing amusing or cute or sweet?”
Right.
Gulp.
“Why is me ironing my face amusing?” he asked.
“If you don’t have a sense of humor then you might take offense. And I’m guessing I can’t really afford to offend you right now.”
“No? Why can’t you offend me?”
“I think that’s pretty obvious. You broke into my house, kidnapped me, and now you have me locked up in your dungeon. Offending you right now wouldn’t be a smart move.”
“And yet I’m not sure you’ve ever made a smart move in your life.” He sighed, shaking his head
“Hey! I think I’m offended by that!”
“You think you are?”
“Fine. I know I am. Why am I here, North? Why kidnap me? Why bring me here? Where am I?”
“Do you always ask so many questions?” he asked. “It’s very tiresome.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” she replied sarcastically. “I can ask a lot more. In fact I think I might start. What’s your favorite color? What sort of music do you like to listen to? What was your favorite pet? Do you even like animals? How do you keep your face from moving? Do you have regular Botox? Are you even human?”
He continued to simply stare at her.
Hmm. Seemed she was going to have to do better if she wanted to provoke some emotion from him.
But do you really? What are you hoping to achieve? For him to explode and hurt you?
She guessed he hadn’t done that at least.
Yet.
Are you listening to yourself? Oh, he hasn’t hurt me so he can’t be that bad of a guy.
Maybe she hadn’t had enough therapy. Because her criteria for someone who wasn’t a bad person was warped.
“You’re here because Jared wants you.”
She swallowed heavily. Right. So Jared had ordered North to kidnap her.
Angie didn’t know why that struck her so hard. It wasn’t like Jared Bartolli was a good person. He wasn’t a secret knight in shining armor whose main aim in life was to protect and take care of her.
She hadn’t even seen him in years.
No phone calls, no postcards, not even a smoke signal to show that he cared in any way about her.
So you shouldn’t care about him.
Logically, she knew that.
Emotionally, it was more difficult. Because she thought he might be the sexiest man she’d ever met. . .
No. Nope.
