“Careful,” he hissed. His eyes flashed wolf for a moment, reminding her of just how dangerous he could be. “You don’t want to do anything you’re going to regret.”
She shrank back despite herself. All of a sudden, she was small, eighteen once again, and completely compliant with whatever he commanded. She hated it. She hated that he had done this to her in less than a handful of minutes. She hated that she had let him when she promised herself it would never happen to her again. Yet, here she was, cowering before him like she had all those years ago.
Still grasping her by the arm, he jerked her toward him. “Where’s your wallet?”
She didn’t answer, but her eyes betrayed her, straying to her purse on the table by the door. Eric followed her gaze. Still holding onto her, he strode over, forcing her to stumble along after him. He tipped the purse over and extracted the leather wallet from the small pile of odds and ends that had been in her bag.
“You’re not going to need this,” he said, tucking it into the same pocket he had dropped her car keys into.
Gritting her teeth, she glanced toward the door. It was locked, but if she could just distract him for long enough, maybe she could still make her escape.
Once again, Eric followed her gaze. He laughed when he realized her eyes were lingering on the door.
“You still think you can get out of here? You have to know you aren’t going anywhere,” he said. “I’ve got your keys and yourwallet. Even if you try to run into the woods, I’ll be able to track you down, and you know it.”
He was right, and she did know it. Her insides twisted with dread. She seemed to have gone mute. Every time she tried to open her mouth to say something, the words evaporated. She had turned into a mute dummy, the way she used to be with Eric. Something she had promised herself she would never turn into again.
When she stilled, Eric gave a wide, sharp-toothed grin that chilled her to her core. “That’s better,” he said. “Are you going to keep fighting or are you going to behave like I know you can?”
She glowered up at him, but she couldn’t meet his gaze for long. After a moment, her eyes slid down to the ground. Her shoulders sagged, the defiance evaporating.
“Answer me,” he snapped.
She flinched. His grip on her tightened the longer she remained mute.
“Well?”
“I’ll behave,” she murmured, her voice impossibly quiet.
“Good.” Chuckling, he yanked her deeper into the house, still holding onto her. Once or twice, she tried half-heartedly to tug herself out of his grasp, only for it to do nothing. It was like he had sapped all the fight from her. She closed her eyes and let him drag her down the hall.
She had always imagined that, if she stumbled across Eric again, she would be strong enough to fight back. She had thought she was stronger than this. Instead, words seemed to fail her, as if he’d stolen her ability to speak along with everything else.
He pulled her into the living room and flung her toward the couch. She stumbled before collapsing on the cushions. When she straightened, Eric was leering down at her.
“Now. You’re going to stay here like a good girl,” he said. “I don’t want you moving from this spot until I tell you to. Do you understand?”
She wasn’t tied down. Theoretically, she could move whenever she wanted. She could run into the woods and risk him chasing her for the chance of freedom. It would be as simple as waiting until his back was turned and making a dash for it. But it was as though some switch had been flipped inside her. That fight wasn’t there. She suddenly felt like that small eighteen-year-old once more, who meekly listened to him because she thought he was as good as she was going to get.
Slowly, shame creeping up her face, she nodded.
“Good.” He reached out. She flinched when the back of his hands brushed against her cheeks, but she didn’t leap to her feet and race away as she had always imagined she would. The years away from Eric didn’t seem to matter. She was still the same weak person she had always been. She’d been lying to herself.
He laughed at her twitch away from him, then grasped her chin and tilted her head so she had to look up at him. His thumb stroked her cheek proprietarily. Revulsion shivered along her spine.
“You know, you showed back up at an interesting time,” he said conversationally. “Some big things are coming up. You’re lucky you’ll be around to see them.”
She tugged her chin out of his grasp and glanced back down. She heard an angry snarl and waited for a slap, but it never came.
“Stay here,” he said. “I’ll be back for you later.”
He walked away, leaving her alone in the living room. She closed her eyes, shoulders slumping, and cradled her face in her hands. She should have been running. Instead, she was sitting here like an idiot. Why couldn’t she run?
Everything screamed at her to get up and run, but the thought of Eric lurking in a nearby room pinned her to the sofa, her limbs refusing to move.
A wave of helplessness washed over her, threatening to drown her. She wasn’t strong. She wasn’t going to run the way she knew she needed to. She was weak, terrified, and a pushover. And now she was stuck with a man she hated and was too paralyzed to do anything about it.
Chapter 3 - Cillian
