Page 69 of Necessary Cruelty

I stare down at his hand, trying to forget how much better those strong fingers felt inside me than my own. “Don’t get so excited. It won’t be happening again — I’ve learned my lesson about expecting anything from you aside from disappointment.”

“You couldn’t be more wrong if you tried. Just like everything else about you, that hot little body belongs to me. Whether you’re ready to admit it or not.”

A burst of heat hits my belly. “Stop doing that.”

“What?”

“Pretending like there is something more here than what there is.”

His quizzical gaze passes over me before his attention returns to the road. “You must know that you’re gorgeous. Sophia wouldn’t hate you nearly so much if you weren’t.”

I hate him for saying that, because I refuse to believe this isn’t just another manipulation. He doesn’t actually mean the pretty words. Empty compliments in the hopes of getting what he wants.

And I’m weak enough that it might be working, at least a tiny bit. But if I allow him to burrow further into my life, then it won’t be possible to get him out again. He will have the power to consume me. And when he finally grows bored and moves on, I won’t be able to rebuild what he will have inevitably broken.

“You need to find another girl you can marry to save your inheritance. This isn’t going to work.”

“Are we back to negotiation? Tell me what would make it work for you.”

“Anything short of you becoming a totally different person won’t be enough. Please, just take me back to school.”

“What kind of person?”

I turn to stare at his profile, midday sun setting his features aglow. “What?”

“You said I’d have to be a totally different person for this to work,” he replied patiently. “I’m asking you to expand on that statement. This will probably be your only chance to say exactly what you think of me to my face with impunity. If I were you, I’d take advantage of the opportunity.”

Vin’s voice is mild, but I hear the warning there. Even though his features are relaxed, tension simmers just under the surface.

I take a deep breath. “How about the kind of person who wouldn’t have his friends hold me down while he cuts me up?”

Whatever reaction I expected to that, it isn’t the one I get. He just shrugs. “I have my reasons for that, but okay.”

My hands ball into fists, and I resist the urge to wrench the wheel toward the guardrail. “What reasons could there possibly be?”

“I’ll tell you if you want, but I don’t think you’ll like it.”

I’m not sure what to say to that.

He drives slowly down the beach road and then parks the car in the nearly empty parking lot attached to the access boardwalk. This isn’t a good spot for surfers and it’s a school day, so the beach is probably deserted. Aside from any homeless people that might wander by, we are completely alone here.

The thought should scare me more than it does.

Screwing up my nerve after a minute of agonizing silence, I finally insist. “Tell me.”

Instead of answering, he gets out of the car and goes around to sit on the hood. With a weary sigh, I shove open my door and follow him. Sand crunches under the thin soles of my sneakers as I deeply inhale air so salty it stings my nostrils.

When I come around the front of the car, he already has his vape pen in his hand.

“Well?”

He takes a pull and exhales a cloud of wispy vapor. “I cut you when you fuck up so you don’t do it to yourself.”

“What—"

I stop myself short. He can’t possibly know I started cutting myself after my mother left, that I did it for years. Usually when I screwed something up or felt too much like the mistake my parents didn’t want, but I stopped a few years ago.

After the first time he laid a blade against my skin.

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