Page 58 of Little Puppet

As I hear him move through the penthouse, I turn and look at the beautiful room he gave me.

But my stomach sours and turns over as I curl my lip in disgust.

A sick part of me wants the Cain I’ve come to know, and I know I need to get the fuck away from him before I do something I regret.

Like falling in love with the psychopath currently playing the piano in the living room.

Chapter 17

She hasn’t come out of her room all evening. After eating and checking over the documents Blake did for her, I took the chance and returned to Dunhaven to close up the house for the rest of the year and make sure the car had stopped burning.

After everything was in order, I returned home to find her still in her room.

Being back home always makes me feel slightly off for the first few days. It’s like putting on a thick sweater that coats my real personality beneath its weight.

It’s sad, really, that I have to become something different to survive. Though I guess a lot of us do to make it anymore. For fifty weeks a year, I do no harm. I suppress all feelings and desires within me and take care of others.

Those two weeks a year when I’m free of society’s constraints are intoxicating. Now, I’m home early. It’safter midnight, so it would’ve been my tenth day at Grimrose, and I’d be cleaning Grace’s bones right about now.

If things hadn’t gone awry.

The moments we shared in the truck yesterday were the rawest I’ve ever had with someone. Though I was already gearing up to return home, I was comfortable and bewitched by her proximity and touch.

She has this way of making me feel like being myself isn’t a crime against humanity.

When we got home, it hadn’t gone unnoticed that she was confused by my change in demeanor. She looked at me as though she were seeing me with fresh eyes.

I’ve been low-key worried about how she’d respond to seeing this side of me—when it’s absurd, really.

She should want this side of me over the other. This man is a renowned surgeon who performed two major surgeries overseas last year that not only earned me awards but also national attention.

I make over six figures a year, and I have my shit together. My home is beautiful, and I always drive the latest cars.

Nothing about this version of me is anything but desirable to women. It’s the other side of me I’ve always had to worry about.

It’s why I’ve never been in a relationship before.

But she seemed to crave the deep, dark version of me she met. She came for him, even. She begged for his touch. That’s why I thought she’d be perfect for me.

Now, though, she’s hidden away in her room like she can’t stand to look at me.

It’s confusing the shit out of me.

Finally growing the nerve, I shuffle down the hall to her room. Pushing the door open, I find her sprawled out on the bed in only her panties.

It looked like she was so tired she couldn’t even make it beneath the covers.

I inwardly berated myself for spiraling in my head while she was asleep.

“Cain?” she whispers as I flip her over and pick her up.

Using one hand from beneath her body in my arms, I peel back the covers and lay her down. “Shh, darling. I’m just putting you to bed.”

“Mm,” she answers, grabbing my wrist as I turn to exit. “Stay with me, psycho.”

My brows tug together at her request, my heart thrumming at her nickname for me.

I don’t know if it’s wise to keep her because she’s seen who I am beneath all the money and power. As much as I can hide him away beneath Armani suits and flashy diamonds, I can’t make her unknow him. Force her to unsee the things she’s seen.

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