Page 38 of A Twisted Gift

Erik’s smile fades. “You don’t owe me anything, Raina. That’s not why I’m doing this. I’m not expecting you to find some way to make this up to me. Not now, not ever. Knowing you’re out from underneath Charles’s thumb is enough for me. But…”

The food in my stomach sours. Fingernails digging into my palms, I brace myself for whatever he’s about to say.

Staring down at the rose, Erik sniffs it again, his smile returning. “I’ll always treasure this. Just as much as the first one. More, even.”

“The first one? You—you still have it?”

“Of course I do. I could never let any part of you go, Raina. Especially not the one thing that bound us together in the first place.”

“I never let you go, either,” I whisper.

He cups my cheek, and he’s so close I can feel the heat rolling off him. I want to press my body into his, to only ever focus on him. And with the way he’s looking at me, I think he might feel the same.

“Raina,” he murmurs, his thumb running along my jawbone and skimming across my bottom lip. Such a simple gesture, yet it’s electrifying. “You have no idea…”

I thought he almost kissed me outside by the car, and this feels the same way. It’s there—on his face, in his eyes, in the way he tilts my head up. He wants me. I know he does.

But something is holding him back, and I’m proven right when he abruptly straightens, his hand falling away.

“We should go,” he says thickly.

Numbly, I follow him outside. My heart aches when he takes my hand as we cross the street, and again when he opens the car door for me.

“You could’ve kissed me,” I say once we’re both inside.

Erik freezes with his seatbelt halfway buckled. “What?”

“Just now. I would’ve let you kiss me.”

“Raina…” He clicks in his seatbelt and looks away, his expression one of pain.

For a second, I panic, wondering if I misread him. Maybe he doesn’t want this—doesn’t wantme. But then Erik’s hand is cradling the back of my head, and his forehead is touching mine.

“I don’t want you to justletme, Raina. There’s more to it than that. You don’t owe me anything, all right?”

“I know, but—”

“You need time,” he says gently. “To adjust. To make sure this is what you really want. I basically kidnapped you. That’s not—”

“Yousavedme.”

“But I still took you, and I would’ve even if you hadn’t wanted to come with me. You know that.”

“But you wouldn’t have hurt me. You haven’t hurt me.”

“I never will,” he says softly. “And that’s why I need you to trust me here.”

“I’m not a child.”

“Trust me, Raina, I amveryaware.”

Something deep inside me heats at the way he looks at me. He’s holding himself back, I know he is. Ever since he steppedinto my bedroom last night, he’s been so careful with me. So cautious.

“And I’m not as breakable as you think I am,” I go on. “Just because I’ve lived my entire life locked away in that stupid mansion doesn’t mean I can’t think for myself.”

“I know.”

“Then why won’t you kiss me?”

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