Page 54 of Innocent Intentions

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New plan: I need to embed myself in her life. She needs to depend on me. I want to be her stability, her comfort.

I’ll be her constant.

She won’t even realize what’s happening until it’s too late.

We’ll start small. Making her coffee in the mornings. Eating dinner together in the evenings. Going to bed at the same time. I’ll build routines with her until she can’t even remember what life without me felt like.

I’ll find ways to get close to her. Until I’m in every corner of her world, until she needs me as much as I need her.

No matter how long it takes.

Chapter 21

Margot

This time, when Dotty gets me for dinner, I’m ready.

Or at least I think I am. Until I step into the dining room and see my place set next to his.

So, we’re doing this again.

I grab my plate and move it to the other head of the table. Distance. I need distance. Dotty sighs in disappointment. She can get over it.

I don’t know which Matty I’ll get tonight. The seducer or the friend.

The seducer? He melts my brain with smooth words and heated touches. I’m struggling to keep denying him.

The friend? He confuses me. He feels like a trap luring me in with a false sense of security, only to attack.

Neither one is safe.

I take my seat and force myself to breathe. I took a yoga class once, but I quit immediately. I remember they taught deep breathing for relaxation.

I try to do it, but I sound like I’m wheezing. After a few more seconds of that, I give up.

Matty walks in a few minutes later, smiling.

A real smile.

And it does something dangerous to his face. It softens him. Makes him look younger. Warmer. More welcoming.

Like he’s not a kidnapper. Like he’s just a man.

His strides don’t falter when he sees where I’m sitting. He sighs, amused.

“I see you moved again. My stubborn girl.”

I’m getting Friendly Matty.

I can do this.

Can you?

Like last night, he grabs his setting and moves it to my right. I blush, remembering what he whispered last night. What he threatened to do to me on this table.

He doesn’t seem to notice. He sets up his place and, before I can react, leans over and kisses the top of my head.

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