Page 272 of Love Me in the Dark

---

She doesn’t reach for me. Doesn’t try to speak again.

Minutes pass like hours.

When I glance over, she’s still wide awake, the silver necklace glinting faintly at her throat.

“I’m not afraid of you,” she lies.

I smile in the dark. “Yes, you are. Just not in the way you should be.”

She goes quiet.

Eventually, her breathing slows. But mine never does.

Because I was right.

This is a trap.

And I walked right into it anyway.

I might as well enjoy it before it comes back to bite me in the ass.

8

IVY

He sleeps like the world isn’t shifting inexplicably around us.

Like I didn’t dream about stabbing him in the throat all night. Like I didn’t wake up in his arms, muscles locked, breath held, waiting for him to strike.

But he doesn’t.

He just sleeps on his side, one arm draped over me like I’m his and have always been. When I fell asleep, he was definitely not touching me. And his fingers absolutely weren’t that close to touching my pussy.

I shift out from under his arm, carefully, quietly, and sit on the edge of the bed waiting for him to wake up or realize that I’m not where he left me.

The suite is still dark, quiet, and far too perfect. Like a showroom with ghosts. Everything is soft. Elegant. And yet I’ve never felt more… brutal. Untethered.

I should be making a plan. Testing doors. Breaking windows. I should be fighting like hell to get away from this man who took me away from my life.

But I don’t move. I just stare.

Because I’ve seen something he didn’t mean for me to see.

Last night, after he touched me and broke every line I thought I had left, he didn’t throw me away like trash to be disposed of. He didn’t retreat into cold calculation like I expected.

He held me.

Watched me. Dressed me. Fed me. Touched my hair like I was breakable. Like I was precious.

He looked at me like I was already his bride. Or his sacrifice.

And that’s what’s finally breaking me.

Not the violence. Not the fear.

The tenderness in his touch. In his eyes.

Because whatever this is, it isn’t about sex. It isn’t about power. Not for him.

---