Page 129 of The Rules
His answer came without pause. “Especially then.”
His eyes moved over her face, then returned—sharper than before. “You sit where I can see you. Always. No corners.
No distance.”
A chillslipped under her skin. “Why?”
"I want you where I can fucking see you," he said simply. Like that explained everything.
The words landed low—hot, sharp, and mean. She couldn’t tell if it was fear or fury tightening her chest.
She doubted he could, either.
Was this strategy? Control?
Or something else—something raw, possessive, and far more dangerous.
Whatever it was, it hung between them like static. And God help her, it made her pulse misfire.
She watched him closely. He wasn’t negotiating—he was declaring war. And she was the territory.
“I decide when the past matters,” he said, voice flat, final. “You don’t bring up the club. Not the Crimson Bloom. Not what happened there.”
Her breath caught.
“That part of you?” he leaned in, gaze like a blade. “The one you hid behind silk and shadows? She’s mine now. I decide when she exists.”
Katherine’s spine snapped straight. Her fists clenched, but he didn’t blink.
“You want to forget her? Fine. But don’t use her—not as a shield, not as leverage. Don’t weaponize what you became when the lights went down.”
He paused—just long enough to let the next words hit like a punch.
“The way you moved. The things you whispered. The way you begged?” His mouth curled—not a smile, but something colder. “Mine.”
The room pulsed with silence, taut and waiting to snap.
“And if I choose to remind you?” His voice dropped, low and dangerous. “I will. But you don’t get to remind me.
That power’s not yours to use.”
Katherine said nothing.
Because she understood exactly what this was:
A leash.
And he’d just pulled it tight.
“If you try to quit,” Ben said, his tone quiet as a knife,
“I walk. No warning. No second thoughts.”
His stare didn’t waver.
“And your father’s case?” He let the pause stretch until it cut. “Buried. Just like they buried the truth with him.”
Her lungs felt too small, her breath like shards.
