Page 94 of Dead Love
“I want to talk,” she finally said, clenching her fists together at her sides. “I came here to talk to you.”
“And your mother let you.” I snickered, tilting my chin. “I hear she’s lengthened the leash.”
She scrunched her eyes shut, and when she opened them, she glared at me.
“You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Enlighten me.”
Another moment passed, but then her shoulders sagged like she was tired of pretending. “Do you ever get the feeling like you’re reliving the same day on repeat?” The windows let in diffuse light. Dust particles, little flakes of skin, hovered in the air. Decay was always around us, but especially around me. “I have more privileges. That’s true. But it’s always about what’s acceptable. What my mother thinks is best. What’s best for our image.”
“I’m sure you’re right at home, then.”
“That’s just it,” she said. “I don’t anymore. I miss—” She threw a hand around us. “I miss this. I miss the cemetery. The mausoleum. Playing with the dogs. Hanging out here. I miss everything.” She wrapped her arms around herself. “But most of all, I miss you.”
My heart pounded in my chest. Every muscle in my body tensed. Kora would be better off with her mother and father. They might not give her the life she wanted, but she would be safe. I could never guarantee that with me.
“The grass is always greener, isn’t it?” I snickered, steering myself in a direction where I was angry that she could let it all go. For me. Someone who didn’t deserve her in the first damned place. “Are you wondering what it would have been like if I had kept you in my cage forever?” I smirked, full of malice. “You’re pathetic.”
“I wish I hadn’t done it.”
The air squeezed from my lungs. My fingers twitched at my sides. “I don’t care about what youwish.You did what you did. There’s no changing that.”
“But I’m trying,” she said. “I’m trying to be there for you, even though it hurts.” She shook her head. “Love is hard work. I understand that.”
Love?I grit my teeth. How could she throw around a word like that? She didn’tloveme. She couldn’t.
“What do you want, Kora?” I clenched my fists at my side, my tone angry. She didn’t say anything, so I asked again, “What. Do. You. Want?” She looked down at her feet. All I wanted at that moment was an admission that she needed me too. But she couldn’t say a thing. “Figures you can’t answer for yourself,” I muttered. Her shoulders sank, and I began to walk away. It was better to leave her like this, sinking down to a place where she didn’t have to feel anything. Where she could make up her mind about me. Where she could move on. Withoutme.I reached for my office door.
“No,” she said, her voice shaking. “You don’t get to talk to me like that.” I turned, staring at her. Her jaw clenched, her fingers twitching at her side. “I don’t have to put up with this anymore,” she said. “You, of all people, the one person I actuallyliketalking to right now,youare better than this. If you see me—really see me, like you always claim you do—then you have to start treating me like I treat you. And I have been nothing but kind to you.Yes,I made a mistake. But so did you. I didn’t speak up when I knew that you weren’t the Echo Killer, but have you considered whatIwas going through?”
My gaze flicked to the ground. She raised her hands, her neck wiry with fury.
“You almost killed my mother. You burned down our house. Why would it bethatfar off for me to consider that maybe you killed those people too? When I couldn’t prove one way or another if you had, or hadn’t?”
I balled my fists. “You knew that I didn’t,” I bellowed. “You knew. Or you wouldn’t have let me—”
I stopped. I didn’t want to finish my thought. There was a fire inside of her that ignited passion inside of me. She might have been raised to be numb, to be the perfect image of innocence and light, but something had changed. She could feel things now.
And that made me want her even more.
“Let you do what, Vincent?” she asked.
I pictured her on the ground, bundled in a plastic cocoon, her mouth fogging against the thin sheet. She gasped in the air, twitching like an insect on its back. I imagined her lying down in that room, surrounded by fake flowers and vines and strings of lights. The sunlight on her skin as she spun in the grass, the scent of jasmine on her skin.
“Let you do what?” she said, louder this time. “Say it, Vincent!”
I stepped forward, coming to her. We were so close that I could see her heartbeat pulse beneath her skin. Her pupils dilated; her mouth opened. I grabbed her shoulders, pushing her down to her knees. She didn’t stop me. Those big green eyes gazed up at me, waiting for my demands. The ripe scent of anticipation wafted between us. Her knees subtly moved, parting for me.
“Say what, flower?” I asked.
She bit her bottom lip, and my cock twitched. Her eyes flicked to my bulge. I grabbed a fistful of her hair, forcing her to look into my eyes. Our breaths were uneven, panting. Anyone could walk in and see us. They could run and tell her mother and father. We both knew we should stop, but neither of us wanted to.
“Say what?” I asked again, my voice quiet.
“You stole my innocence from me,” she murmured. “Admit it.”
“Oh, flower.” I forced a finger under her chin. “We both know that you were never that innocent.”
