Page 227 of Those Who Are Bound

Elliott nodded, biting her bottom lip.

Jonah focused on the gesture before flicking his gaze back up to hers. “But?”

She hesitated. He needed to know all of it. “There’s more than just… this.”

“This?”

“Do you think I pushed you away because I was afraid you’d find out I have a… rope kink?”

Jonah stared at her for a moment before he slowly shook his head.

“You know there’s more.”

“I know, but it’s something you need to tell me when you’re ready.”

“It’s not something you get ready for, to reveal,” she said honestly. “I mean, how do I say, ‘I’m a freak’? And not the good kind. It’s wrong, and you, with your moral code, you will either want to fix me or you’ll be disgusted by me. I can’t have you looking at me the way I know you will. And I wanted to preserve that. That night, sending you away, was so I could keep something good.”

“You don’t have much faith in me.”

“You’re too good to understand it.”

“I’m not as naive as you make me out to be. I’m not without faults.”

“It’s not a fault; it’s a sickness.”

“No, you’re not getting away with that.” There was irritation laced with impatience in his tone. Probably because he had to keep saying it.

“You’ll think I’m a monster.”

He paused before he asked, “Do you hurt people?”

Yes.

“A monster knows how to manipulate someone into doing something they normally wouldn’t do, all the while knowing they shouldn’t do it but doing it anyway. I would take you and bend you to me and enjoy it. And you’d do it to please me and be disgusted by yourself at the same time, but you won’t stop yourself. That makes me a monster. I’ve done it before.”

“Becks.”

“Becks, the others…”

“Explain how it makesyoua monster when they consented to it.”

Elliott hesitated before she said, “Becks didn’t. Not at first. But… I’ll have to show you. Take me to church?”

Elliott preceded him down the aisle, walking with an exaggerated sashay, her arms out to the side. She was already turned on; the fires were already raging. The moment he called Vanessa VanMeter and ordered the church cleared and the cameras turned off… she’d allowed her demon free rein.

They almost hadn’t made it to the Jeep, or here.

She wanted him hot, too. Needed him to give everything up for her.

Tilting her head back, she said to the ornate ceiling, “Sanc-tuary.” She used the Quasimodo voice that amused her.

Dropping her arms back to her sides, she spun around and faced Jonah as she walked backward. He was pacing her, his curiosity mingled with slight amusement. But his gaze was dragging up from where she imagined he’d been admiring her ass until she’d suddenly turned. He made eye contact with her.

“It’s still funny.” She grinned.

His expression was intense with assessment. He was trying to figure out why she’d brought him here, how this place had anything to do with the compulsion she had to want to hurt him. Bend him. Break him. Make him despise himself and her.

“Do you remember when I walked in that day?” she asked, still toe-to-heel walking backward toward the stage.

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