Her head thuds hard from my force. She winces, clutching it.
“You’re as smart as a farm animal! A fucking NPC,” I snarl, voice thick with fury. My fist powers through the drywall next to her head, crumbling around my knuckles and leaving a crater.
“I’m sorry!”
“You could have been gang raped!Killed!”
She sobs.Reallysobs.
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t know! I... I just wanted you to talk to me again.”
I suck in a breath, sharp and strangled, because fuck, her soft, stupid heart won’t let me go. What’s wrong with her? Oh. I know.
“I shouldn’t have fucked you so good.Now you’re just another mess with daddy-issues, addicted to my cock.”
“What! No. This isn’t about sex! Grayson, I—”
“Don’t you dare say it.”
She slumps. “I was trying to do something nice.”
“Yeah? Surprise me? With Bobby Morris. You don’t think. You don’teverthink. You’re fried, like Brax said.”
“No, I amnotfried! I’mnotstupid. I just... I wanted to do something nice for you,” she pushes back. But her voice wobbles as she asks, “Did you really... did you rape someone?”
Fuck me.
She’s not getting it. Still holding out hope.
I turn my face away, thinking. I knew this would happen. The mask would fall and she would see the real me. The monster beneath.
It’s better this way, though. Maybe she needs to see me for what I am, so she stops having hope for us.
For a while... being with her was the closest to happiness I ever been. A world where I got to pretend I deserved her. Where I touched something sweet, something pure. Something I should’ve left alone.
Therefore, without a second doubt, I look back and lie, somewhat:
“Yeah. I did. Broke in to her house at night. Fucked her. Left the girl crying.”
She goes still. Trembling.
Run.
She doesn’t.
“Why are you still standing here!” I grab her jaw, forcing her to meet my eyes. “Run, Charlotte. Fucking run. Quit being so damn dumb! Men like me… We’ll fucking hurt you!”
She whimpers, eyes glassy. “I don’t believe you... Grayson, you’re a good man. And you love me.”
Oh my God.
I practically black out and shove her to the floor. “Crawl away like the ugly pig you are.”
Her lip trembles. She stares up, and still,stillshe looks at me like I have something to offer her.
“I don’t have time for this. Get me my phone,” I spit, giving her a push by pressing my heel to her ass. She scrambles on all four out of my room, hearing her stand and running away.
She returns obediently with it in her hand, desperate to please me. I grimace for a moment as I take the phone, trying to smother how sexy that was.
