necessary should she try to fight for her freedom, but when I poke my head around the corner to check for what weapons she’s gathered, all I find is her small form frozen by the windows, her eyes cast out over a city that doesn’t know she’s looking out at it.
Palms splayed against the glass, she stares unblinking, her naked legs poking out from beneath her t-shirt, her hair a mess from when I’d fucked her. She doesn’t turn when I walk up behind her, stopping just short of touching her.
Her line of sight is directed at the church beneath us, and I steal that moment just like I’ve stolen everything else because I refuse to let her bring that asshole into my penthouse. Even if just in thought.
Stepping up so that my chest is to her back, I place my hands over hers, trapping them against the glass, my head dipping down until my breath cascades down the line of her neck.
“You never have to worry about him again, and I would appreciate it if you forget you ever knew him.”
She’s quiet for a moment, her body unmoving, no fight to pull away from my touch.
“Did you watch me get married?”
And we’re back to the questions. At least this one I can answer.
“Yes.”
She becomes quiet again, her body thrumming with nerves, shaking even though she doesn’t move away from me.
“Not that it matters. He doesn’t exist anymore. The city you’re looking at doesn’t exist anymore. The only thing that exists in your world right now is me.”
Her body jolts at my words, anger a vibration just beneath her skin. Still, she does nothing to argue with me. To fight. To tell me where to shove my claim on her life.
I can see her face in the reflection of the window, just barely, just enough to know her brows have tugged together and she’s chewing her bottom lip.
“How long?”
“I’m not answering that question.”
Adeline rips her hands from mine, spins to face me and shoves her palms against my chest to knock me back.
“Fine. If you won’t answer that one, then tell me your fucking name.”
Anger blazes behind blue eyes, that fire I’ve missed so much. She’s coming back to me slowly, except I have to wonder what she will do when I lose my patience and fight back.
Grant fought her, the fucking prick, and she folded. This burst of hatred won’t last. I know it. She doesn’t.
“I’m not telling you that either.”
Another slam of her hands against my chest, the skin between her eyes crinkling. “Then what will you tell me?”
“That you’re mine,” I answer with a smirk. “That you’re here. And that you’re not leaving.”
“Fuck you,” she growls before ducking left to sneak around me, my body turning slowly to watch her storm across the penthouse to the hallway. “I’m leaving.”
Adeline marches down the hall, barefoot and in only a t-shirt, a violent stabbing at the elevator call button clickclickclickclicking so fast that I have to bite my cheek to keep from laughing.
I don’t bother following her, just lean my back against the glass and wait for her to give up.
She storms back, runs at the window as if to break through it and bounces off so hard that she falls on her ass.
It was funny before, but now she might hurt herself.
I step over her, one foot on either side of her body, staring down with every threat of spanking her ass.
“Attempt to break my shit again and I’ll bend you over my knee for it. And what the fuck were you going to do anyway? Fall thirty-five stories to your death? That would have really shown me, huh?”
Furious eyes glare up at me. “I would rather be a stain on the fucking pavement than spend another hour with you.”
She’s lost her fucking mind. Not that she had the best grip on reality as it was, but fuck.
Lincoln is right. She is a little psychopath.
My fist grips her shirt, pulling her up from the floor, her feet scrambling for purchase as I lift her higher.
Head falling back, she keeps glaring, her hands locking over my wrists, nails stabbing me, but it won’t do her a bit of good. I’m too pissed to care about the pain.
“I’ve spent too many years chasing your crazy little ass around just for you to break yourself in my house. You would have never made it through that window to fall since they’re built to withstand impact, but now you’ll have a nice