point in her throat.
It’s curious how such a normal heartbeat can belong to her.
Frozen.
She really is.
She’s so frozen, it pissed me off in the beginning.
It still pisses me off sometimes, but I have other things to worry about.
Such as Jonathan and her fucking last name.
What would it be like if she were someone else? If she really was Elsa Quinn, not Elsa Steel?
Fuck.
Why would I even think about something impossible?
This girl isn’t only messing up my carefully-laid plans, but she’s also screwing with my head.
I’m the one who’s supposed to screw with heads, not the other way around.
Elsa shifts again, and this time, her eyes slowly peel open. She stares at her surroundings, appearing confused before she focuses back on me.
She freezes when her electric blue eyes meet mine.
Those damn blue eyes.
I don’t know if I want to poke them out or stare at them all day long.
Elsa freezes like this sometimes. It’s like she’s putting two and two together.
She’s trying to make sense of a situation that her politically correct mind isn’t able to accept.
Usually, she fails, and that makes her frustrated.
Like right now.
She glares up at me.
Will there be a day where she wakes up in my arms and doesn’t overthink everything?
In the beginning, I didn’t give a fuck. Now, it’s starting to piss me off like that unreachable itch.
Elsa shoves at my chest to sit up.
I let her go.
Picking battles is the surest way to win a war.
She’s still pissed off — no thanks to Jonathan and Queens — so I can’t push her too far.
Yet.
“How long have I been out?” She reaches for the elastic band on the floor.
I snatch it from her fingers before she ties her hair.
Elsa huffs while standing up and gathers her hair in a bun and ties it with itself.
“Some time.” I plop on my elbow and tilt my head to the side to watch her.
She finds her bag on the chair and retrieves her phone.
Her simplest, most mundane gestures draw me in like nothing in this world ever did.
Like a distant memory from the past.
The way she bites her lower lip when concentrating. The way she sits with her legs tucked closely together like a good little girl.
“It’s late.” She groans. “I need to go back.”
“No.”
She lifts her head, chest-puffing. “What do you mean no?”
The spirit of this girl.
She’s always ready for a fight.
It makes my dick hard.
“Aren’t you here for the story?”
She bites her lower lip as if she’s contemplating it. “Fine, tell me and then I’ll go.”
I shake my head.
Her brows scrunch. “I did my part of the deal. You promised, Aiden.”
Those flushed cheeks are adorable when she’s angry.
I can’t get enough of being under her skin.
I doubt I ever will.
“Stay the night and I’ll tell you.”
“I can’t. Aunt and Uncle expect me to be home.”
“Tell them you’re staying the night with Reed.” I pause. “You were planning on it before she cancelled last second, no?”
“How the hell do you know that?” She narrows her eyes. “You manipulated Kim into telling you, didn’t you?”
I lift a shoulder. “Stay the night or I won’t say anything.”
Her nose twitches as she mulls the proposition in her head. I can see that eagerness. The need to know, and it feels good to have her need me.
Even if I have to threaten her for it.
At least now, she won’t be fucking around and telling me it’s over.
It’ll never be over.
I might have to give up some of my bargaining chips to keep her close, but it’s worth it as long as I have her in my space.
Even if she still can’t trust me.
Elsa is smart and has more self-preservation than anyone I know.
Good.
She shouldn’t trust me. At least not yet.
Because when I tell her what I know, there’ll be no going back.
It’ll be the beginning of her decimation.
And mine.
18
Elsa
I agreed to stay the night.
Okay, agreeing isn’t the right word. I was coerced to stay the night.
Aiden knows how much I need the truth and like the psycho he is, he used my desperation to his benefit.
But then again, I’m well aware of his manipulations and I fell for them anyway, so I guess that makes me an accomplice.
I sit in the spacious round bathtub because Aiden ran another bubble bath for me.
It still baffles me how he has this level of care in him but still acts in an overbearing, almost oppressive kind of way.
It’s confusing.
He’s confusing.
He sits at my back like an overwhelming presence. I can feel his warmth without glancing