Twisted - Esme Devlin Page 0,80
into the room.
I turn around just to see him shaking his head at me. “Don’t do that,” he says.
“Why?”
“Because you’ll burn yourself, that’s why.”
A laugh escapes me. “I used to think you cared. Now? Now I don’t know what’s real and what isn’t.”
He lets out a sigh. “I care about you burning yourself.”
“Why?”
“Because I do. Here,” he says, throwing a bundle into my arms. “You can get dressed now.”
I look down and find the same as I always find. A black dress and a pair of stockings. He turns his back, his hand massaging away the pressure in his neck.
I don’t waste any time in putting the clothes on.
The moment I’m dressed, I ask him again, “Why?”
“Bad memories,” he says, his back still to me.
“What, did you burn yourself as a child or something?”
That would explain the mask.
He spins around to face me. “No. Don’t be so ridiculous.”
“Then what?”
“I have a complicated relationship with fire,” he replies with a shrug.
I scoff. “So complicated you held me over a counter full of candles just last night?”
“That was different,” he says. “I was in control of that. I wouldn’t have let you hurt yourself, no matter what you choose to believe.”
“I don’t know what to believe anymore.”
He takes a step toward me. And then another one. He’s at my side, but I stay in place. “How about we stop dancing around the elephant in the room, hmm?”
He’s walking around me now, but I don’t watch him. He likes it when I’m flinching at his every move. I won’t flinch, though. I have no reason to give him what he wants. “From where I’m standing, the elephant in the room is you.”
He laughs, his mood shifting instantly. I think he’s trying to drag me into another one of his games. “Just say it, Sapphire. Spit it out. Tell me how you feel about me. Tell me what an utter cunt I am.”
My eyes go to him now, and he stops directly in front of me. I swallow. “I shouldn’t have gone for your mask. I don’t know why it was wrong, just that for whatever reason—it was. But what you did feels worse. Much worse. You humiliated me.”
“You betrayed my trust,” he shoots back.
“You betrayed my trust, too.”
He sighs.
“I could threaten you, you know that, right? I could do what I did last night. I can bend you to my will so easily, sweet girl. But I’m trying to be better. I’m asking you to help me.”
I stare up at him. “Why would I do that?”
He lifts his shoulder in a shrug. “Because I’m going to try to make you happy.”
I shake my head. He says that so often but forgets it so quickly. Why would this time be any different? He wants me to believe I can bend him to my will, but that’s not the case.
You can’t control a psychopath.
He can’t even control himself.
I clear my throat. “I wish I could believe that.”
“I’m only asking for a chance to prove it.”
Staring up at him, I can’t even tell if he’s lying. I can’t see his face. Can’t see if his eyes are looking to the left. But I do have an idea to see if he’s serious. “I want my room back.”
He pauses for a long time and then turns around, giving me his back. “Fine. Deal.”
“Ah, not so fast,” I say, feeling bolder and equally suspicious. “Get rid of the cameras. When I want to be alone, I want to be alone.”
“After what happened? Absolutely not.”
“Then no deal.” I brush past him and head for the strawberries.
I’m happy to eat them now that he knows it’s not going to change a thing. I have no shame. I pick one up and pop it in my mouth. It’s quite possibly the best thing I’ve ever tasted.
He chuckles behind me. “Fine. I’ll have them taken down.”
I turn around to face him, taking a strawberry with me. They really are delicious. “No. You’re going to take them down. Personally. And you’re going to take me to wherever you used to watch me and prove it.”
Never have I ever felt this brave before.
Never have I ever told him what to do.
The thought has a nervous weight settling in the pit of my stomach.
The fact that he’s just staring at me doesn’t help.
He moves toward me, quick as ever, and pushes me back against the table where the food is sitting. His hand locks around my wrist, leaving the strawberry in midair just inches from