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Fuck.
I needed to return for it somehow. By inviting me back, he’d offered me a gift, packaged with sharpened spikes and wrapped in poison ivy. But a gift, nonetheless.
Too bad I didn’t trust either of us to open it.
I raised one palm. “I can explain.”
One final step, and he cornered me completely.
His body pinned me to the door, not quite touching mine but close enough that the invisible hairs on my arms stood at attention. “I wholeheartedly doubt it.”
“You can’t do anything wholeheartedly. You don’t have a heart.”
I didn’t know what made me provoke him, but I couldn’t stop even if I wanted to. Not with the surge of momentum behind me. With the zap of electricity bleeding into my veins.
And beyond logic, not with every fiber of my pride wishing to chisel a scar onto Zachary Sun.
His face remained unmoved. “I may have no heart, but my brain compensates for its absence, and it is telling me to punish you for your?—”
I didn’t stick around to hear what he had in store for me. I whipped around, jerked the double doors open, and bolted outside.
Zach was at my heels in seconds. His smart shoes clanked against the marble inlong strokes.
I sprinted to the edge of the stairway and hopped onto the banister, zipping down the handrail as fast as I could.
Zach snapped his fingers. “Chase her.”
In an instant, two people materialized, scrambling up the stairs after me. Zach was still the closest, but even he wasn’t as fast and nimble as I was.
Olympic material, baby, I wanted to taunt.
In another life, Zach and I would be friends. Maybe. We’d play Go. Do mental math. Exchange ideas.
I’d win.
Sometimes, anyway.
Keep him on those even-heeled toes of his.
At the bottom of the stairs, I sprang off the handrail and did a little twirl and wink before charging for the exit.
The place had emptied out. No one but cleaners and an event manager milled about. They shrieked at my sudden intrusion.
A mop went flying out of a hand, jetting soapy water across what was probably an original Baselitz.
Oops.
Without missing a step, I burst out the front doors, startling a valet on a cigarette break. The crisp air did nothing to cool my flesh.
I picked up speed, thighs burning with the strain. Andras would perform a human sacrifice if it meant I trained this hard every practice.
My heavy pants drowned out the choir of crickets. Sweet summer sweat crawled down my spine.
The gown’s slit tore higher with every stride.
I was scared as hell.
But also more alive than you’ve been in a while.
