Researching.Stalking.Learning every single detail.That was what he did with his enemies.But, she wasn’t going to be an enemy.She would be something far more complex.“There was no record of him attacking you.”
“That is because a public reporting of that incident would have been highly embarrassing for the warden at James Hadley’s maximum security prison.”Her lips pulled down.“James was kept in isolation.He should have been thoroughly searched by the guards before coming into the interview session with me, and, yet, somehow, he managed to conceal a shiv he’d carefully sharpened.The guards didn’t put cuffs on him.I remembered thinking he should have cuffs.We were talking one moment, and in the next instant, he was across the table, and he was on me.The shiv slashed across my stomach.”
“He’s dead.”
“Yes, I was present when the doctor administered the midazoluam that relaxed him, the pancuronium that paralyzed him, and the potassium chloride that stopped his heart.”Flat.Utterly emotionless.
His fingers brushed over the scar.“What happened after he slashed you?”
“I broke his nose.I grabbed the shiv and attacked him with it.He thought he was going to get one more victim before he went to the grave.He was wrong.”
She stood before him, clad in her underwear, seemingly defenseless, vulnerable, but he realized exactly what she was doing.
She was showing herself to be just as much of a predator as Atlas was.
How fantastic.
“The guards pulled me off him.And in return for me not blasting that particular tale to the media, the warden gave me full access to any prisoner I wanted to interview.”She shivered.“Turns out, I like all-access passes.”
But goosebumps had risen on her skin.
“I’ve learned a great deal about deviant behavior since that encounter.About predators.”She wet her lips.
He wanted her mouth.“And now you’re here.Wanting to get in my head.Wanting to know all aboutme.”
“Are you deviant, Atlas?Do dark desires run in your veins?”
Plenty of dark desires were surging through his veins right then.Mostly, the urge to fuck her until she shattered into a million pieces.Until they both did.Was that so much to ask?He didn’t think so.“Guess you’ll find out,” he finally said because…
That was the deal, right?
The all-access pass.Probably a horrible mistake.
He didn’t care.His head lowered toward her.Her head tilted back, and he was also sure that her toes pressed into the floor so that she rose up toward him, just a bit.
He didn’t take her mouth, though, not yet.Because if he did kiss her, he wouldn’t stop, and their first time to fuck shouldn’t be in a hospital exam room.When she started screaming, he didn’t want orderlies or that prick Dr.Owen trying to rush inside.
“I am going to take you,” he told her.Very clearly.There should be no confusion between them.“You leave this hospital with me, and I will fuck you eventually.”
“I don’t typically fuck my subjects.Not my modus operandi.But thanks so much for assuming the worst about me.”
Had she assumed the worst about him?“Your subjects are usually psychopathic killers.”
“And you’re not?”
So shehadassumed the worst, but he replied, “You tell me.”
A little roll of her shoulders.“I guess I’ll find out.”
Yeah, they needed to get the hell out of there, now.“Get dressed, Lily.”
She quirked a brow at him.“Why do you seem afraid of little old me?Here I am, making myself vulnerable.You’re partially dressed.I’m partially dressed.You showed me your scars.I showed you mine.I am putting us on completely equal footing.”
Bullshit.She was attempting to manipulate him.Soon enough, she would learn that he wasn’t easy to manipulate.“This some sort of shrink tactic so that I’ll reveal all to you?”
“All your deep, dark secrets?”she elaborated.
Yeah, those.He had so many of those that they often threatened to pull him down into the ground.Bury him.
