“Yeah, I think you fucking do.”A nod.“For the record, I’m glad he’s dead.”
“Why?”
“Because it saves me some effort.”His dimples flashed at her.“Because know, sweets,knowthat if the bastard who poisoned you was still breathing, I would take great pleasure in eliminating him from this world.”
A savage thing to say.Chilling.
But instead of being scared, warmth spread inside of her.“Gage suspected the truth,” she admitted.“He asked too many questions, and he…I could see fear when he looked at me.”
“Gage Emerick is an idiot.He was using you to profile his cases and climb up the ranks at the Bureau.If he was afraid of anything, it was that others would find out that he was a poser.”
Ah.Her head tipped toward him.“You’ve been doing your research on him.”
“Yeah.I looked into anyone who was close toyou.Like the good stalker I am.So I will tell you again, he was never worthy of you.”A shrug.“I’m not, either, but I’ll fight like hell for you.You see my darkness, and you aren’t afraid of it.You see it, yet you’re still standing right here.”
Her hand rose.Pressed to his chest.Over his heart.“So are you.”
“Tell me it’s not about research, Lily.Tell me I’m not just some new experiment for you.”
“I’m the experiment,” she whispered back.“I’m something new in your life.A puzzle.”
“No, you’re not an experiment to me.You’re an obsession.”
Was that good?Bad?Both?“Obsessions are dangerous.”
“Are you going to be dangerous to me?”
She shook her head.Hurting him was not her intent.“You’re not an experiment, either.”
“Tell me to walk away.”A low, rough order.
But Lily shook her head once more.“Why would I do that?”
“Because it’s the smart choice.”
Was it?
“Tell me to get the fuck out of your bedroom.”
She didn’t speak a word.
“Tell me our forty-eight hours isn’t up.”Even harder.Even rougher.“Tell me to back the hell away.Tell me?—”
“You’re not afraid of me.”That was what she told him.
“Actually, I think you might terrify me.”
Shock rolled through her.
“You’re the one person who will make me lose all control.I know it.The thing that has kept me sane, kept mefocused,kept me from being like that bastard who gave up his fucking semen for me to be born—it’s my control.It holds me back.It stops me from letting go and becoming a full-fledged monster.”
Her hand remained against his chest.“That’s not what stopped you.”She’d wanted to find Atlas.To study him.To…understand him.
And she did.
She understood him better than she did herself.
“I don’t want forty-eight hours.”She didn’t need that time.
