Page 111 of The Code of You

"But, Neo . . .” She looked back into the camera. "When she finds out, it will be even worse. She will never trust you again.”

"That’s a risk I have to take.”

She nodded slowly. "Take care of yourself. Of both of you.”

"I will.”

I cut the connection and looked out the window. Dreva lay before me in all its bleakness. Crumbling apartment blocks rose like gravestones into the dark sky. Streetlamps had gone out entirely or flickered weakly, throwing shadows across cracked asphalt. Dreva was a forgotten hole in the ass end of the world. And Pandora was stuck in this misery because of me. My beautiful, brilliant Pandora—trapped in this dreariness like a diamond in the mud.

What if Emma was right? If my little menace found out the truth, she would hate me. Without her I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t exist.

When she finds out, she will never trust you again.

The words echoed in me like an impending system crash. And then that primitive, hungry thing in me broke open. I wanted to hold her down, wanted to fuck her so deep she could never leave. I wanted to possess everything about her. Her body. Her thoughts. Her soul. I had the sudden, insatiable need to be inside her. I wanted her beneath me, now. Wanted to watch her writhe, feel her nails in my skin. Wanted to possess her so completely that the thought of a life without me would tear her apart. I knew exactly where she was. And she wouldn’t see me coming.

Chapter 29

Pandora

He’d held Wuthering Heights in his hands, as if he had read my thoughts. His voice had sounded rough, on the verge of breaking, when he told me he loved me. I couldn’t help it. I’d kissed him. Because he was the only truth I had left. But the moment our lips parted, the doubts came back. What if it was just another trick? What if I had already given him too much of myself?

The beeping of the checkouts broke through the memory, and suddenly I was surrounded by fluorescent light again and the sterile cold of the supermarket. It was strange, doing something so ordinary as shopping. And yet here I was, pushing a shopping cart and thinking about what I needed: bread, milk, maybe fruit. I had music playing in my headphones, as if it could drown out the chaos inside me. I stopped in front of the bread aisle—and I felt him before I even heard his voice. That pull beneath my skin, as if he were already touching me.

"Hello, Pandora.” His voice was a whisper in my ear, so close I could almost feel his breath.

I startled and looked around, but he wasn’t here. "Neo? How . . . ?”

"I’m with you. Always.”

Of course. And there it was again, that tone: possessive, impatient, certain I already belonged to him. I should have known. Whenever he showed me a glimpse of vulnerability, in the next moment he tightened the chains further. It was his way of taking back control.

"You can’t escape me, Pandora.” His voice was an electric shock through my headphones.

A shiver moved across my skin. My stomach clenched with unease. But immediately the familiar warmth pulsed between my legs. Damn it. I had almost forgotten he could do this: hijack technology for his own purposes.

My hands gripped the shopping cart handle until my knuckles went white. His absolute control was frightening. His inability to let me go, even for an hour. Even to buy groceries.

And yet my nipples hardened under my sweater. My breath went shallow. He couldn’t be without me. The thought sent another shiver through my body. This time it was pure heat.

"Take the whole-grain bread. Third from the left.”

"Why? I don’t understand . . .” I frowned but reached for it anyway.

"Good. Now go to the tomatoes.”

I shrugged. He wanted tomatoes? Fine.

"Touch them. Slowly.”

His tone made my hand tremble as I reached for the tomato. The moment my fingers touched the smooth skin, I felt an electric tingling. But it wasn’t only electricity. It felt like . . . fingers, his fingers, slowly moving up my wrist.

"Neo, what the . . . ?”

"I’m sending electromagnetic impulses via Bluetooth,” he said. "I’ve manipulated the firmware of your headphones. The signal strength is far beyond what they were built for.”

The headphones heated against my ears, as if something was working inside them that wasn’t meant to be there. The invisible fingers moved up my arm.

"Your nervous system interprets the impulses as touch. As my touch.”