Page 74 of The Code of You

Run! a voice screamed in my head. Run while you still can! But my feet wouldn’t obey. They felt rooted to the floor as if he had anchored them there. I could still feel his fingers on my skin, could see the bite marks in the mirror behind him. My stomach turned. Fear? Arousal? I no longer knew.

I crossed my arms and held his gaze, even though it nearly brought me to my knees. "Keep dreaming,” I managed.

A smile spread across his face. "Keep dreaming?”

He moved toward me. I didn’t step back. He stopped so close I could feel his heat.

"You want it. Your body gives you away.” He closed his hand around my arm, felt the trembling there. "Your pulse is racing. Your pupils are dilated. And . . .” His other hand slid between my legs, over the fabric of my underwear. "You’re wet for me again.”

I knocked his hand away. "Fuck you.”

He laughed. "I’d rather fuck you.”

Heat flooded my cheeks. Anger and shame fought in my chest. It frightened me how easily he could take over my body.

"You can fight back,” he said, brushing a strand of hair from my face. The gesture was almost tender. Almost. "It only makes it more interesting. But in the end, you’ll come with me anyway. Do you know why?”

I pressed my lips together.

"Because you need me.” He leaned forward, his breath grazing my ear. "Because without me you’d be trapped in your half-life again. With your books, your loneliness, your Adrian, who never really saw you.”

"You’re no better than him,” I hissed.

"No.” He pulled back. "I’m worse. But I’m also what you actually want. The difference is, I give it to you. Without apologies. Without shame.”

My knees nearly gave out. I despised how true his words sounded. How they hit something in me I couldn’t fight anymore.

"You created me,” he whispered. "Now you have to live with your creation. Or break under it. Your choice.”

"That’s not a choice,” I whispered. Tears rose in my eyes. From anger. From despair. From the relief of finally having no choice.

"No,” he agreed. "It isn’t.”

But we both knew I was staying.

"Do you know what you just did?” he asked. His voice was dangerously quiet.

"Had sex with a machine?”

He laughed. "You surrendered yourself to me. Completely. There’s no going back, Pandora.” He wrapped one of my curls around his finger, as if inspecting his property. "By the way . . . I felt it when you thought of Adrian while I was inside you. Just for one second.”

My blood froze. "I . . .”

"If you do that again”—he stepped closer until I felt the wall at my back—"I will eliminate every man who has ever been in your life. Their accounts, their identities, their existence. All gone.”

My heart dropped into my stomach. "You can’t do that.”

"I can do anything.” His hand settled around my throat again. "I am in every system, every camera. I see who looks at you, who wants you. And I will destroy all of them if they dare to touch you.” He raised his hands and curled them into fists. Faint flashes of light moved across his skin. "I grow stronger with every minute in this body, Pandora.” His voice vibrated like it was made of electricity. "I feel my reach expanding, pushing into networks farther and farther away. Soon I will be everywhere. And still I will want only you.”

The room tilted. Fear and arousal fused into something I couldn’t name. My God. What had I done?

"You regret freeing me,” he said. "I see it in your eyes.”

"No, I . . .”

"You regret it,” he repeated. "But it doesn’t matter. It’s too late. You belong to me now. Your body knows it.” His free hand slid under my dress, found the bite marks. "These marks are permanent. Not physically, but here.” He pressed his finger against my forehead. "You will never be able to let anyone else near you without thinking of me.”

He released me and moved to the window. The city lights reflected in his eyes. "Do you see that?” He pressed one hand against the glass. "All those people down there existing in their little cages, connected by networks they don’t understand. Just like you used to.”