Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 127484 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 637(@200wpm)___ 510(@250wpm)___ 425(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127484 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 637(@200wpm)___ 510(@250wpm)___ 425(@300wpm)
My eyes roved over his face, pale, high cheekbones, sharp jaw. His dark brow was heavy with a tiny whisper of a scar at the edge of his eyes, the one mar in the perfect features of his face. His eyes were glaciers, ice blue with a solid azure ring around them. Riveting, interesting, unique.
Knox leaned in even closer. For one insane moment, I thought he might kiss me.
It should’ve roiled my belly with disgust; instead, my heart merely thundered as my palms started to sweat. I squirmed for reasons other than discomfort, instantly forcing myself to ignore that. This was not the time nor the place to inspect my body’s highly inappropriate reactions to my kidnapper.
But he didn’t kiss me. His head shifted, barely brushing my cheek with his hair as his lips hovered over my ears. Though he was so close I could feel his energy imprinting onto mine, hindering my breathing, my heartbeat and ability to stay calm, he wasn’t actually touching me.
He seemed to be very careful to ensure that.
“In this cabin, in these woods, you are my everything.” His whispered words were both a blade and a weight settling against my shoulders with their certainty. “You are my captive. My puppet. My toy. My pet. Your survival depends on me.” He paused, and I could feel his warm breath on my ear. It should’ve been icy cold for all the chill in his tone.
Yet heat surged through me.
Along with fury. Contempt. My hands bit into my thighs, digging into my jeans and the flesh beneath. Why didn’t I lash out at him with those hands? Rake my hands through that unmarked skin? Even though it looked to be made of stone, he was human. If cut, he’d bleed.
But I stayed where I was, an insect under his microscope.
“Your mental state depends on whether I feel like breaking you or not.” His voice was featherlight as his eyes seared through my very soul. “Which I will. It’s up to me how many pieces you shatter into.”
The silence that cloaked us was thicker than the starless night outside.
He hovered there for longer than was comfortable, bearable, before he finally straightened.
I’d hoped the way I stared at him conveyed the level of my hatred, hatred for his presence, his lack of a fucking heart. The fear he instilled in me. The paralyzing terror I’d promised myself a man would never elicit in me again.
“I know it’s a human survival instinct to deceive yourself into thinking you have control over your actions, surroundings or survival, Ms. Matthews. Most of the time, it’s just delusion with free will scattered sporadically. But none of that exists here.” He sat back down in his chair, casually resuming his meal as if he hadn’t just essentially threatened my life and mental health.
“Eat.” He stabbed the dead flesh with his fork, his eyes containing more intensity, more emotion, than I’d yet to see in them. “Or starve.”
A challenge. Posed as if he didn’t care if I withered away to nothing but a skeleton right in front of his eyes. My survival mattered that little to him. I mattered that little to him. He was a monster, dehumanizing me, turning me into nothing more than a … pet. Reliant on him for everything, down to food and water.
My teeth gnashed together until my jaw hurt.
A man’s pet I wasn’t.
I stood up and left the room without touching another bite, storming into the bathroom, slamming the door and sinking against it before dropping onto the floor.
The bathroom door didn’t have a lock. No privacy. No barriers from him. Not that I thought a lock would stop him anyway. An illusion of safety was all it would be. I needed to rid myself of all illusions.
I was not safe with Knox. That much was painfully clear.
He wasn’t going to rape or torture me; I took him at his word on that—as naïve or stupid as that might be. I also took him at his word that he was going to break me.
Prior to that day, I would’ve said no man had that power, dumbly confident in my inner strength.
Yet right then, sitting on the bathroom floor, hyperventilating, never feeling more alone or hopeless, I knew Knox was going to ruin me.
It was just a matter of time.
And how many pieces he’d leave me in depended on how cruel he truly was.
Six
Knox
Iknew she was a vegetarian. Though my research into Piper Matthews was nowhere near as in depth as I would’ve liked, I’d gathered what information I could from her social media page.
She didn’t eat meat, she loved Taylor Swift, she ran every morning, she drank lattes at the same coffee shop every day, her favorite book was some fantasy title I’d never heard of but had inexplicably purchased and brought with me. And, she believed in the power of crystals, as if hunks of rock were useful as anything more than paperweights.