Zane
The car ride back to the office was a blur. The city lights streaked past the tinted windows, but all I could see was her. Sadie, with her fiery red hair and eyes wide with a mix of fear and something else... a challenge. She had called me a monster, and I had seen a brief, fleeting moment of pride in her face when she did it. She hadn't backed down. Instead, she had thrown herself headfirst into the very shadows I had told her to avoid.
My mind replayed her words: "I'm scared that one day you'll just decide to kill me." The fear in her voice was real, but so was the confidence. She was testing me, pushing the boundaries of my control. She had taken a step toward my darkness, and now I had to decide if I would pull her into the abyss or find a way to meet her halfway.
The thought of her wanting dinner with me, of her asking to visit me at the office, sent a jolt of something foreign through me. It wasn't the usual possessive rage, but something softer, more dangerous. A feeling that could destroy me just as easily as it could destroy her. She was a liability, a threat to the controlled world I had built for myself. But she was also a beautiful, terrifying addiction I couldn't seem to shake.
I got out of the car, the cold Seattle air a stark contrast to the heat I still felt from her body. As I stepped into my penthouse, I pulled off my coat and gloves, tossing them onto a chair. I walked directly to my private study, the hidden room a silent witness to my obsession. I stared at her corkboard, at the pictures of her laughing and smiling. Her life was an open book, and I was reading every page.
My phone vibrated in my pocket. A new message. It was a report from my security team. They had already installed cameras and tracking devices in her apartment and her car. I had an intimate knowledge of her movements, her whereabouts, her every waking moment. I was her shadow, her protector, and her tormentor.
I picked up the phone, my fingers flying over the keypad. "She's not to know. No one is to know," I typed, my voice a low growl. "And if she is ever mistreated, I want a full report. I want names, addresses, and family trees." I hit send, a cold smile on my face. She had challenged me, and I had accepted. I would protect her, but I would also make sure she knew who was in control.
I looked at the picture of her on the corkboard, the one of her at her high school graduation, so full of life and hope. I knew the darkness that lurked in my own heart, and I was terrified of what would happen if that darkness ever touched her light. But tonight, for the first time in a long time, I was going to have a good night's sleep. I was going to have her. Not in the way she imagined, but in ways I always wanted her. She was mine.