Page 134 of Brutal
Not all the way.
Not yet.
Close enough that if she moves, she’ll feel it.
“You stay away from that door. That lock.”
She turns to face me. “At the risk of repeating myself, you’re the one who told me to look around.”
“I did. I didn’t think I had to tell you to leave a locked door alone.”
She laughs then. A boisterous laugh that I’ve not yet heard from her. It makes my skin tingle.
“Then you don’t know me very well,” she finally says.
“I brought you here for your own safety, but you stay away from that door.”
She frowns. “That sounds like a rule.”
“It is.”
“I don’t remember agreeing to rules,” she says.
“You didn’t.”
“Then why would I follow them?”
“Because you’re still here,” I say.
Her lips part. Just slightly. Heat slides low in my gut.
She notices.
Of course she does.
She always notices.
“You brought me here,” she says.
“I did.”
“So this is your space.”
“Yes.”
“And you think that gives you the right to decide what I do in it.”
My hand lifts. Instinct.
But I don’t touch her.
Still I feel the pull. Strong enough that it takes effort not to close that last inch.
“I think I have the responsibility to make sure you don’t get hurt,” I say.
She crosses her arms. “Or see something you don’t want me to see.”
“Three rules,” I say.
