I don’t like Aiden’s kind side.
It’s deceptive.
Destructive.
Deadly.
“Last chance before I find the answer myself.”
Yeah, good luck with pulling the answer out of my head, monster.
Something shines in his eyes. People’s eyes shine with excitement and happiness. Aiden’s spark with unhinged sadism.
He reaches for me, and before I can do anything, he rips my shirt open. Buttons fly everywhere like abandoned pebbles.
My heart lunges in my chest and shame sinks to the bottom of my stomach. Unshed tears fill my eyes, and I realise right then that I’m not fit for this game.
I’m a coward and cowards lose before the game even starts.
But I’m smart enough to cut my losses short.
I swallow my tears and my stupid pride. “F-fine. I’ll give you the phone.”
The smirk on Aiden’s lips seals my doomed fate.
“Oh, no. That was before. You had your chance. Now, I’ve changed my mind.”
Chapter Four
I thought I knew fear.
My parents’ death brought me raw, inexplicable fear.
So much fear that I buried it all in a black, inaccessible box.
As I stare at Aiden’s impassive face, I realise that I know nothing about fear.
Or if I did, then I forgot it.
Because Aiden, an eighteen-year-old, is giving me another definition of fear.
I’ve never really known Aiden King until this moment when he has me at his complete mercy — or the lack thereof.
Pride and dignity were the only things that got me through the past two years from hell.
But now, as I stand with my hands locked behind my back and my shirt ripped open, that pride is crumbling apart like it was cartoonish.
An illusion.
A lie.
“Aiden…” His name gets stuck in my throat like smoke.
He’s like smoke.
Suffocating, slippery, and undecipherable.
“Stop this.” My voice drops, softening, pleading with any human part in him.