“That was a rhetorical question, Cecily. You’re not supposed to fucking answer.”
My glare meets his fierce eyes.
I want to provoke him, anger him. I want him to feel an ounce of the pain he’s exerted on me.
“Why?” I strain. “You don’t like to imagine another man peeling my clothes off and sinking inside me while I moan for him?”
“Stop.”
“I’ll beg him to go faster, harder. I’ll say his name, too. Actually, I’llmoanit.”
“Shut the fuck up.” He pulls me forward by his grip on my neck, then slams me back again. “You don’t seem to understand this, so let me clarify it for you. Any dick that comes near you will be cut off and you’ll bathe in its blood. I might have given you space, but I still own your ass. And cunt. And mouth. Everything about you belongs to me.Youbelong to me. But if you’re in the mood to test that, by all means, do. I will maim as many motherfuckers in front of you as you wish until you have your fill.”
He means it.
I know he does.
Jeremy has never made a promise and not kept it.
And this helplessness, the feeling of being too caught in his web while he only has a sense of ownership over me makes me feel like a trapped animal.
“Is that why you sent those guys to the hospital, shipped my professor to another country, and even dealt with Jonah? Because I’m yours? An extension of your stupid ego and a projection of your twisted desires?”
“I did all that because no one gets to hurt you.”
“Onlyyoucan?”
He tightens his grip. “Only I can.”
My eyes burn, but I refuse to let the tears loose. I refuse to show him just how much of an effect his words have on me.
“What do you want from me, Jeremy? You already let me go.”
“But you didn’t go.”
“Huh?”
He releases me, but only after he strokes the spot where his fingers pressed.
“Annika disappeared.”
My chest constricts, more about the topic than the abrupt subject change.
“What?”
He gives me a side-eye that could bring the devil to his knees. “Don’t fuck with me, Cecily. You were the last person she saw after your impromptu visit to New York. At first, I wanted to believe the two incidents were unrelated, but it turns out, you went on a private jet and returned on a commercial flight. Which means my sister left with your companion on that private jet. You all but shot yourself in the foot when you had Glyndon slip me that note today. Because A, Killian nearly killed me for it, thinking she was passing me notes; and B, she’s a shit spy and confessed everything when Kill started turning into an insufferable being. My question is, why would you let me know that?”
Blimey.
I should’ve considered Glyn’s personality and her tight bond with Killian.
Releasing a sigh, I tell him the truth. “I didn’t want you or your parents worried or thinking she ran away or something.”
“Why do you not want us worried?”
“Unlike what you said about me, I’m not heartless. I don’t want to hurt anyone.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that.” A somber shadow covers his face before he tucks it away and asks in a colder tone, “Where is she? Where did he take her?”