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was no music, but the car was so expensive that the road noise

was pretty much muted. All Haley could hear was the gentle

hum of tires against the pavement.

She slipped into her thoughts, already formulating a plan.

She needed to know why Claire was the way she was. Had

someone hurt her? Was she transformed by that hurt, or did

she take it and turn it into something that could be a tool of

beauty? Is that how she healed herself? Was she healed at all?

Haley couldn’t erase the sound of Claire’s sultry voice from

the night before, brimming with dark promise. She wasn’t

going to be satisfied until she could experience for herself

what that was. She wanted Claire to own her. The same way

Haley wanted to master the piano, she wanted to be mastered.

She wanted to be played like music. She wanted to do the

same for Claire, touch her, a fine melody. She wanted to be

taught and shown what she liked.

What she didn’t want was to be left alone, which was

Claire’s intent. She wanted to be precious to her. She wanted

to matter. She hadn’t mattered to anyone before. She wanted

Claire to change her mind more than anything, and if she

wasn’t going to do that on her own, then she’d help her.

At first, she’d wanted to seduce her to wreck her, but now

she wanted to seduce Claire in order to be the one wrecked.

She’d never wanted anyone that way before. She wasn’t going

to let Claire go. She wasn’t going to go about her business and

stick to the piano like a good little girl. The only problem was

that out of the two of them, Haley wasn’t the experienced one.

She wasn’t a seductress. She needed a plan. A good plan.

It felt monumental and impossible.

Chapter 11