Page 111 of Broken by my Bully

His coffee cup freezes halfway to his lips. Then slowly, deliberately, he sets it on the floor.

The temperature in the room drops ten degrees.

“Stand up.”

It’s not a request. My legs obey before my brain catches up.

He rises too, circling me. He uses the back of his hand to brush away my hair, getting a better look at the ligature marks around mythroat. His fingers ghost over the marks without touching, and somehow that’s worse than if he’d grabbed me.

“Turn your head.” His voice is clinical. Detached. Terrifying.

Maybe that’s why I do as he commands.

He stops in front of me, and when our eyes meet, his are black. “Did you lose consciousness when he choked you?”

I jerk away, but Bastian grabs the back of my neck and hauls me close again.

“This isn’t his fault,” I say, drawing a harsh laugh out of him.

His eyes latch onto mine. “You’vegotto be kidding me.”

“I mean it, Professor.” My arms shake as I try to keep some distance between us, but he’s pulling on my neck, refusing to let me stand. “I antagonized him.”

His response is mixed with a feral growl. “Youantagonizedhim? Tell me, Haven, what exactly did you do to deserve being strangled? Breathe too loud? Exist?”

I wish I could look away, but I’m trapped by my own morbid curiosity, desperate to see how this plays out.

This is what I wanted, right? I was driven to Bastian’s house in the night, in the rain, for the sole purpose of incriminating Kai. But now that the moment’s here, wave after wave of guilt keeps crashing over me.

Does that mean I came here for a different reason? Something even more despicable than ratting out a friend?

Ex-friend. God, why is it so hard to remember that Kai is my enemy?

“You don’t understand?—”

“Oh, I understand fuckingperfectly, girl.”

His hand tightens on the back of my throat like he wants to leave marks of his own, eyes gleaming with fury.

“Some little boy put his hands on what’smine.”

Mine.

Like I’m his property.

Like he’s already claimed me.

“I’m not yours,” I whisper through trembling lips as I stare up at him with wide eyes.

“No?” He ducks down, leaning in until his breath warms my ear. “Then why come here? Why not the hospital? The police? A friend?”

His lips brush my ear, sending a shiver through me that pools between my legs.

“You came tome, Haven. At night. In the rain. Youneedme.

“I don’t need anyone!” I wish I could shout, but my body feels like it’s wrapped up in a tight coil.

“Obviously, you do, because it seems you have no fucking clue what happens next.”