Page 54 of He Sees You

"I'm choosing now."

"You're choosing escape. I want you to choose to surrender."

CHAPTER EIGHT

Celeste

My lips still feel bruised.

I sit at my desk, fingers hovering over the keyboard, but all I can think about is the way Cain kissed me—like he was trying to crawl inside my skin, like he wanted to consume me whole.

I've written hundreds of kiss scenes, described passion in every possible metaphor, but nothing I've ever written comes close to what happened in that cabin.

The cursor blinks at me, mocking.

I'm supposed to be writing chapter fifteen, the scene where my heroine finally confronts her stalker.

Instead, I type:

He tasted like violence and salvation, like every dark prayer she'd never dared voice. When he kissed her, she understood that she'd been sleeping her whole life, and this—this terrible, beautiful awakening—was what she'd been writing toward without knowing it.

Delete.

Too on the nose. Too much like what actually happened.

I touch my bottom lip where he bit me, where I can still feel the indent of his teeth.

The wound has scabbed over, but every time I press my tongue against it, I taste copper and remember.

His hands in my hair.

The wall against my back.

The way he said "mine" like it was a vow and a threat combined.

My ankle throbs, wrapped tight in the bandage he applied with those careful, murderous hands.

The same hands that gutted Roy Dunham.

That arranged his intestines in the trees like Christmas garlands.

I should be horrified. Disgusted. Terrified.

Instead, I'mwet.

My phone buzzes.

Juliette:

How's the writing going? Your last pages were INCREDIBLE. Richard actually smiled, which basically means he orgasmed.

Guilt twists in my stomach.

Juliette has been my champion for three years, fighting for my work, protecting my vision from corporate sanitization.

And I'm keeping secrets about her brother.

Her brother, who kills people.