Page 127 of Made for Wilde

Rage burns in my chest, hot and fierce. I make a sound behind the tape.

Adrian’s eyes light up at my response.

“There she is. There’s the fire I fell in love with.”

Love. He thinks this is love.

“I’ve been planning this ever since I figured out what was really going on between you two.” He checks his watch, like he’s on some kind of schedule. “I followed you to his cabin a few weeks ago. Watched you through the windows.”

My stomach drops.

“You looked so beautiful,” Adrian continues and his voice takes on a disturbing breathless quality. “So perfect. But wrong, Charlotte. So fucking wrong.”

Tears of rage and humiliation leak from my eyes. I can’t stop them and can’t wipe them away with my hands bound behind my back.

“That should have been me. That should have been us.” His voice breaks on the words. “I could have made it special for you. I should have been the one to?—”

The possessive way he talks about my body, my choices, makes me sick. Like Koda took something that belonged to Adrian.

“I know you think you love him.” Adrian crouches down in front of my chair and his hands grip the arms. “But love isn’t supposed to hurt, baby. Love isn’t supposed to make you hide and sneak around and lie to your dad.”

I lean back as far as I can and try to get away from him, but there’s nowhere to go.

“I can give you everything he can’t.” His voice drops to a whisper. “Respect. A real relationship out in the open. A proper father for that baby who won’t have to explain why his daddy is old enough to be his grandfather.”

The way he talks about my unborn child, like he has any right to an opinion about my baby’s future, sends a fresh wave of terror through me.

“I’ve been watching you struggle with the guilt,” Adrian continues and stands up. “Watching you tear yourself apart trying to choose between him and your father. But you don’t have to choose, Charlotte. You don’t have to hurt anyone anymore.”

He reaches toward my face like he’s going to wipe away the tears, but I jerk my head away violently.

The chair rocks with the motion.

Adrian’s expression darkens at my rejection.

“I’m not going to hurt you, Charlotte. I would never hurt you.”

The irony would be laughable if I weren’t tied to a chair. He’s terrorized me and violated my privacy for months, but he claims he’d never hurt me.

He doesn’t see this as hurting me, I realize. In his mind, this is saving me.

That makes him infinitely more dangerous than someone who knows they’re being cruel. You can reason with someone who knows they’re wrong. You can’t reason with someone who believes they’re being heroic.

“I just need you to understand,” Adrian says. “To see what we could have together.”

He reaches for the tape covering my mouth and slowly peels it away. My lips feel raw and sticky where the adhesive pulled at my skin. I work my jaw carefully and try to get the feeling back.

“Do you understand what I’m telling you, Charlotte?”

I look him straight in the eyes and draw on every ounce of strength I have.

Then I spit at him.

“I understand that you’re a sick fucking creep.”

Adrian’s face goes still.

“What did you say?” he whispers.