Page 60 of Broken by my Bully
But apparently those are bad luck, so…
“I do make a mean cocoa,” he says.
…we’re all adults here…
I could murder a cocoa and mount the cup on my car’s dash.
“Mini marshmallows?” I ask, my voice coming out breathier than intended.
His eyes darken. “I’ll give you whatever you want, Haven. You just have to ask nicely.”
We both turn at the sound of thunder rumbling in the far distance.
Both turn back to each other a second later.
“Seems Zeus has spoken. I’ll be back in a sec.” Bastian leans back,tapping the rim of the window. I watch him until he’s almost at the black slab of his front door.
I throw open my door and yell out the first thing that pops into my head…like a fucking idiot. “I can swallow really fast!”
He stops dead, his back to me.
Fuck.
When he turns, the open hunger in his expression makes my stomach drop.
“Now you’re just being cruel.” His voice carries despite the distance, his mouth quirking into a smug little smile. “Should I be proud that you’re such a quick study?”
Haven
There are special moments in my life, little vignettes, that I drink in and save like a mental snapshot. So I can savor it later, or wallow a bit. Bastian made it sound like I don’t cling to the past, but he’s wrong.
The further I look back, the harder I push forward.
But that’s my secret.
No one else needs to know how fucking desperate I am to succeed.
That I think about it night and day.
That I’ve done things—willcontinuedoing things—I’m not proud of to keep this fucking ball rolling.
A rolling stone gathers no moss.
And wrecking balls gotta have a ton of momentum.
I’m still not sure what kind of snapshot I’m taking right now. Whether I’ll pore over it and smile, or glare at it when I’m in a spiteful mood.
The air inside Bastian’s home smells like a pine forest just after the rain. Crisp, clean, earthy. It’s as if he bottled the smell inside hidden fragrance diffusers.
Inhaling it makes me feel more alive than I have in a while. Painfully, achingly so.
But with clarity comes, well,clarity.
I suddenly feel dirty. Poor. Dumb. And so out of my depth, I’m gonna need scuba gear, or I’ll drown.
The man who invited me inside notices, of course. He notices everything.
I’ve just entered his domain, and predators are most dangerous in their own territory.
