Page 30 of Scent Of Obsession
Her beauty hardened my cock. Her strange behavior had made me watch her all day through the cameras like a perv. Cleaning the greenhouse was a punishment for disturbing my peace. Yet, it felt like I’d offered her an amusement park. That devotion and passion of hers captivated me.
She created unwanted thoughts that crept through my mind.
I wanted to kill her hope.
That was what I despised the most about her. The hope she was cursing me with.
“Why did you even bring her here?” Hugo had asked earlier.
“I need to see if she’s up for the task. I don’t like wasting my time,” I had replied. Little did I know, I’d be wasting my time at this precise moment.
I stubbed my cigar on the ashtray, my eyes narrowing at Lily. I smoothed my tie, dark thoughts of how I’d teach her a lesson for messing with my patience slithering through my veins, slow but searing, like the deadliest of the scourge.
I stormed out of my office. Time was valuable. I was a busy man. Each second, I made hundreds of dollars. Each second, another person heard about how much of a monster I was. Each second, I was giving right to their gossip.
Cursing internally, I shut down the fucking electricity before passing through the crowd like a phantom. My eyes stuck on Lily, and fury ran red through my brain. I had one mission. I walked faster, ignoring the gasps of the crowd and their loud noises.
Arriving next to them, I muttered to Hugo, “Put the goddamn power on.”
I snatched Lily by her waist, forcing her to come with me. With a firm grip, I held her while pushing the crowd to make our way out. That witch was making it hard for me, moving frenetically. I shut her up with my hand, having no desire to make a spectacle of myself.
“Stay calm.” I gritted my teeth.
She stopped her madness but dug her nails into the bare skin of my hand. She could draw blood out of me; it wouldn’t stop me from what was coming next. As soon as I slammed the door to my office, I pinned her against it to trap her. The anger pouring through me couldn’t be stopped.
Hugo switched the light on at the perfect time.
“When I ask something, I expect you to follow it!” I roared, pounding the door with my fist close to her head.
When I finally looked upon her, she struck me with a mask of panic on her face. A flood of sobsshimmered in her eyes before they gushed down on her ashen cheeks. Her lips shook. Her pupils flared. A muscle in my jaw twitched—I didn’t think my grip was that strong. Had I hurt her?
“What—”
In less than a second, arms were wrapped around me.
Body quivering alongside me.
Streams of tears flowed faster than an angry river on my suit.
Her crashing on my chest made me flinch. She tightened her hold on me with all her strength. The perfume of her hair, sweet and addictive, bewitched me. She broke down, merging me with her chaos, sharing with me a glimpse of the pain she was carrying inside of her.
My anger for her vanished. I cursed myself for what I was about to do. I should have pushed her away. Let her deal with her issue. I shouldn’t have been put into that position. It wasn’t my role. Worse than allowing this, I held her in my arms, reinforcing and hardening the link she created between us.
“What made you cry?”You, idiot.
“The light switched off,” she whimpered, taking shaky breaths to calm herself down. “It brought back bad memories. I’m better now, but I see things… in the complete dark.” She struggled to articulate, her chin shaking as if hunted by an evil she couldn’t face.
The greenhouse. It all made sense now. How ironic that the only woman I paid interest to was terrified of the monsters she could not see. She was terrified of everything I represented. Monstrosity and darkness. She was braver than she thought.
“I’m sorry.” She held my stare with red, swollen eyes. “For making you mad.”
“You should sit.” I hid the way she almost destabilized me with her apology by clearing my throat.
She took a seat on my black leather sofa, and I served her a glass of water. I squared an ankle over my knee, sitting in front of her. I contemplated her drinking every last bit of her drink. A part of me would have told her she was safe, but she couldn’t count on someone like me.
I was grotesque, a sphinx, half creature, half human, whose ability to care for anyone had been eradicated. But most importantly, I was selfish. If I started wanting her, she’d be mine. And then, no one could protect her from me.
I wasn’t a predator.
