Page 515 of Coal Hearts

The way the sun glinted off her impossibly dark hair.

The way her body was strong enough—even after everything she’d endured—to plank and push-up, lunge and balance on one leg. I’d often wondered where she’d gotten her strength from.

Now I knew.

On her last sun salutation, she placed her hands into a prayer and bowed her chin.

I expected her to drop to the grass and slip into a meditation like she usually did, but she took a deep breath and lowered her arms.

Her eyes flashed to mine.

She froze.

I froze.

All that electrifying awareness that never stopped crackling between us increased to a thousand volts.

I grew hard as I pictured kissing her.

I trembled at the thought of going too far.

My heart squeezed in literal pain.

I.L.Y.

I love you—

Don’t.

The sooner I forgot what her name meant, the better.

“You’re still in there. I know you are. You’re still good—”

I swallowed a moan.

She asked me to play along with her.

She believed everything I’d done up till now was an act.

But she didn’t get it.

I didn’t want her begging at my feet as she played along with me; I wanted her scratching my eyes out and telling me to stop.

I wanted to hunt her down. But I didn’t want her to play dead and let me; I wanted her to scream and try to kill me.

Fuck.

Sourness filled my mouth.

It seemed my morality after murdering four men had returned, suffocating me under the very real knowledge that if I touched her now, I would pay for the privilege.

She only asked me to play along to earn her freedom.

I dropped my head and pinched the bridge of my nose.

She’d kissed me, hugged me, not because she felt anything for me but because she was so fucking brave and figured out how to manipulate me.

All it would take was making me fall in love with her—