-ALEXANDER-
The inside of the car was a swirling storm of rage and desperate hunger. My lips were almost on hers, her fear a potent fuel to my unleashed monster. I was going to take her. I was going to break her defiance. But as my breath mingled with hers, a single, sharp thought pierced through the haze of my fury: This is not earning her. This is breaking her more.
The monster in me roared its disagreement, but the desperate, hopeful fool who still craved her forgiveness, her true acceptance, held on. It was a brutal, agonizing fight within myself.
My hands trembled. My body shook with the sheer force of my self-control. I pulled back, just barely, my breath ragged, my eyes burning into hers. Her own eyes were wide, filled with raw fear, relief, and a flicker of something that looked
