My heart hammered against my ribs like a trapped bird, the silence in the cavernous living room so thick it felt tangible. I pressed my back harder into the freezing glass wall, trying to shrink away from the overwhelming heat of his body, but there was nowhere to go. I was completely trapped in his orbit, caught in the terrifying pull of a man who looked at me like he owned every breath in my lungs.
Outside, the cold morning mist had begun to turn into a steady downpour, darkening the pines beyond the glass as the pale light bled away into a heavy, suffocating grey.
“Do you remember…” Cole began, his voice dropping into a low, deceptively casual murmur, “that time you had your first little boyfriend? You were thirteen.”
A slow, sinister smile curved his lips.
I remembered.
His name w
