Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
Peach
Can you love me? Croixx
R ecognizing Wren's voice in my ear is a mind-fuck. Hearing it makes me think I'm safe, and so does smelling his cologne. My body could almost believe in the illusion of safety. But then everything hits again, and I attempt to scream with all my might.
"Calm down. Shh. Calm down, Peach."
I. Don't. Fucking. Calm. Down.
I throw my elbow back, hitting him in the stomach, but that doesn't change anything. The man is made of steel. I pull my weight down and move from side to side like a crazy woman, but he doesn't let me go.
Bringing both hands to his arm around my face, I grip on to him tightly, feeling his muscles and how strongly he's holding me, and I lift my leg to crush my foot onto his toes.
"Fuck! Peach!" he hisses. I use the moment to try to destabilize him some more.
Hoping to slam him into the wall behind us, I push back into him. Nothing works. He doesn't even move an inch. He doesn't give a shit about his toes, and I'm still stuck with my back to him and his hand on my mouth.
And I tire...very quickly.
He stays immovable for another minute before I completely give up and a whimper gets stuck in my throat. I knew Wren was strong. Anyone who looks at him knows that, but I thought I was too. I'm so strong-willed that I thought myself invincible, even when faced with a man his size. We’ve play-fought before, and nothing has ever felt like the strength he's using today.
"Are you done?" he purrs behind me.
I mumble a "fuck you" that can't be heard, but I think he knows because he chuckles.
"I don't want to hurt you, and the longer you fight, the more likely it is to happen. Promise you won't scream if I let you go?" How can he ask this so casually, like he would ask if I want to go on a walk.
I don't move. I don't say anything. What kind of promise is that? He's holding me fucking hostage in my bedroom.
He killed a man. He killed a man. He killed a man.
"Please, Peach. I really want to let you go. But I need you to promise you’ll be a good girl."
My lack of a response triggers something in him. He brings his other hand to the back of my head, pulling my hair until I'm craning my head so far back, I can see his head above mine.
His voice doesn't hold the same reassuring tone when he says, "I'm going to let go, and you're going to keep quiet if you don't want to find out exactly what happens when you don't behave. Now, nod."
There it is again. That lack of anything in his eyes. How have I never seen this before? The pain in my skull becomes unbearable, and I nod before I can even tell my brain to resist. Something relaxes in him, and he lets go of me completely.
The first thing I do is snap around to face him.
"Thank you," he sighs, running a hand across his face as if easing some tension. "Thank you," he repeats. And he truly sounds grateful.
"What the fuck, Wren?" I rasp, taking a few steps back. "What the?—"
"I'm sorry. I never meant for it to come to this, okay?"
I take another step back when he takes one forward.
"Please...don't be scared of me." The plea comes right from the depths of his heart.
My response is as automatic as a reflex. "I'm not scared of you." Even though I know that's not true. Saying it is just how I'm wired.
He pinches his lips and nods slowly. "Listen, Hermes published that police report, and I didn't expect it. This isn’t how I wanted you to find out."
"Find out what?" I bark, raising my voice when I didn't intend to. "Find out you're a murderer ?"
He shakes his head. "I'm not— I mean, yes, I probably killed Caleb." He's talking to himself now.
" Probably? Did you?"
"I think I took him out of the equation, yes. I believe it was me. But he upset you, so…" Looking right at me, he taps the side of his head with the tip of his index finger. "It makes sense."
I feel my eyes round, and I open my mouth to tell him it makes no sense whatsoever. Except no words come out.
I'm too terrified by the manic look in his eyes, by the smirk on his face. "Do you understand now?"
I shake my head, but the next step back makes me trip on something, and my ass ends up on the floor. He doesn't stop advancing, though, so I crawl backward.
"Do you understand, Peach? The things I'm capable of doing for you?"
He chuckles to himself. "I tried, you know? I tried to show you only the good side. I pretended for years that all I was, was your good friend. I swallowed rage when you flirted with other guys, and I punched walls when I wanted to punch their faces. And when I hurt them, I did it behind your back. Like a good person."
Oh. Fuck.
"I pretended I cared for things like college, our friends, parties, sports. I put on the mask of the perfect fucking human being so you wouldn't see there's absolutely nothing behind it. I did all of that in the hope that when the time came, you'd finally be mine." He snorts. "Years of pretending not to be crazily obsessed so I could slowly lead you to this exact date, and you'd tell me you'd choose me. And we were doing so well this morning, weren't we? We finally took it a step further. So, what? So Hermes can fuck it all up for me?"
He stops above me, a foot by each of my hips as my insides tremble.
He tilts his head to the side, discovering something he never had before. "You look delectable under me."
My heart is beating so harshly in my ears, I can barely hear him. When I try to move backward some more, I realize I've reached the wall.
"Wren, what are you talking about?" I pant. "Choosing you today? Of all days? What do you even mean?"
"You didn't receive an invite, did you?"
"An invite to what?" I snap. "What are you saying?"
He shakes his head. "So no one has their eyes on you. Only me. Really, all the chances were on my side. The only thing I don't have is your willingness." He runs a hand through his hair. "Achilles was right. I should have just done it."
"Done what ?" I attempt to use the wall to stand up, but he moves closer, pinning me there just as I reach a position on my knees. "Move back, for fuck's sake!" I bark.
"I would really rather not. I quite like you there. Let me enjoy it while I can, yeah?"
Wrapping a hand under my chin, he grips to make sure I keep looking at him. "Tell me something."
He licks his lips, his eyes sparking. "If I told you that tonight, you could be mine. Forever. What would you say? That there would be nothing that would ever get between us, but that you'd also never have a chance to leave me. And that, if you refuse, we will never, ever have a chance to be together. You and me, it's now or never, Trouble."
Wondering if he’s officially lost all sense of reality, I blink up at him. But the anxiety he's pulling out of me is very real.
"I know all the reasons you shouldn't want this. I heard you the many times you told me. I thought about them over and over again. What I'm asking you right now is to think of the reasons you should want it. You know we have feelings for each other. Our clashes of personalities, our need to dominate, put that to the side, please. Just feel what we mean to each other."
My heart threatens to leap from my chest and run away. The fear, the confusion…the feelings he mentioned, it's all too much.
"You've fucking lost it," I rasp. "I have no idea what you're talking about, so let me go."
Instead of doing just that, his grip tightens. "Choose, Penelope. Us, tonight and forever. No way out, no safe word. Or nothing. Ever."
For a moment, I think of what I truly feel for Wren. How he's always been different from the others. How I feel the closest to him. I used to look for him the second I walked into our school when we were kids, and I still do every time I step into a party or the classes we share. How my eyes search for his number seven on the lacrosse field. How he's the first person I go to for good and bad news, for advice and reassurance. How my heart warms when he talks to me, and my stomach tightens when he touches me.
Wren and I have something special and undeniable, but I've always put our friendship first. I've always put reason before passion when it comes to him, because he's too important to me to lose him.
Him and me? One day. Maybe. But, for whatever reasons he won't explain, choosing him tonight and forever? No way out? That's just not who I am. That's not how I’ve ever acted with a man. Giving him that kind of power over me is not an option. I don't put myself second just to feel how much someone can complete me. I won't ever hope for a knight in shining armor or a villain in a dark cloak to steal me away and give me the world. I want to build my own world and relish my success with pride. I want to bask in everything I've achieved and know that I didn't have to sacrifice anything for a man. Especially one I've now learned can go to extents I didn't think him capable.
"Tonight and forever, or nothing?" His voice resonates in every single corner of my mind as he repeats the choice he's offering.
I look straight into his eyes, and he knows me enough to hear it before I say it.
"Nothing."
His jaw clenches as his eyes flutter shut. I feel his pain so deeply inside me, it could almost make me change my mind. It doesn't.
My stomach flips when he opens his eyes, and his free hand comes to the back of my head. Something changes in his expression as he forces my head forward and presses it against his groin. Panic overtakes me, and I whimper as I try to push back against his thighs. It brings the purest form of fear. If he's capable of murder, I'm not that special that he would spare me.
"Wren, stop…"
He presses harder, and all I manage to do is move my head so my cheek is against the coarse material of his jeans rather than my mouth. Our difference in size and strength is so obvious it hurts. In fact, it scares me to the bone. Because all I have right now is hope that my friend isn't going to do something stupid. I can't stop him if he wants to. I can only ask him not to and trust that he won't.
My world falls apart when I realize he's hard. I can feel it so clearly. It turns him on to make me submit.
"Stop," I grunt as I struggle some more, the blood freezing in my veins.
He lets me go so suddenly I fall back against the wall and attempt to stand up in messy movements as he takes a few steps back.
He looks at me with heartbreak in his eyes and anger in his features.
"I regret giving you a choice."
That's all he says before storming out of my bedroom.
My best friend, who I always thought was a safe haven, the man I've always had conflicted feelings for and who killed for me…regrets giving me a choice.
And as I catch my breath while staring at my bedroom door, I wonder exactly how dangerous Wren Hunter is. Could he really do it? Take my choice away?