Accidentally Yours (Merffy Kizzmet) novel Chapter 236

Chapter 236

That landed: a ripple under glass, but it landed. His nostrils flared, too quick to hide.

“You talk like this to everyone?” he asked.

“Yeah Lucy, pretty much,” she said.

He stepped closer again; the obsession showed now, thin as a wire under the skin. “I could take it all out,” he said softly. “The fear. The roots. The memory that keeps you from being useful.”

“You mean the spine?” she said. “That’s welded.”

“Useful,” he repeated. “To something more than your appetites.”

“Oh, we’re talking appetites,” she said brightly. “How brave.”

The jaw tightened. The polite smile returned. “We’ll begin with intake. Vitals, baselines, simple answers. Composure earns accommodation. Defiance earns longer conversations.”

…

“You do love your euphemisms,” she said. “What’s the one for dog collar? ‘Leadership seminar‘?”

“You’re reckless, Lola.”

“No,” she said. “I’m bored.”

“You don’t frighten me.”

“I’m not aiming for fright. I’m aiming for consequences.”

He looked over her shoulder at nothing and everything, the performance of a man in charge of a system, and when he looked back, he’d decided to be kind.

“You can still be saved.”

“By you?” she said. “Lucy, you can barely keep yourself from vibrating.”

He actually smiled. Quick. Crooked. Human and terrible. “I wondered if you’d notice.”

“I notice when men want something too much,” she said. “They start mistaking the room for consent.”

He absorbed it. He was very good at absorbing. He set a scalpel down with careful fingers, like not making noise was the same as not being dangerous.

“You’re going to work with us,” he said, final as a signature.

“You’re going to find synonyms for ‘no‘ exhausting,” she said.

“Last chance to be sensible.”

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10:05 Thu, Oct 23 MAR

Chapter 236

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