The car door slammed shut, sealing me in with him. My chest heaved, the sharp scent of leather and blood filling the air. The SUV hummed to life, the city blurring past the tinted windows, but all I could see was him.
Alexander sat across from me, his shirt torn open where my knife had kissed his chest. Blood seeped through his hand as he pressed it hard against the wound. His jaw was clenched tight, eyes fixed on me as if I was both his greatest irritation and his only focus.
I swallowed hard. "You're bleeding. Badly.
He didn't flinch. "And whose fault is that?"
Guilt twisted in my gut. I should've looked away, should've shut up, but instead I reached for the small first aid kit tucked into the car door. My hands shook as I pulled it out, fumbling through the contents.
"Don't," he snapped.
"I stabbed you," I shot back, surprising myself with the crack in my voice. "The least I can do is keep you from bleeding out on me."
His brows lifted at my defiance, but he leaned back, watching in silence as I pressed gauze to the wound. My fingers brushed his skin hot, slick with blood, muscles rigid beneath my touch.
"Hold still," I whispered.
His lips curved in a dark smirk. "I could say the same to you."
The words rattled through me, making it harder to focus. But I kept going, disinfecting the wound, wrapping the bandage as tight as I could manage. The whole time, his eyes burned into mine, blue and unyielding.
When I finally pulled back, breathless, he caught my wrist.
"You feel guilty," he murmured, low and dangerous. "Good. You should. But don't mistake guilt for freedom. You don't get to run from me again, Isabella. Ever."
I yanked my hand free, anger cutting through the fog of shame. "You can't keep me locked up like some possession. I won't settle for that….."
The car slowed. We'd reached the gates of his estate. Cold steel rose before us, lights cutting across the night sky.
My heart hammered. If I didn't try now, I would probably never get another chance.
The second the doors opened, I bolted.
My bare, aching feet pounded against the stone driveway as I sprinted into the shadows, lungs burning, stitches of pain tearing through me. Somewhere behind me, Alexander shouted my name, fury lacing his voice.
I didn't look back not once, just ran like my life depended on it, which of course it did.
I cut across the manicured garden, heart pounding, desperate. Freedom was right there just past the hedges, the iron fence...if I could just make it to the iron fence.
And then a hand like steel clamped around my arm, yanking me back so hard my hand nearly removed from it's socket, I nearly toppled.
"Do you ever learn?" His voice was a growl in my ear, his chest pressed in to my back.
I thrashed, tears stinging my eyes. "Let me go! You don't fucking own me, let me freaking go...Get the fuck away from me" anger and hate clouding my mind.
His grip on me tightened, spinning me to face him. His bandaged chest was already stained red again, blood seeping through. And still, his eyes burned into me with that same, merciless fire.
"I don't own you?" His lips brushed against my ear, his breath hot, dangerous. "Then why do you keep running straight into my hands little mouse?"