And if I do decide to give it a good go?
Then that’s great—but it’ll be my prerogative. My terms.
I glance at the door, but I don’t move toward it.
If I do this, it’ll be on my own time.
If and when I please.
CHAPTER 53
IVY
The next day
Iwake up wrong. Like something shifted while I slept and I missed it.
For a second, I don’t move. My body feels heavy. Restricted. My brain lags behind the realization until—my wrists.
Bound.
My stomach drops, so fast it almost hurts.
I jerk upright, and pressure tight across my chest pulls me back down. My ankles. My breath spikes. “What the?—?”
The room is dim. Shadows stretch across the walls, wrong somehow, like the space changed while I wasn’t looking.
“Soren?”
Nothing.
Then a sound. Soft. Somewhere in the room.
My pulse jumps, sharp and immediate, adrenaline slicing through the last of the sleep fog. I pull against therestraints, testing. They don’t give. Not even a fraction. “This isn’t funny,” I snap, my voice tighter now. “If this is—if you’re?—”
Movement. Closer.
I freeze.
There’s a shape at the edge of the bed. Still. Watching. I can’t see his face. Not clearly.
And for a second, my chest tightens. Because I don’t know for sure that it’s him.
“You said you trusted me.” His voice. Relief hits first. Fast. Hard. Then something colder follows.
“Soren,” I breathe. “What the fuck are you doing?”
He doesn’t answer. Just moves. Slow. Deliberate. Not hiding. Not rushing. Like this was inevitable. “You told me what you wanted. And then you said you felt trapped. So I’m giving you exactly what you implied you wanted. Me to literally trap you. To show you what being trapped really feels like. You’re here on my terms now.”
My stomach tightens. “That wasn’t—this isn’t—” My words stumble, because itis. Too close. Too exact. Every detail aligning. Deliberate. “I didn’t agree to this,” I say, sharper now, pulling against the restraints again. “You don’t just decide?—”
His hand closes around my ankle. Firm. Grounding. Not painful. Unavoidable. “You don’t get to take it back once you say it out loud. Especially when you then accuse me of things I’m not doing. That’s not fair, Ivy. There are consequences to saying things like that to me.”
My breath stutters. Something twists low in my stomach. Fear. Yes. But not just that.
“You said you wanted to be taken,” he continues, quieter now. “You said you didn’t want to know.”
“I know it’s you,” I snap, even though I can’t fully see him. Even though something about this feels different.