Violet's POV
His eyes darkened, his posture shifting, a flicker of something primal flashing in his gaze. “What do you mean?”
But I didn’t answer. I couldn’t. Not yet.
I had to watch him squirm. I had to make him feel the same uncertainty he’d made me feel for so long.
“I know more than you think, Logan,” I said, my voice just above a whisper, a dangerous promise in the way my lips curled into a smile. “You’ll regret coming for me. You’ll regret it more than you can imagine.”
I stood frozen, my wrist caught firmly in his grip, my chest tight with a mix of fury and something I couldn’t quite identify. The anger I had been holding on to for so long felt like it was ready to spill over, but I couldn’t quite move. His presence, that damn presence, wrapped around me like a suffocating blanket.
I should have pushed him away. I should have yelled, thrown every ounce of hatred at him that I had stored up for years. But no matter how much I fought it, something inside me—a traitor—wanted to stay. Wanted to listen.
Logan didn’t let go. Instead, he pulled me closer, his grip steady but not harsh, like he expected me to come willingly. My skin burned where he touched me, and I could feel the heat of his body against mine. I hated how my breath caught in my throat, how my heart beat just a little too fast for comfort. I forced myself to stay composed, but it was becoming harder by the second.
“You’re not going anywhere,” his voice rumbled low, like the growl of a storm waiting to break. The words were a command, not a request, and yet there was something else in his tone—something raw, something... almost vulnerable. He was close now, too close, and I couldn’t look away, couldn’t make myself break free from his gaze. It was like he knew the power he had over me, knew how to trap me in this space, in this moment, where everything else was just background noise.
I opened my mouth to speak, to push him off, but before the words could form, his other hand lifted, moving gently under my chin. His touch was a contradiction, soft and possessive, pulling my face up to meet his. He tilted my head, just enough to expose the delicate curve of my neck. It was intimate, too intimate, and my breath caught in my chest. Every nerve in my body screamed to pull away, but I stayed frozen.
His fingers brushed the line of my throat, a soft caress that sent a shiver through me. My heart was thudding now, a frantic drumbeat in my chest that I couldn’t silence. I hated how my body betrayed me. I hated how much I wanted to feel that touch again.
“I didn’t expect this,” Logan murmured, his voice softer now, but still carrying that intensity that never seemed to falter. “That you’d push me away so easily. But it’s not just your body I want, Violet. It’s you. All of you.”
I could feel his words wrapping around me like chains, but I refused to let them bind me. Not this time. I wasn’t going to fall for him again, not after everything. Not after all the years of lies, manipulation, and control. He couldn’t just walk in and undo all the damage he’d caused.
“You want me?” The words escaped before I could stop them, a bitter laugh falling from my lips. I couldn’t believe it, couldn’t wrap my head around the idea that after everything, he thought he could just claim me.
“How convenient. How convenient that after all this time, you think you can just walk in and claim me. Do you really think I’ll just fall into your arms, Logan? You don’t get to decide anymore.”
The coldness in my voice matched the fury inside me, but he didn’t flinch. His gaze was still fixed on me, unwavering. I hated that. I hated how he could still make me feel this small, this insignificant.
“I never wanted to control you, Violet,” he said, and this time, his voice was a little softer, almost as though he was pleading.
“You’ve always misunderstood me. Always.” His hand didn’t leave my skin, but I felt a slight falter in his grip, as if the words were harder for him to say than he wanted me to believe. “I didn’t come here for power. I didn’t come here to control you. I came here because I couldn’t stay away.”
His words made me falter, just for a second. I hated how they slipped into my mind, like poison, making me question everything I thought I knew about him. No. I couldn’t let him do this to me. He was lying. He had to be lying. He had always used people to get what he wanted. I wasn’t special, not to him. I was just another piece in his game.
“You came here to fix me?” I scoffed, the bitterness in my voice sharper than ever. The words were a painful reminder of how little he’d truly cared.
I could see the muscles in his jaw tighten, the cold, calculating edge to his expression returning as I spoke. He didn’t react to the venom in my words the way I thought he would. Instead, there was something—something in the way he looked at me—that told me he wasn’t as unaffected as he wanted me to believe.
“I didn’t come here to fix you,” Logan said, his voice quieter now, but no less intense. “I came here because I need you. Because I’ve always needed you.”