Chapter 232 Chapter 232
Chapter 232 Chapter 232
Violet
I would have given everything to hear those words back then from him. They would have made me rejoice like I was the luckiest person alive.
Now, I wasn’t sure I could trust him, if he really meant it or just was unhappy his secret was out.
When he laughed again, the sound was hollow enough to make my chest ache.
“You think I would lose my mind like this over somebody I merely wanted like a quest?” he demanded harshly. “You think I would stand here bleeding and humiliating myself and begging if you were just another woman to me?”
My pulse thundered painfully.
“I have spent weeks trying not to drag you back to me,” he continued, voice breaking roughly. “Trying not to destroy every man who looks at you for too long. Trying not to lose whatever humanity I still had left because you looked at me once like I was something worth loving.”
His eyes dropped to my mouth and that look of pure yearning nearly undid me.
“Congratulations,” he said quietly, though his voice sounded wrecked. “You finally found somebody better than me.”
I should have stopped there but instead I lied again. “I did”
"I came here to tell you that I can only be your employee," I said, my voice flat and cold. "At best. Nothing more than that. Thank you for your help in the elevator. I appreciate the professional courtesy. But I'm sorry I hugged you the way I did. That was inappropriate of me. It won't happen again."
"Nothing between us is inappropriate!" His voice rose, sharp with desperation and pain. "Nothing we do together, nothing we feel, nothing that exists between us could ever be wrong or inappropriate or anything except exactly what it should be."
“So if you forced me into this job to play your sick games again, I am not falling for it.”
He took a step closer. “Do you fucking know the first time I saw you in that restaurant, I was instantly jealous of Nate?”
My gaze flicked back to him sharply.
“I have seen girls scramble to get even a lick of attention from me, I have seen them practically fuck me with their eyes but never once in my life had any girl looked at me like you looked at Nate.”
I curled my fingers into fists, trying to not recall those feelings.
“Because you looked at him like your world revolved around him. Like he…that asshole of a man deserved something as pure and innocent as you.”
I let out a harsh laugh. “And you instantly wanted that for yourself because how dare somebody else get any attention when you existed, right? That’s what you do-snatch and grab things like they are toys..”
“You mean the world to me, Violet.” His hand reached to hold my shoulders and despite my body’s need to lean into him, I tried to push him away.
“Let me go”
His hands gripped me hard and slowly I thought I heard his voice choke and grow even thicker.
A thin streak of blood trailed down his nose that I didn’t allow my heart to worry about.
“Please, Violet. I’m begging you!”
"Leave me the hell alone, Elijah Lockwood!" I was screaming now, all the pent-up emotion of the past weeks pouring out in a torrent I couldn't control.
"I am done with your games and your manipulation and your grand gestures that are supposed to make me forget how you used me. How you made me into entertainment for you and your friends. Find someone else to toy with. I am not your plaything anymore."
"You were never a toy!" He was shouting too now, his carefully maintained control shattering completely. "You were never entertainment or a game or anything except the person who made me want to be better than I am. The person who made me realize I've been living a lie."
His hands came up to grip his hair, pulling hard enough that it had to hurt. His breathing was ragged, his eyes wild.
The look on his face was horrifying. His fist slammed into the wall so violently that the sound made me jump.
Blood streaked across the pale surface immediately.
“Elijah!”
He ignored me completely.
His eyes were desperate as they searched mine, pleading for an answer he didn't want to hear.
"Does he know?" Elijah continued when I didn't respond. "Does he know how lucky he is? Does he understand what a gift you're giving him? Does he love you the way you deserve to be loved?"
“Stop it!”
"Do you love him?" The final question came out broken, devastated. "Is it real? Is it the kind of love that…"
A sharp knock on the door interrupted whatever he'd been about to ask.
The employee from earlier peeked inside, his eyes widening slightly at the scene before him.
"Get out," Elijah snarled, his voice rough and dangerous. "Get the fuck out and don't come back unless the building is burning down. Do you understand me?"
"Yes sir," the employee said quickly, already backing away. "I'm sorry to interrupt, I just…"
"I was done anyway," I said quickly, already moving toward the door, desperate for escape.
"Thank you for your time, Mr. Lockwood."
The formality of the address made him flinch visibly, a full-body recoil like I'd struck him.
"Violet, wait. Please." His hand reached out, not quite touching me, hovering in the space between us. "Don't leave like this. Don't walk away thinking that I don't.."
I had barely made a few steps outside his door when a hand caught mine. The sudden move startled me but before I could process or even react to it, Elijah had swiftly pulled me inside his cabin and shut the door with a loud thud.
“Elijah, what are you doing?” I shouted but he kept his grip firm on my arm and reached for the telephone on his desk.
“I don’t want to be disturbed for the next few hours.” He said to the assistant who replied.
“But Sir, the clients from…”
“Reschedule, or cancel. I don’t fucking care. If anybody dares disturb me, you will pay for it.” He said and disconnected, the receiver banging on the machine.
Then he turned to look at me.
His gaze dropped briefly to my mouth again hungrily before dragging back up to my eyes.
“Let me go!,” I whispered, though the words sounded weak even to my own ears.
Elijah let out a hollow laugh.
“That’s the problem, Violet.” His voice came out roughened by emotion and lack of restraint. “I genuinely don’t think I can.”