Pretty Little Things

Chapter 18 - Colin

I shifted gears as my car sped down the highway, my mind focusing on Annabel. Flashes of blond and green would forever be seared into my mind.

Having her in my arms was almost as gratifying as what I would do in the past…almost. The thought of sharing my dirtied and depraved acts with her…unspeakable. I could feel it starting in the pit of my stomach and radiating like a shock wave throughout my body. I wanted the anger, the control, and questionable morals. I wanted it all now, and it was killing me to fight against it, but she was worth the struggle. To have her blindly agree to the unknown because she trusted me was something I never thought possible.

Breathe in.

The feel of her honey-scented flesh against mine. Just the thought caused my heart to palpitate and the world to shift on its axis and center on her. I could still feel it, taste it.

Breathe out.

Pulling golden curls from her face, running abusive fingers over her bruised facade. She was so much stronger than I could ever be. It took far more guts to stand tall in the face of fear than to intimidate the weak.

Breathe in.

She looked at me like she could see the person I was meant to be, not the twisted manifestation of Taylor’s sick perversions. She believed, when I had given up hope, that I could be saved.

Breathe out.

I had to use any last ounce of logic and morality to leave her behind, give a fighting chance to the defenseless. She would be fine. No one would question the assertion that I’d forced her. This was the only way it could have ever ended with us. I deserved to be exposed for what I really was. She could finally be free.

Breathe in.

I stepped on the gas, trying hard not to think of Annie being comforted by Jacob. There was no denying that he was the lesser of two evils, but the very thought killed me. I had finally gotten to taste what I could never have. I’d gotten to see what my life could have been had I been the hero in her story.

I would gladly relive every whipping I had received. The pain was a comforting balance, but this ache, this dull, crippling death of losing her was too much.