🔹THORNE
She stared at me like I'd grown a second head. "You want me to fight you?"
"I want you to stop dulling your edges for me." I caught her wrist, my thumb finding her pulse. It jumped under my touch. "Even when that terrifies me."
Her breath hitched. The confusion in her eyes shifted into something more guarded, more wary. Like she was waiting for the trap to spring.
"You don't mean that," she said quietly.
"I do."
"You'll change your mind." Her voice was flat, matter-of-fact. "When I do something reckless again. When I make a choice you don't agree with. You'll remember why you wanted me compliant in the first place."
The words hit harder than her claws had. Because she believed them. She'd already written the script for how this would end.
"Maybe," I admitted, and watched her eyes shutter. "I'll probably fuck this up a hundred more times. Say the wrong thing. Push when I should pull. Try to cage you when I'm scared."
