Caius POV:

Watching her panicked inside that room did something to me . It was exhilarating to watch and I enjoyed it but, then when she finally cracked the code and tumbled out of the room , collapsing to the ground , something inside me shifted.

She was shaking, no, trembling, like a wounded animal caught in the jaws of something cruel and merciless. Her body was wracked with silent sobs, her hands fisted in her hair as if she could physically pull herself together.

My stomach twisted, the sensation foreign and unwelcome. I should have felt satisfaction. This was what I wanted after all , her broken, stripped of that unshakable defiance. Fear had finally seeped into her bones, taken root beneath her skin. And yet.......

My fingers twitched at my sides, a sudden tension in my jaw that I couldn't explain. I had expected her to fight, to scream at me like she always did. But this? This raw vulnerability, this quiet collapse, it didn't sit right.

I inhaled sharply, pushing away the strange discomfort coiling in my chest.

I wasn't going to lose control. I didn't care. I had dragged her into my world to break her, to carve myself into every part of her until there was nothing left untouched by my presence.

Then why did the sight of her like this made something in me shifted? Something uncomfortable and foreign.

My fingers flexed before curling into a fist, my gaze darkening as I watched her body tremble on the screen. I couldn't explained it . It was an unusual feeling, something other than the insane obsession I felt for her and I didn't like that new feeling because it made me wanted to do things out of the ordinary, like make her feel something else other than pain and fear. I continued to watched her crumpled up on the concrete floor in my museum sobbing and then without even realising it, I was on my feet and heading down there for her.

The minute I made it down the last steps, she was on her feet and she had grabbed a knife . The tears stilled rolled down her cheeks as she screamed,

" Mi hate yuh! Mi hate yuh! Mi hate yuh, yuh fucking Satan ! Weh yuh want from mi?!"

I walked towards her and she raised the knife , that deadly gleamed from before was back in her eyes but, something else was also present. Desperation and pain, the desperate need to escape or killed me but, I didn't care .

Let her , it would be an absolute pleasure to have her bury that fucking knife as deep into my flesh as it could go and I would relished the look of pure satisfaction in her eyes because then , I would have awoken another thing inside her that I wanted to , the feeling of gaining pleasure through inflicting pain and killing.

She backed away from me the more I advanced until her back collided with the wall and I closed the distance between us as I looked down at her. She looked up at me her eyes burning with hate and I grabbed her hand with the knife and twisted it out of her grasp and it cluttered to the floor as I locked her arms above her head.

I should be hurting her, breaking her, making her pay for every ounce of resistance and curses she had dared to throw my way. But instead...instead, my gaze dropped, to her lips, to the way they parted just slightly, as if inviting me to take what I already knew belonged to me.

She continued to look into my eyes, the hate in her eyes giving way to something else , something desperate and dark, lust and then she slide her tongue over her bottom lip , her eyes never leaving mine.

That was it. That was the push I needed.

With a sharp inhale, I grabbed her throat with my free hand tilting her head back, while the other releases her hands that I had locked above her head and found her waist, yanking her hard against my body . I felt her breath hitch, felt the way her body tensed before melting into the heat of my touch.

Then, before she could throw out another smart remark, my lips crashed onto hers.

The kiss was rough, punishing, a war between dominance and surrender. My teeth grazed her bottom lip, and a small, surprised gasp left her mouth, one I swallowed instantly, deepening the kiss as if I could consume her whole.

She should have fought me. She should have pushed me away. I knew she wanted to especially after seeing the burning hate for me in her eyes, in her deadly grip on the knife she previously held .

But she didn't.

Instead, her fingers fisted my shirt, pulling me closer, her nails digging into my skin like she wanted to leave a mark, like she needed to.

The moment was a wildfire, burning hot and dangerous, neither of us knowing where it would lead.

Then, just as suddenly as it started, I pulled back.

My breath was uneven, my chest rising and falling rapidly, but my grip on her waist didn't loosen. My lips hovered just over hers, close enough that they almost touched again because truthfully I was fighting the urge whether to kiss her again or turned away from her entirely.

She blinked up at me , her lips still slightly swollen from the force of my kiss. " what?", her voice was barely a whisper. "Why yuh kiss mi? Mi just seh mi hate yuh Satan".

I let out a sharp breath, my jaw clenched tight.

" yuh coulda resist Bria, yuh shoudah fucking resist".

My fingers flexed against her waist, as if trying to memorize the shape of her before I forced myself to step back.

I needed to stop this. I needed to get my head straight.

But the taste of her was still on my lips.

And that? That was a problem.

" doh fi one second think this change nuhun. Mi still hate yuh and mi still aguh fight yuh until eh kill mi fi escape from yuh Satan".

" Caius " , I said as I turned back to face her and she frowned .

" what?"

" Although I appreciate you taking the time to give me a name suited to my character, my name is Caius " , I wasn't going to give her my last name though, not yet. She didn't respond and I simply lead her back upstairs into her room and locked the door .

I needed to go to a meeting at work but, even as I showered , got dressed and got into my car , I couldn't stop thinking about that fucking kiss and the way she had responded . I swallowed hard , it was a mistake , weakness that I couldn't afford to let happened again and I was going to ensure it wasn't repeated.