His eyes blazed for a split second before she shrugged his grip off, and he let her.
Exiting the closet space, she blindly headed toward the door she assumed led outside the room, needing to get away from him, to distract herself, to do absolutely anything but deal with him. She just didn’t have the energy anymore.
Pulling open the black door, she walked out onto a small cavernous landing, a couple of low steps leading up into a massive, and she meant massive, open space. The first thing she noticed was the high ceiling, normal ceiling and not rock-cut like on the deck. Was this not a part of the mountain?
She entered the huge open space, a sense of wonder filling her at the multiple windows and natural light filling in.
She had never seen anything like this in her life, never thought she would see something like this.
From where she stood on top of the bedroom landing, she could see a short corridor going to her right, to what looked like another bedroom of sorts from her vantage. Ignoring that, she took a few steps into the open space, turning around on the spot to take it all in. A large open kitchen to her right, separated from the main living room by tall island counters and a dining table for six people. To her left corner, a seating area with black couches and wooden table on the left corner, right by a set of windows, in front of the biggest television screen.
She stared at the screen, unable to remember the last time she’d seen a movie. There had been a small TV in the common room at the complex, but she had barely ventured down to watch it. Mostly, the girls had fought between themselves to decide on one thing, and Lyla had never been confrontational. She simply sat back and bit her tongue, going with the flow, keeping her head down, surviving. That was how she’d understood survival worked best—go unnoticed, go safe.
‘How’d that work out for you?’ a voice taunted in her head.
Taking in a shaky breath, she looked to the other corner of the room, toward another corridor going somewhere. On slow steps, she went to investigate, crossing the length of the space and admiring the view outside the windows. She just didn’t understand how this portion of the house looked normal but the deck had been under the mountain. How was it built exactly?
Sidelining the question for the moment, she entered the corridor and went down the short space, curious to see what she would find on the other side of the large door she could see at the end. With a click of the lock, the knob turned in her hand and she pushed it open, freezing on the threshold.
A room—no, a long hall—with windows on the wall opposite the door, lit up the space filled with things. So many things. Books on shelves lined one end of the hall. A solid wooden desk with a chair and multiple computers sat on the other end. In between, the area was littered with a canvas on an easel, a box of shiny crystals and shiny metal wires, so many things her brain couldn’t compute what they all were for.
“There’s something for you here.”
The voice came from her back, from a space away. She turned to see him standing, still shirtless, his muscular upper body exposed for her eyes, an expanse of honey brown skin and solid muscles and a smattering of dark hair. He stood with his hands in his sweatpants pockets, simply observing her observing things.
“There’s a white tablet on the table. That’s for you. You can spend your time in here deciding what you like,” he continued when she didn’t say anything. “Reading, painting, jewelry-making, watching TV, playing video games, doing things online—try everything and see what you enjoy. There’s also a little garden outside if you want to give it a shot, but you’ll have to wait a month or two for the weather to turn warmer. If you like nothing, we’ll add more options. It’s all yours.”
Throat tight, she stared at him, everything crashing on her, unable to understand how he’d known something she’d always wanted, a chance to explore what she liked for herself, control of the television remote, the outside.
“How… how did you know?” she stuttered, because there was nothing she had ever verbalized or expressed to anyone, innocuous and intense little things.
He moved forward then, stepping into her personal space, slowly, lazily almost, but sleek, his devilish eyes pinning her in place. One of his hands came up, holding her jaw like he always did, just as his thumb brushed over her lips. Her lips parted at the soft, almost tender touch, not used to feeling any sensation at all for months. He dipped his thumb in, just a little, and she stayed still, her heart pounding but not sucking on it, not responding at all. He took his thumb out, painting her lips with her own wetness, leaving them glistening, his eyes moving to her mouth, the pupil in the light eye expanding. She watched it, fascinated.