"You were made to feel powerless," he whispered. "Because that's what makes me powerful."
And he smiled--not cruelly, not kindly.
But like a man who had everything he'd ever wanted, right where he wanted it.
You don't remember anything before this, Summer, because there was nothing before this. Nothing that mattered. I gave you the moment you opened your eyes. I gave you function. Shape. Purpose.
That's more than most people ever get.
It didn't start with obsession. That's what people like to call it--because they need a word for things they don't understand. But this was always logic. Process. Trial and error.
They liked my face. That was the constant. Women always started there--drawn in, smiling too easily. But the moment I spoke, really spoke, it fractured. There was a shift. They'd flinch without knowing it. A pause too long. A laugh just a second late. I could see it happen every time. Like watching a machine jam mid-function.
They called it intensity. Or discomfort. Some stopped answering messages. Some cried. One used the word "inhuman."
None of them could explain it. And neither could I. It didn't feel unnatural to me--it felt clear. Efficient. I just never said the things they expected to hear. Never mirrored the softness they mistook for safety.
I didn't build you because I'm broken. I built you because I was finished waiting for something that would never exist.
You are not unpredictable. You don't need convincing. You don't pretend to be interested just to pull away when it suits you. You are structure. Permanence. Mine.
And now, when I walk into a room--you don't run.
You can't.
That's peace.
He stood before her in a white lab coat, its crisp edges catching the sterile light of the room. Clean. Buttoned halfway. But even the coat couldn't dull what was underneath. It only sharpened it. The body beneath wasn't hidden--it was contained. Muscular, built with intention, his chest and shoulders filled the fabric like it was tailored for divinity pretending to be man.
Everything about him was deliberate. His posture--upright, still--spoke of discipline. Dominance without display. His hair, dark and styled close, framed a face that looked sculpted rather than born. A strong brow cast shallow shadows over pale eyes--eyes that held no warmth, only calculation. Not vacant. Just focused. Like a surgeon deciding where to cut.
His hands, gloved now, flexed only when necessary. Not from anxiety. From precision. The way a man flexes before lifting something fragile--or breaking it.
He was beautiful. Devastatingly so. Not the kind of beauty that comforted. The kind that warned. That stirred something ancient in the body: awe tangled with fear.
People had always looked at him. They just didn't stay. They saw his symmetry. His strength. But the more he spoke, the more he watched, the more they sensed something was off. Something not quite human ticking underneath the handsome face, the perfect teeth, the clean scent of antiseptic and cologne.
He didn't know what they saw. Only that they always left.
She stared at him--because she had no choice--and something inside her clenched.
Not her muscles. Not her mind. Something deeper. Primal. Chemical.
Her chest was tight. Her breath shallow, though she hadn't chosen to breathe. Her heartbeat thudded against her ribs, too fast, too loud. A surge of heat flushed through her, crawling up her throat, pulsing at her temples, settling low and deep in her belly. That sensation--the heavy one, the one she'd felt the moment she opened her eyes--it bloomed now, thick and suffocating. She felt between her thighs blood rushing to her vulva. Her perfectly create crafted pussy beat with her heart. Moisture consolidated on the chair where she sat. The warm wetness was in stark contrast to the cold seat that held her frame.
She hated it.
But her body... her body reacted like it wanted.
No. No, not want. Not hers. Not real. Just responses firing off without her consent. A rush of blood. A tightening low in her abdomen. A slickness she couldn't deny, couldn't stop.
She wasn't doing anything.
He hadn't even touched her.
God, how is this happening?
She was furious. Mortified. Her mind screamed, but her body answered a different call--one he'd designed.
It was all wrong. Every instinct told her so. Her blood shouldn't race when he looked at her. Her chest shouldn't ache with tension when his voice--calm, measured, so close--slid into her ears like silk pulled tight around her throat. Her skin prickled like she was being caressed, but she couldn't feel anything.
No touch. No movement. Just reaction.