Chapter 74. Explain To Me

Chapter 74: Chapter 74. Explain To Me

Chapter 74. Explain To Me

Rosa Lin’s POV

This is certainly the worst decision I have ever made in my life.

I can’t believe I actually followed through with this. My mind is in total turmoil—I am completely losing it. But what can I say? It’s not like I actually had a choice, did I?

My mind was reeling as I stepped into the complex building Tim led me through. The cold was still seeping straight through my skin, making me hug myself tightly as we walked through a long, dim corridor and climbed up a flight of stairs. All I could do was keep my distance and stare at the back of his head. Every few seconds, he kept glancing back at me with a smirk, his eyes tracking my every movement. He was enjoying this, clearly excited by how worked up I was getting over the way he was dragging things out.

It was surprising enough that this building wasn’t even far from Mr. Don’s estate.

We finally stopped in front of a door at the end of the hall. Tim smiled at me, then pressed a sequence into the electronic keypad on the door. The door clicked open. He twisted the knob, pushed it inward, and stepped aside with an off-putting smile.

"Are you coming in or what?" he asked.

I blinked, keeping my eyes locked on him, cataloging every micro-expression to catch any subtle sign that I was stepping straight into danger. My chest pounded relentlessly. But I had to give him the benefit of the doubt for now. Stepping slowly toward the entrance, I didn’t take my eyes off him until I was safely inside the threshold.

Then I turned to look around.

Well, well, well. What do you know? His apartment wasn’t all that bad.

To think the spirit actually had a comfortable place to live. My eyes raked across the space. It wasn’t luxurious, but it was cozy and definitely habitable for any normal human being. I frowned in confusion. The more I was exposed to this idiot’s life, the more complicated everything became.

The door clicked shut behind me. I flinched and spun around just in time to see him typing on the keypad, sealing us in.

He turned and saw me staring. He chuckled softly, raising both hands in mock surrender with that same amused, mocking smile on his face. "Relax," he said. "I’m not kidnapping you."

He brushed past me into the living room. "Make yourself comfortable."

I watched him take off his wet jacket, dusting it off without caring that water droplets were pelting the sofa and dribbling onto the floor. I just frowned, my head tilted to the side as I watched him. It was weird. The person I had started assuming was some kind of supernatural entity, completely non-human, moved and lived in a way that was oddly, totally human. My brain was having a hard time keeping up with the contradiction.

He looked back at me and chuckled before heading toward a door at the far end of the large living room. "I said you should get yourself comfortable, Rosa."

I scoffed. He had to be out of his mind if he thought that was ever going to happen. Get comfortable where?

Ignoring his comment, I walked around one of the sofas and sat down—though far from comfortably. I perched right on the very edge, my hands pressed tightly together against my lap. My eyes darted left and right, observing, watching, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

A few moments later, Tim emerged from the back room, having changed into a fresh set of clothes. He stood in the center of the living room, rubbing his palms together to warm up.

"Okay, so," he began with a quiet chuckle. "That was an intense, overwhelming moment." He observed me with a raised eyebrow, extending a hand toward me. "What do you think?"

I scoffed and looked away, refusing to answer.

He chuckled again. "Do you want to change out of those clothes? You should get warm. If you stay in those, you could still get that hypothermia I warned you about."

All I could do was glare at him.

He smiled and raised his hands again. "Okay, okay," he said, acting like he was surrendering. "I don’t want to pressure you. But you should believe my intentions by now to know I care deeply about you. It would be terrible to see you stuck in bed looking like your soul is about to leave your body."

I remained silent. He nodded slowly, backing off.

"All right then. What do you want? Do you want me to get you a drink? I could make you some hot cocoa."

"I am fine by myself," I snapped, tilting my head away and glaring at the wall.

He shook his head with a quiet laugh. "Come on, don’t be so stubborn, Rosa. You don’t expect me not to entertain my guest, do you?"

My eyes snapped back to him. That amused smile was plastered right across his face. The idiot derived so much pleasure from infuriating me and playing these sick mind games. I was so deeply uncomfortable with the way he was staring at me. Something was wrong. My gut was screaming at me, a hot prickle of alarm flaring in my chest. Everything was just off.

I was still trying to process the normal, mundane reality of his apartment compared to the heavy, supernatural aura I had felt from him from the moment we met. Nothing lined up, and the fact that I didn’t understand a single thing about him made it a thousand times worse.

I closed my eyes and let out a harsh breath. "I am not your guest," I said coldly. "I’m only here on a temporary basis."

He raised his eyebrows, nodding slowly with a quiet smirk.

I turned away as the image of Mr. Don flashed in my mind. A sudden tightness squeezed my heart. Was he okay right now? My mind couldn’t even comprehend what was happening back at his mansion. Mr. Don was going to hate me for this—if he was even alright. Is he alive? Is he... I didn’t even know what to think anymore. I had no words left.

When I opened my eyes and looked up, Tim was no longer in the living room. I blinked. Where the hell did he go?

A moment later, he stepped out from a door near the kitchen holding two cans of Coke.

I stared at him in utter disbelief. He approached me with a slow, casual stride, that wide, smirking grin back on his face. He stopped right in front of where I sat on the edge of the sofa. I tilted my head back to look up at him as he towered over me like some supreme deity looking down at a tiny insect. His hair was dry now, falling in soft strands across his face—that majestic, infuriating face that looked entirely too perfect to belong to a normal human being. It was just another piece of evidence that this guy wasn’t human at all. I didn’t have the proof yet, but I was going to expose him.

He extended his left hand, holding out one of the Cokes to me.

I stared at the can, then looked back up into his eyes. "You know, you’re really stupid."

He raised an eyebrow. "Why do you say that?"

I scoffed. "You claim that you actually care about me. You claim that everything you’re doing is out of good intentions, right? I am literally freezing to death right now, and all you can think to offer me is a cold Coke?"

He chuckled softly, tilting his head. "I don’t know. I thought it might be something you’d want, considering I offered you hot cocoa and you snapped at me."

"I scoffed because you clearly can’t take the hint that I don’t want a single damn thing from you!" I snapped.

His smile flickered, turning into a slight frown before he chuckled and took a step back. "You really hate me that much, don’t you?"

I just glared at him, refusing to give him the satisfaction of a verbal response.

He smiled again, nodding slowly. "I’m pretty sure if it were Don, you’d accept anything he gave you—even if it were poison."

My brow furrowed. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

He shook his head, refusing to elaborate. Instead, he tossed the unopened Coke onto the sofa right beside me, walked over to a separate armchair, and crashed into it. I watched him in rising annoyance as he popped open his own can. It hissed loudly, a thin foam rising to the top. He took a slow, casual sip, looking for all the world like a completely ordinary college student relaxing at home.

He leaned back against the cushions, draining half the can in one go before closing his eyes with a satisfied sigh. Then he snapped his eyes open and caught me glaring at him.

He smirked, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees. "You do know I’m harmless," he said.

I scoffed, rolling my eyes. "I highly doubt that."

His lips twitched. "Well, aren’t you such an interesting little thing?" he murmured.

I looked away, a strange, suffocating discomfort settling over my spine.

He gestured broadly with his hands, opening up the room between us. "Okay. I guess we’ve finally reached the most important part of this whole little setup."

I frowned at him. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"So," he said, locking his eyes onto mine. "Do you have questions to ask?"

I stared at him in shock. Is he actually willing to answer me? I blinked, my mind racing as I wondered if this was just another one of his twisted, fucked-up games.

I took a deep, steadying breath, trying to force my pounding heart to slow down. I bit the inside of my lip, leaned forward in my seat, and completely ignored the cold drink sitting beside me.

"Why don’t you start by explaining how the fucking hell you manipulated my friend’s mind?"