Chapter 10 - Chapter 9

# Chapter 9
AYANDA

"She beat you unconscious?" I can't keep the sadness out of my voice. It cracks and shakes while Vusi peers at me from beneath his dark lashes with a cold detachment that a small part of me wants to break through.

I'm in dangerous territory. Three more weeks have passed, and I'm still as enamoured by the man across the table.

What's even more worrisome is the flutter of anticipation in my stomach when I drive to our weekly interviews. The urge to learn more about him is an itch I can't scratch. There's only so much the internet can tell me about the enigma that is Vusi Hadebe — the monster, carved like a statue by his mother.

Worrying my lip, I hold his unnerving gaze.

Instead of answering, he tilts his head sideways and says in a voice that slides over every centimetre of my exposed skin like a caress, "That colleague of yours still causing you trouble?"

My eyes widen, surprised he remembers, but I arrange my features to resemble a blank mask. "It's nothing new."

One of his dark eyebrows arches, but otherwise, he's still as a statue. I fidget. The tension in the room is palpable. "Have you told your boss?"

I scoff before I can stop myself. The thought has entered my mind countless times, but there's no use. Mxolisi wouldn't listen.

Leaning forward, I ignore how my heart thuds when his scent settles in my nostrils — generic soap and a hint of sweat that's not unpleasant in any way.

It should be.

But it's not.

"Answer me one thing," I say.

"Go on."