No One Loves Me Like You Do

[Obsessive love] [Older love interest] [Intense push and pull] [Mutual salvation] [Criminal psychology expert × mystery novelist] On a rainy night, he took me in when I had nowhere to go. I thought he was a gentle refuge. Only later did I understand that it was a carefully woven cage. “Be home before ten at night. Tell me in advance where you’re going.” “That room is my study. You’re not allowed in.” Shen Shu’an calmly laid down the rules, drawing me beneath his wing while keeping me within his sight. He was a top criminal psychologist, and I was a mystery novelist caught up in a bloody case. When a twisted killer made me his “one and only muse,” Shen’s protection turned into an even tighter grip. “If I could, I’d make this cage absolutely safe.” He said the most obsessive things in the most rational voice. And I struggled back and forth between fear and attraction. Until that night when he lost control. His eyes red, he blocked my way, his voice hoarse: “What do you want from me? Say something! Curse me! Do anything you like, just don’t ignore me like this!” A desperate kiss, salty with tears, was his silent plea. I shoved him away with all my strength, my fingertips trembling. “Shen Shu’an… have you lost your mind?!” When the ultimate form of protection becomes pathological possession, when beneath a gentle facade lies an abyss of possessiveness, what are we to each other: salvation, or a shared fall into the abyss?