Page 47 of Ballad of Nightmares

“I fucking hate you,” Millie snapped in a breathless voice.

Rolfe howled with laughter, and Sam flicked her hair again.

“Tickets, Milliscent,” he said as he started down the hall again. “Maybe next time, I’ll let you finish.”

CHAPTER NINETEEN

ANA LEANED BACK on her pillow, staring at the three dots as she waited on Sam’s message.

Fuck, baby, Sam replied.Let me get to my room before you start with that.

Don’t want to be hot and bothered in front of your friends?she asked.

The dots rippled again, and she thought perhaps he was sending her a photo, but what he said caught her off guard.

A friend has tickets to the orchestra in midtown tomorrow, he typed.Cinematic horror.

Even with the abrupt change in conversation, Ana’s attention perked to the idea.That sounds amazing.

Pick you up at six?

Perfect, she replied.But tonight, you can stop dodging my flirting and send me a photo.

Sam took a few minutes, and she nearly laughed as she waited for his reply, but when it did come through, she hugged the phone to her chest and grinned.

Hot, she said.

The selfie he’d sent was of him, waist up, with his shirt off, all his tattoos in full glory, holding a black cat up on its hind legs in front of his chest. She could just see the shadows around his face, his hair falling over his eyes as he looked down at the midnight cat, and the cat looked up at him.

Ana couldn’t help changing her phone background to the photo. It was so irresistibly Sam. To show off his tattoos and his hands, hands she knew that he was aware drove her wild. Her eyes fluttered at the memory of how he’d held her in front of a long mirror two days before, both kneeling on the bed, with her exposed in front of him. He’d held her from behind and teased her clit, making her watch in the mirror.

“I want you to watch the fucking look on your face when you come, baby,” he’d growled in her ear. “I want you to see how well you respond to me.”

She had seen herself. She had watched her entire body move and her thighs tighten. Had seen the sag of her mouth and how he stared at her like she was his prey. And when he’d shoved her into the mattress to yank her hair and fill her from behind, she’d watched as he pounded into her, and she cried out his name.

“What do you think, baby?” he’d asked after, when he cradled her in his arms and held her on his lap at the edge of the bed, squeezed her ass and caressed her cheek. “Do you like the way we look together?”

She’d genuinely looked at them then, and in that image, all she saw was power. She wasn’t sure why, if maybe it was another of his demon tricks to get her to see what he wanted her to see. But she felt invincible there, in his arms, staring at each other in that mirror. His tattooed hands and body wrapped around her curves, grasping at her full flesh.

Ana had taken her phone out and captured a photo of them, to which Sam had smiled into her neck after.“Send that one to me,” he’d told her.

The dots on the bottom of her screen flickered again, and Ana pushed herself back to reality.

How did I know you would like a photo of my cat?Sam typed.

Lucky guess, she said.I didn’t know you were a cat man.

She keeps me calm, he told her.

Ana smiled at the screen.That’s cute.

And how is my kitty?he asked.Is she wet for me?

Ana didn’t have to move her hands between her thighs to know she already was. The thought of him alone had her wet those days, and when she thought about the things he did to her… she began to throb.

The lights in her room flickered, lightning cracking outside as the rain pounded on her windows. Louder and louder, like it meant to suck out any sound she might make.

Soaking, she replied.