Page 15 of Boyfriend From Hell

“We’re almost there,” Raios stated, still holding me firmly to his frame. “The entrance is going to be unpleasant, so sorry ‘bout that—”

The taste of iron coated the back of my throat, my scream fading into nothing more than a hoarse wail.

Raios slid a calm hand to the back of my head, gently pressing me against his chest as if to comfort me.

My heart threatened to seize and stop at any moment, while my mind struggled to grasp the sensation of falling into nothingness.

A rush of warmth covered my face before slowly engulfing my body, the smell of smoke and lavender filling my nostrils. Before I could even process his words, reality winked out, and I was swallowed whole—mind, body and soul––by darkness.

That’s it, this had to be some messed-up, wine-induced dream. Maybe I never even left my apartment. Maybe I was still curled up on the couch, sleeping off my drunken night with a stranger.

I did nearly drain that entire bottle of wine.

Yea, that had to be it.

Heat warmed my face. Despite my eyes being closed, I could feel the sun trying to rouse me from my sleep with its bright rays.

I don’t think I’ve ever slept this well in my entire life.

I burrowed my head deeper into the pillow, reveling in its softness, not daring to open my eyes just yet, refusing to give my brain the satisfaction of fully waking up.

Still, I knew I needed to lay off on the wine for a while. Whatever alcohol-induced nightmare that was last night…I’m good on that.

Footsteps echoed somewhere nearby, causing my feeble heart to flutter.

That dream had been the longest, most realistic nightmare I had ever experienced.

The footsteps grew closer and the desperate, sleep-clouded part of my brain echoed Felix.

The soft click of the door opening whispered through the room, and before he even cleared his throat, a goofy smile had already spread across my lips.

Giddy with excitement and irrational hope, I rustled free from the sheets and shot upright, all previous anger toward him—as always—washed away.

I popped up from the sheets like a prairie dog—and what greeted me was nothing familiar.

My stomach dropped.

A cold sweat broke out across my skin, as my eyes locked onto a man in a finely tailored navy suit whose hair was slicked back tight against his scalp. His eyes widened a fraction as though I had startled him.

I pinned him with a glare, feeling like a deer in headlights. He awkwardly stretched his arms out to rest what looked to be a silver platter onto a dresser beside him, the cloche glinting in the light.

Terror began creeping its way into my body and my heart became a jackhammer in my chest as my surroundings sunk in. I glanced down and pulled the covers up to my chest. Holy shit, holy shit! Reality closed in around me as my brain caught up to speed. This wasn’t a dream.

Leave it to me to think, even for a second, that Felix had magically reappeared in my life. I don’t know how my brain even tried to convince me of that. Irritation simmered within me now, shoulder checking the previous terror.

Raios took me.

“Who the hell are you?” I barked.

If looks could kill, I hoped the one I was giving him would knock him right on his prim-and-proper-dressed ass.

The man stared at me for a moment as his body visibly tensed from my tone.

His eyes darted around the room, making it abundantly clear he was trying to look anywhere and everywhere other than at me.

A flush of pink crept across his cheeks, but he said nothing.

Without hesitation, he spun on his heels and bolted for the door.

“Hey!” I yelled after him, but the door had closed behind him with a rushed thump.

I took a moment to scan the room once more, trying to recount the last…hour? Few hours? Thick curtains hung in several places, their folds allowing golden slivers of light to slip through the gaps.

Scratch that. Several hours? It had to have been.

A gentle knock sounded from the other side of the door. I stiffened on impulse, but no one tried to enter the room.

Sliding out from beneath the covers, and with a greater effort than I cared to admit – I pulled the flat sheet with me from beneath the hefty comforter.

Cold seeped into my socks as my feet met the floor, the rough stone catching against them.

My face twisted in disgust as I took another step, my socks making an aggravating schreeeep across the stone floor. What shit taste in flooring.

I draped the sheet around my shoulders as if it were a cloak and sauntered toward the plate the stranger brought.

Whatever hid beneath the petite silver dome smelled deliciously savory. My mouth watered at the thought of the delicious meal concealed beneath.

The closer I got, the stronger the scent. My stomach growled, and I rested a hand against the grumble.

Giving in to temptation, I removed the cloche from the platter.

A warm, buttery steam curled around me.

A beautiful splay of food crowded around the plate that sat beneath the cover. Eggs, bacon, sausage, several slices of different breads slathered with herbed butter. All piled high and begging to be devoured.

I scanned the platter for silverware, but found none and my brows furrowed together. My stomach growled again, pleading with me to dig in the only way it could. But I couldn’t allow myself to eat it. What if it was poison?

Knowing my recent string of luck, the delicious butter was probably laced with rat poison.

I mean, sure. Good on the weirdo for trying to offer me a meal. But I’ll be damned if I let myself get suckered into an untimely death just because I’m not strong enough to turn my nose up at a good meal.

“Agh!” I groaned.

Deciding I’d be safer if I couldn’t see the delicious breakfast, my eyes caught on a small black piece of paper folded and stained with meat grease, crammed beneath the plate.

With careful fingers, I slid the note out and unfolded it.

Welcome! I didn’t know what food you liked to eat for breakfast so I had everything I could think of prepared.

I scoffed and crumpled the fine parchment in my fist before tossing it onto the floor.

Glancing warily at the bedroom door, I let out a slow breath. Unease gripped my stomach with a tight fist for a moment, but I forced the feeling aside.

How much worse could things realistically get?

My subconscious begged me to go the coward’s way, but my inner ‘fuck around and find out’ was stronger. What good would it do me to sit in this room like a caged animal?

Where the hell even was I to begin with?

Without giving myself so much as a moment to second guess, I grasped the doorknob and yanked the door open.

I don’t know what I expected to see, but it wasn’t a dismal stone hall.

The only light provided emitted from suspended lanterns so thickly caked with dust it was a wonder any light shone through at all.

Peering down the hall in both directions, each ended in nothing but darkness. The lanterns barely illuminated more than ten feet around them. Oh great, more darkness.

A breeze howled from the dark void to my left, as if coaxing me into going down the opposing side of the hallway.

I took a tentative step over the threshold, stepping directly onto something plush.

My fingers flexed, and my shoulders shot up to my ears.

That better not have been a rat.

My stomach sank sickeningly to my soles as I looked down. An all-too-familiar laugh echoed around me, making the whole situation a million times worse.

Frozen in place by the sound, my bad-bitch bravado floated away with the echoing laughter.

For a moment, I forgot that I may have a squished rodent beneath my foot.

I glanced down both ends of the hallway.

Still, no sign of anything, or anyone.

But the skin-crawling sensation of being watched slid coldly over me. The voice, the sensation, they both gave me the same unsettling feeling I’d had last night.

“Dress, please.” The ominous voice cooed around me.

As if the air itself held an electric current of its own, my hairs slowly began to stand at the command.

“Now,” the voice whispered in my ear, as if the keeper of it was nothing more than centimeters away.

Dress? In what?

“Use your head, sweet one,” The voice murmured, its smooth cadence carrying an unsettling calm. “Look to your feet.”

My jaw clenched and unclenched, the unsettling thought creeping in that whoever was speaking had somehow seen my confusion—or worse, read my thoughts.

Hesitantly, I looked down, relieved to find not a rodent beneath my foot, but a folded bundle of plush fabric.

The sheet fell from my body as I quickly grabbed the bundle of fabric, pulling it free from under my foot, and turned back into the room as fast as I could, slamming the door shut behind me.