Page 26 of Broken Obsession

“I won’t hurt you.” When the voice actor shook his body to indicate his injuries, Ares winced. “I won’t hurt you anymore. This is nothing anyway.” He was also bleeding at the corner of his mouth from one of Eden’s punches.

Eden sighed. “What are you doing here, Ares? What is this really about?”

“You’re taking all of this rather well. I knew you’d be a good opponent. I told you. I’m here to play a game. I really like games. That rush whenever I win? Makes me feel alive. Not much does anymore, so it’s special. I’ve been playing Vanitysince its release. You could say I’m obsessed. Can you guess who my favorite character is?”

He was quiet for a moment and then said, “It’s Ransom.”

“That’s right, it’s you.”

“I’m not Ransom, Ares. You’re deluded.” Eden remained still as Ares carefully rubbed ointment on the bruise on his left cheek. “Is that what this is really about? Did you come here to fulfill a twisted sexual fantasy?” He tugged on his bound wrists once, shaking the chair, giving Ares pause. “Untie me. If that was all you wanted, you should have just said so. Hell, if you’d made the moves at dinner, we might have skipped all this shitty foreplay and gone straight to bed.”

This was…unexpected.

Ares straightened and pursed his lips, weighing his options.

Weighing realities.

What was the likelihood Eden was telling the truth?

“You’re lying.” He was sure of it. “You haven’t dated anyone in years.”

And Ares wasn’t in this for an encounter. This was 1v1, and if he had his way?

The game would never end.

“Who said anything about dating? You want to fuck, let’s fuck. I’ll even let you wrestle me down to the ground and pretend to force yourself on me if you’d like,” Eden offered.

“Why would I like that?” Ares capped the ointment.

Eden looked embarrassed. “Fine, whatever. If you won’t do it, someone else will. In fact, he’s on his way right now, so you better untie me and get lost. If you don’t, I’ll tell him to call the cops and—”

“It’s interesting that you can still hold faith in the police, even after everything you’ve gone through.” Ares thought it was naïve, but he kept that to himself. “Pan isn’t coming.”

Eden blinked at him. “How—”

“He never even saw your messages.”

“But he responded to them…?”

“That was me.”

“…How?”

“I hacked his account, obviously.”

“Obviously.” Eden didn’t sound like he agreed.

“I thought this was the game you wanted to play.” Ares tossed the ointment back into the box. “My mistake.”

“And what happened with Galen?” Eden swallowed. “Was that just another game?”

“Everything is a game.” He didn’t want to lie. “But that one’s different. We haven’t finished it yet. Have you thought about my offer?”

Chapter 6:

There was a very good chance Ares Major wasn’t all there in the head.

In fact, as time went on, Eden was willing to put money on it. Breaking and entering was one thing, but discovering that the new shareholder was also the man responsible for what had taken place at the boathouse…To say he was confused would be an understatement.