Page 24

23

LIA

For one week straight, I spent my days with Mael, falling a little more in love with him than I already had, and my nights in the arms of my stalker, wondering what the hell I was doing, not reporting him to the police or going to Leo for help like I originally planned. I could argue and say the police wasn’t much help and Leo… he looked into this already and found nothing, right? If my stalker was able to avoid Leo’s men, then what could he really do at this point?

I let out a small sigh. Even I know I was reaching with my reasoning.

Worse yet, I wasn’t fighting him as hard as I should be.

Before, I could say I truly didn’t want him there and that his being in my apartment was against my will. He was stronger than me, bigger than me, and I was helpless to stop it.

But now, even if all those things were still true—that he was stronger than me and bigger than me and that I was still helpless to stop it—there was a niggling of guilt hitting me.

There shouldn’t be any guilt if I wasn’t doing anything wrong, right?

So did that make it wrong?

I paced up and down my room, thinking. I couldn’t sleep, knowing he would show up at any moment, and a part of me dreaded that while the other part… didn’t mind.

It was because he saved me that was messing with my mind.

How fucked-up.

The villain in my story did save me, and now I was putting him on a pedestal.

The lights in my room turned off. I didn’t have to turn around to know he was here. He was still hiding his face from me.

“Are you ever going to let me see what you look like?” I asked, feeling him step up close to me.

He leaned down and kissed my neck. I froze.

“You’re uneasy. Why?”

I shook my head, trying to get away from him. But he already had his arms banded around me from behind, holding me close to his body. I already knew he was built like a linebacker, all muscles and hardness.

I closed my eyes, hating that I kept thinking about Mael while he was touching me. Sometimes, I even got them confused.

They were built almost the same, but they weren’t the same, and I really needed to remind myself of that.

“I’m not uneasy,” I replied. “And if I seem like it to you, it’s because you’re here.”

“Me?” he asked, having the gall to actually sound confused.

I twisted around and pointed a finger at his chest. “Yes, you.”

He kept his arms around me. That little detail shouldn’t matter, but fuck, it did, only because it was what I couldn’t help but focus on.

His hand had moved to my side, his thumb nearly touching the bottom swell of my breast. Arousal pushed sharply at me, and I shook my head. How could I feel this way about him?

I had Mael.

Mael, Mael, Mael.

So what the fuck was wrong with me?

“You need to let go,” I said, trying to pull away. He didn’t budge. Of course he didn’t. He hadn’t been big on personal boundaries before, so why would he start now?

“Why?” he asked, his voice gruff.

I closed my eyes. He almost sounded like Mael when he spoke like that.

“Because you’re messing with my mind,” I said, pushing at his chest.

He moved in even closer to me. “How so?”

I shook my head, unable to answer him.

“Let go.”

He didn’t say anything for a beat. I could feel his eyes on me, his gaze hot and intruding.

“Why?” he asked again, but the tone of his voice had changed, and a part of me was afraid it changed because he knew what the answer was.

I shook my head and took a step back. He followed.

I stopped when the back of my knees hit the bed. I looked back at it, then at him.

“You… can’t .”

“Can’t, what?” he asked, lowering his voice to a seductive whisper.

His hand moved a little, his thumb brushing up against my breast. I gasped.

“Tell me, Lia. What is it that I can’t do?”

I shook my head, a choked sound coming out of my lips.

“Touch you?”

His touch grew brave, and the thumb caressing me wasn’t something I could put off as an accidental touch—it was something else.

I whimpered when I felt his fingers on my nipples over my shirt.

“No.”

“No?” he asked darkly. “Say it like you mean it.”

He toyed with the hardened tips, making it hard to breathe. What was happening to me?

“I—” I hesitated. Would bringing up Mael bring danger to him somehow? Even if Mael looked like he could handle himself, my stalker was something else entirely. I didn’t need to know much about him to know he was dangerous and capable of so much more than I could imagine. Even the way he handled that man who followed me home… I didn’t know what happened to the man, and something told me I didn’t want to know.

“Yes?”

“We need to stop,” I said, feeling him move in closer to me. He pressed the tip of his nose against the side of my cheek, moving down until his lips were pressed up against my skin.

The move was oddly intimate… especially for two strangers, even if he didn’t think of me as such. Intimate and familiar .

Why did it feel so familiar when he touched me?

”Stalker?”

“Yes, baby?”

My heart pounded in my chest.

What was going on?

I shook my head.

“We need to stop this.”

“Why?” he asked, his voice gruff. “Tell me, Lia. Give me a good reason why we should stop before all my self-control is gone.”

Fuck, was he really putting me on a timer?

Why did we need to stop this? I couldn’t think of a reason. Why was I feeling this way with the man, considering all that he had done to me, all that he had put me through?

“Time’s up,” he said darkly, his hot breath fanning over my skin.

He kissed me before I could say anything.

He kissed me roughly. Punishingly. As if I had done something wrong for messing with his self-control, and I was now paying for my sins. His tongue pushed in between my lips without asking for permission, and I gasped when I felt it pressed up against mine.

I placed my hands on his chest, trying to push him away, but he was like an immovable wall. He gathered my wrists in one hand, holding them high above my head as he pushed me down on the bed, his body following mine.

I twisted my wrists, trying to get out of his grasp when I felt his body weight, but I wasn’t sure what it was that I wanted to do. Did I want to push him away or beg him to kiss me harder?

I had never been kissed like this before.

“Fuck you,” I said when I managed to escape his lips.

His laugh was mean as he pressed his lips against mine once more, brutally assaulting all of my good senses and my sanity.

He let go of my wrists, his hands exploring down my body. I regretted my choice of putting on my pajamas before he’d gotten here. The clothes were thin and offered no protection. I closed my eyes when I felt his hands on my breasts, fondling with the globes as he continued to kiss me like he thought the world was ending.

“Please,” I gasped out when he plucked at my nipples through my shirt. He moved my legs apart and crawled in between them, pushing his hips down until I could feel his hard erection pressed up against me.

I gripped his shoulders, my nails digging into his skin.

I was weak, and he wasn’t.

He could do anything to me, and I was powerless to stop it. I was powerless to stop this now, so whatever happened next, was I a victim or an accomplice?

I didn’t know. He pressed down against me once more, and I felt a spasm of pleasure move through me.

I let out a small cry.

I could come like this, I thought.

“What a good girl you are, Lia,” my stalker said, his praise fucking me up a little more each time. Tears stung my eyes, and I shook my head in denial. “And you know what happens to good girls, don’t you?”

God, I really didn’t want to find out.

“They get rewarded.”

“Then let me go,” I gritted out.

He laughed. I slapped him, and my aim proved true, even in the dark, when I made contact with his cheek. For a moment, we both froze. Me, because I couldn’t believe I had done that, and him… well, I didn’t know why.

Then he surprised me when he laughed again. I flinched at the sound.

“There’s my beautiful, ferocious girl.”

He kissed me once more, this one just as brutal as all the other ones we shared. I couldn’t think anymore, my body fighting against my own need to give in to the pleasure and the fear I still felt from the slap, afraid he might retaliate still.

But…

He hadn’t hurt me. Not like that. Not in the way I had thought he would. And I realized how messed up it was that I was now justifying his actions.

My thoughts were pushed to the back of my mind when I felt his lips and hands move. He kissed his way down my body as his hands moved to the hem of my shirt. He pushed it up despite my weak protest.

“No,” I said, trying to push the shirt back down. As thin as it was, it had been my only defense so far.

“What did I say, baby? Say it like you mean it.”

I did mean it… didn’t I?

He pulled the shirt up and over my head.

Cold air blasted over my skin, hardening my nipples and leaving me defenseless. My only saving grace was that if I couldn’t see him, he couldn’t see me… or my face. I could guard my thoughts then, couldn’t I?

“You’re perfect,” he muttered, moving his lips down over my skin, his tongue darting out and licking over my collarbones, the top swell of my breasts, the sides…

“How would you know?” I challenged. I felt him still against me.

Then he pulled back slightly and said, “Because God made you for me. You’re perfect for me.”

How unhinged and possessive he sounded. What would he do if he knew about Mael?

“You’re crazy,” I breathed out.

“Crazy?” he asked. I felt him smile against my skin. “I can show you crazy.”

He wrapped his lips around my nipple before I could say anything. My back automatically arched from the sensation, and I moved my fingers through his hair, tugging on it to get him to let go. The pain didn’t seem to deter him. If anything, it felt like it might just spur him on.

I quickly let go of him from the thought, but that only gave him the chance to move to my other nipple.

“Fuck!” I shouted when I felt him bite me. “What the fuck was that for?”

He hummed around me instead of answering, pushing one hand down between my legs and cupping me over my sleep shorts. I jolted from the sensation, squeezing my legs together, but that only trapped his hand there. He bit me again, obviously in response to that, and I relaxed my muscles, hoping that would get him to stop.

It did.

But it only got his hand moving once more as he worked me over. My head fell back against the mattress.

I bit my lip to keep from making any sound. The last thing I wanted was for him to think this was okay. Nothing with him had ever been okay.

He kissed further down my body. “Don’t hold back, baby.”

He pulled my shorts down my legs, along with my panties, throwing them off somewhere on the floor, and moved back between my legs.

“What are you?—”

I didn’t get the chance to finish my question when I felt his mouth on me.

“Fuck!”

He suckled the outer lip of my pussy into his mouth, his teeth coming out to tease me.

“Fuck, you taste good,” he said, his voice was nothing more than a low, guttural sound. “So fucking addictive.”

My legs clenched, both from the sensation and his words.

He pulled one of my knees up, spreading me out further for him as he ate me out with more vigor. I felt my muscles twitching as I let out a small cry, my hips pushing up, and much to my horror, it wasn’t to get away but to get closer to him. My body was silently asking him what my mouth refused to do.

“This cunt is mine, no?” he asked— growled .

I shook my head in denial, even if he couldn’t see me, twisting my body around and trying to get him to lose contact with me for a moment, just so I could think clearly again.

He didn’t allow that. He positioned me back and buried his face deeper, his tongue darting out and licking up my arousal before I felt him lower.

“No,” I said.

He laughed, the sound horrible. “ Yes . It’s mine. Everything is mine.”

I jolted when I felt the flat of his tongue on my back end.

“Stop.”

He pushed my legs further apart and took more of me. More and more and more, until I felt like there was nothing left that belonged to me anymore.

He moved up to my clit, lapping over the sensitive bundle of nerves as his fingers came out to play, pushing deep inside me.

He fucked me with one finger at first, then added another one, stretching me, and finally, a third one, driving me to the brink of delirium.

“Please.”

“I got you,” he cooed at me. “Why don’t you be my good girl and come for me?”

A slow tremor took over my muscles, starting from the small of my back and spreading. I cried, suddenly fearful of what my reaction would be once I finally let go. I tried to hold on.

My stalker must have felt my resistance because he doubled his efforts, his fingers moving harder and faster against me, until all I could hear were the moans escaping my lips and the wet, squelching sound my pussy made every time he forcibly pushed his fingers back inside me.

He pulled out of me suddenly and slapped my pussy harshly three times.

I cried out in pain, my back bowing, just as my orgasm ripped through me.

“Fuck, that’s it,” he praised. “Such a good girl for me.”

Before I could recover from that, he was repositioning me on my side, moving himself behind me, and placing one of my legs over him, spreading me out. I made a small sound in protest as his hand reached over and cupped me.

“I can’t,” I said.

He kissed my neck and said darkly, “You can. This cunt is mine. Mine to pleasure and mine to hurt. If I say you can come again, you will.”

“Fuck you!” I struggled in his arms, fear running up and down my spine at his words. But he was a force to be reckoned with. He held me right where he wanted me as his hand pushed between my legs, his palm moving roughly against my pussy.

I cried out, still sensitive from the first orgasm, and he was relentless, pushing through despite my protest.

“Fuck, that’s it,” he said, rubbing me harder. My fists clenched tightly, and I closed my eyes. The second orgasm hit me like a freight train. I was no longer able to do anything except lie there and try not to let the sensation overwhelm me.

Too late.

It was too fucking late.

He slapped my pussy once more.

I screamed. “Stop doing that.”

He laughed. “Even when I abuse this little pussy of yours, it still weeps for me, doesn’t it?”

I had no words for him. And as if to prove his point, he slapped it two more times, harder than before.

I turned around and slapped him on the chest.

He retaliated by flicking at my clit sharply.

“Stop it.”

“Why?”

“Why?” I repeated. “Because it hurts.”

“It’s mine.”

“My… it’s not yours.”

He laughed, bringing one hand up and cupping my breast. “Say it, baby. Say the word. Cunt.”

He pinched my nipple, twisting it from side to side before pulling on it roughly.

I bit the inside of my cheek, refusing to give in.

The pull came a little harder.

I moved a little toward the force, trying hard not to resist, lessening the pain, but he knew what he was doing.

“Stalker.”

He pulled even harder.

“My cunt,” I gritted out.

“Good girl.”

He let go of me, and I let out a small sigh of relief as he soothed the sting with gentle touches of his palm. There was something seriously wrong with him.

And there was something seriously wrong with me.

“Let’s go to sleep, baby.”

I was too goddamn tired to argue with him. My mind was nothing more than a mess, and… sleep sounded good now.

He pulled the blanket over our bodies.

“My clothes.” I made a half-hearted attempt to look for them when he pulled me back into his arms.

“Sleep naked.”

“I can’t sleep naked.”

“Why not?” he asked casually, as if he was asking me why the sky was blue.

“Because,” I said.

He wrapped his arms around me, one around my middle and the other pushed down between my legs.

“Sleep,” he said.

“I—”

He squeezed my pussy.

“Sleep, or I’ll tire you out enough so you can.”

That shut up any and every protest I might have had. I closed my eyes and tried to sleep.