Page 23

Phantom

I watched my arts and crafts project critically as it sat at the desk in my room. Something wasn’t exactly right, and I tried to figure out what.

It was a sort of scarecrow, the suit Clarissa had given me filled out to resemble a person. Its head was a pillow I’d stolen from one of the guest bedrooms, its face painted to resemble my skull. It looked pretty good if I said so myself. I had skillful, crafty fingers.

Oh, yes, indeed. I laughed under my breath, remembering how Barbara had writhed on my hand. I couldn’t wait to make her do it again.

Now that I thought about her, I knew what was wrong with my big suited doll. I leaned in, grabbing a tub of pink paint, and carefully filled out the eye sockets to give them that pink glow I seemed to constantly have around her.

There. I put my hands on my hips, admiring my alter-ego. He was elegant, very handsome, and he would wear the suit in my stead if Madame Ashford ever demanded it of me again.

A beep from my comm set interrupted my thoughts, and I took the call to receive reports from the guards stationed around the property. Everything was fine, no suspicious behavior anywhere. As expected, the mind manipulator was a no-show once we’d increased security.

“Good job, boys. I expect another report at oh-six-hundred.”

I frowned, looking at my scarecrow. I’d lost my way a bit, I admitted. The goal had always been to get the mind manipulator to approach us and eliminate him. Even now as I thought about what he’d done to my girl, my eyes covered with red, and I had to shake my head to clear it from the angry daze.

Yes, I wanted him dead. But if he was dead, I’d have to move out. It was a conundrum, since I’d rather cut off my tongue than leave Barbara’s side. She had me now, and I didn’t think I could live without her.

Maybe… Maybe I could ask her to move in with me. I cringed, thinking about my apartment that was a fucking cave and not the right place for my doll. It was reasonably clean, granted, but my décor leaned goth rather than old-money-chic. Plus, I’d have to warn her off multiple weapons cabinets so she didn’t hurt herself. Also, I’d seen her bathroom counter and wasn’t sure I was ready to have so many pink, expensive bottles lying around my own utilitarian bathroom.

But maybe, just maybe, I could make it livable for her and she’d agree to limit her cosmetics collection to fifty items. Also, my bed was awesome. I had the perfect mattress, huge and not too soft. When I imagined fucking her into it, I couldn’t keep the horny smile off my face.

A soft knock came from the door. My heart sped up at once, and I jumped to open it, already knowing who was there.

“Hi.” Barbara gave me a shy smile, looking up as she played with the lacy trim of her silk robe that was deliciously indecent. “Can I come in?”

I shuffled away from the door, speechless. That robe was light pink, made of shimmery satin, and it barely covered her, hanging loosely around her frame. Underneath it, she wore a flimsy negligee that reached the tops of her thighs. Her legs were bare and I saw her nipples through the satin, pebbled from the cold or from her excitement to see me.

When she came in, her scent enveloped me. I breathed in shakily, the citrusy spice of it scrambling my brain. It was overlaid with other scents, too. Sweet, powdery fragrances that smelled pink.

One thought clawed at my brain, demanding attention. She got herself ready for me. Dressed up—for me. She did all those pretty, girly things, and it was all for my sake. My throat closed up, and the best I could do in lieu of a greeting was a hoarse grunt.

“What’s that?” she asked, looking at my pink-eyed scarecrow. “Oh, it’s the suit! You said you’d do something with it. This looks really fun!”

She faced me with a smile, and I still couldn’t say a word. An urge to do something, right now, gripped me by the throat. I wasn’t even sure what I wanted to do. I only knew she liked me, she was here, she wanted to fuck me, and it wasn’t enough. It never would be. I had to have her, forever. And I had to do something to make it happen. Right now.

God. Should I propose?

I didn’t have a ring. I had a grenade, though, but I was pretty sure the safety pin would be too big for her finger.

What else? What could I do?

“Phantom? Are you all right?” she asked, coming closer. “Why are you so quiet?”

Phantom. Fuck, it sounded so wrong.

“It’s not my name,” I blurted out. “It’s just a code name. It’s what everyone calls me, but you… You should call me by my real name.”

She nodded seriously, cupping the side of my face in her warm hand. I swallowed, my throat so tight. The way she touched me undid me, because I could tell it wasn’t because of a fetish but because she liked me.

“What’s your real name?” she asked softly, her thumb caressing my cheek bone.

“Scarab,” I said hoarsely. “I, uh, named myself. Because in Mexico, they called me escarabajo whenever I was among humans. It’s because of the armor. It looks like… like I’m an insect.”

Only two other people knew my real name: Fatima and Nat. I hadn’t explained it to either of them, just introduced myself as Scarab once we became friends.

I wasn’t sure why I told her the origins of my name. It was like I wanted her to know everything about me. The more she didn’t recoil, the more I craved to show her everything that was horrible about me. Because she took it all, my darkness and filth. She didn’t even bat an eyelid. I couldn’t understand how a being so fragile could contain all my ugliness, but she did.

“Hello, Scarab,” she said with a smile. “Nice to meet you. I love your name.”

She loved my name.

I groaned, pink fireworks exploding in my brain. “You’re killing me, doll. Stop being so nice or I’ll expire.”

She laughed softly. “But why? You deserve to be told nice things.”

Her eyes glittered with mischief, and I remembered I’d told her something similar before.

“I’m not like you,” I said, shaking my head. “You are genuinely a good person. You care about library books. Oh, by the way. Here. You said you wanted to return it, so I got you a new copy.”

I reached for the mind-manipulation book I’d hunted down and paid over five hundred bucks for. As she smiled her radiant, happy smile, taking it from my hands, I decided it was all worth it. Fuck, I’d do so much more for this woman’s smile.

Yeah, I was a doormat. And it didn’t matter because I didn’t care anymore. All that mattered was that she was happy, because then, I was happy, too.

“Thank you so much!” she exclaimed, reverently running her fingers over the cover. “But you didn’t have to! I looked for it on my own, only, I couldn’t find any copies online… How did you even get this?”

Through extortion. “I just asked around. A friend of a friend found it lying in her attic.”

And then was persuaded to sell it after I threatened to skin her cat. I didn’t say it out loud. Barbara struck me as the kind of person who cared about animals. Besides, I wasn’t really going to hurt the cat. Normally, I would have just stolen the book, but I refused to leave Barbara’s side, which complicated things.

“You have no idea how glad I am!” she said, her eyes sparkling with happiness. “It weighed on me, and I’m glad I can give it back. Though, maybe anonymously.”

She bit her lip, looking up guiltily. I grinned and took the book from her hand.

“I will return it, okay? Later. Now, doll. Show me what you’re wearing.”

“Oh.” She blushed, looking up through her eyelashes.

Slowly, she let the robe fall down her shoulders until it pooled at her feet. I retracted the armor from my palms and slid them down her arms, looking at my pink, pretty girl.

“There is no bed in here,” I murmured. “I don’t mind, but you deserve to be fucked on a bed like a queen.”

She laughed, shaking her head. “We can go to my room, but I really don’t care. I just want you.”

Fireworks again. I wondered idly if I would get brain damage from all the pink.

“I want to do something first,” I said on an impulse, glancing at where my tattooing kit sat on the shelf. “But you’ll freak out. You’ll hate it.”

She rolled her eyes, stepping closer until I took in another whiff of her scent.

“Try me.”

“I want to give you a tattoo,” I said in a rush. “Just a small one. No one will see it.”

Well, I would, every time I took her from behind, but that wasn’t what I meant.

She pressed her lips together, watching me with wide eyes, before giving me a single nod.

“Okay. What kind of tattoo?”

“That would be a surprise.”

Her brow furrowed, but I could tell she wasn’t turned off by the idea. My cock hardened at the thought of her bearing my mark forever, and I wondered idly if I’d come in my pants while I inked her. It was very likely.

She fidgeted for a moment, watching me with those vulnerable, blue eyes, and finally nodded again. “I trust you.”

That was enough for me. I wasn’t about to wait for her to change her mind, so I leapt into action, swiping everything off the desk apart from the lamp. When I realized the wooden surface was cold, I laid out my suited scarecrow for her to lie on. The suit was stuffed full of curtains I’d stolen from the same room as the pillow. It should be pretty comfy.

I helped her lie down on her belly and brought my supplies, snapping on gloves and laying out the ink. I just needed black and some green for the shading. The tattoo would be tiny, like I told her, but it would be very obvious for anyone who saw her naked.

When I turned on the machine, she flinched at the insistent buzzing. I grinned, sliding my hand slowly up her ass to hike up the negligee. My dick throbbed when I saw the thin line of pink lace disappearing in her crack.

“Doll. That’s a very naughty thong.”

“Is it?” she asked playfully, turning her head to look at me over her shoulder. “I thought every good girl is supposed to dress nicely for her man.”

Her man. Fuck, she wanted to kill me.

“You’re a very good girl for me,” I rasped, caressing the curve of her cheek until she moaned, arching into my touch. “So good. The best.”

I slapped her round flesh, not hard but enough to make a juicy sound. She yelped, tensing, and I stroked her again. Her legs fell open wider, and I saw how wet she was.

“Don’t tempt me, little tease, or it will come out wonky,” I said, reaching for the rest of my supplies. “I need you to be still now. That’s a good doll.”

She shivered but did as I said, and I marveled at that. It was like she was made for me. The instant obedience was such a turn-on, though I knew that she obeyed only because she wanted to. That made it all the better. She wanted to be here.

When I started the tattoo, which would be just below the left dimple on her lower back, she stayed put, not making a sound. The design was something I’d carried in my kit for some time, planning it for myself but never finding the time to actually do it. Now she would have it.

“When did you learn this?” she asked, shivering when I wiped off the excess ink.

“Ten years ago,” I said, filling out the contours. “Remember how I told you about those people who watched and shared the video of me? Well, I started hunting them down about then and needed a way to make it obvious what they did once they got to prison. To make it more fun.”

“Oh.” She sounded mildly surprised but not really disapproving.

I grinned. “Yeah, so I tattooed it on their foreheads after I tied them up. ‘Monster Snuff Lover’. The first guy I did it to squirmed so much, I almost gouged his eye out. That one was fun, but his tattoo is kinda bad since I didn’t know what I was doing at the time. Later, I realized I actually enjoyed it, so I learned how to make it safe and not as painful.”

“That’s… good.” Her voice was strained. I pulled back to give her a moment and sprayed her skin with a cooling solution.

“Just a bit longer, doll. It’s almost ready. I’ll fuck you after and you’ll forget all about the pain.”

She laughed shakily. “Promise?”

“Oh, yeah. I’ll make you all mine.”