Page 38

KLAUS

T he light fades from her eyes.

"What do you want to know?" she whispers.

"Everything," I say. "Start from the beginning."

She lowers her gaze. If she told me now that she didn't want to talk about it, I wouldn't push her. But I had to ask.

"He came into my life when I was at my loneliest," she says. "It was the summer after high school. I was working three jobs to save up for college. I told one of my coworkers how isolating all of it was, and she suggested this dating app."

She stops to take a shaky breath.

The strangest feeling envelopes my heart. It's more than protectiveness. It's regret that I wasn't there for her when she needed someone.

"So I installed the app," she says. "I wasn't really ready to date anyone, but I still craved connection. That's when I met Adam."

My arms tighten around her. I have to remind myself that she's in my bed right now. I'm the one holding her and kissing her.

"We clicked right away," she says. "He made me laugh.He was around when I just needed someone to talk to at the end of the day.I mean, I loved my grandmother, but I couldn't talk to her about everything , you know? He was my age, so he understood what I was going through."

"Like what?" I ask.

"Little things," she says, shrugging. "It feels like a lifetime ago, but in many ways, it feels like it was just yesterday.

I went to a public school, but most of the kids in Ravenwood come from affluent families.

They spent their summer vacationing in Europe or playing tennis at the country club.

On top of it all, everyone I knew had already gotten into their dream college.

They didn't have to worry about a thing because their entire life was sorted out for them.

But it's a different reality for people like me.

It's almost like we exist on different planets. "

"And Adam could relate to that?" I ask.

She shrugs. "It felt nice to vent to him."

Her eyes are in a dreamlike state, like it's the summer after high school again.

"Were the two of you dating?" I ask.

"He never asked me out on a date, and I was too shy to ask," she says. "We only communicated through text messages. But I definitely had feelings for him. I never felt that way about anyone before, so all of it felt really special."

"He wasn't the person you thought he was?" I ask.

She laughs softly. "To say the least."

And then she blinks, burrowing closer against my body. My heart expands, creating as much space as this girl needs. She's weaving herself into every part of me, and she doesn't even know it.

"I thought my world was in shambles before, but it was nothing compared to the hell that was waiting for me," she says.

"After six months of us talking, I found the courage to ask him if we could meet in person.

He wasn't open to the idea at first, but he agreed eventually. We decided on a time and place."

Her eyes are lost again. She's back in that moment, getting ready to meet someone special.

"When I showed up at the restaurant, my heart dropped," she says. "He looked nothing like his pictures. He wasn't a nineteen-year-old boy, but a middle-aged man old enough to be my father. He was playing me the whole time."

"What did he look like?" I ask.

I try to keep my voice neutral, but her eyes cut to mine. She studies me for a moment.

"He was big," she says. "Blond hair, thick eyebrows, pot belly.

There was something menacing about his presence.

I watched him from a distance because I couldn't believe something like this had happened to me.

This is the kind of stuff you hear stories about.

You never think that it could actually happen to you.

I called him to make sure that it was really him.

When he picked up the phone and glanced around the restaurant, I had the confirmation I needed.

I made a run for it and blocked him on the app. "

"But that wasn't the end of it," I guess.

"It was the beginning," she says. "He knew too much about me. He knew where I went to school and the neighborhood where I lived. I don't know how he pulled the information, but he found my home address. That's when the stalking began."

"You never filed an official complaint against him?" I ask.

"I should have, but I was scared out of my mind," she replies. "And a part of me felt so guilty about ghosting him. I felt like I was being selfish or something."

"Seriously?" I ask.

She looks up at me.

"It's just how I felt at the time," she says. "It was a pretty shitty year for me in general. I eventually had to tell my grandmother what happened. We decided it would be best to move somewhere else. That's how we ended up living in Florida for four years."

I nod. This is something I already know about her. I know that they stayed there until it wasn't financially sustainable anymore.

"We moved back to Ravenwood last year," she says. "Since so much time had passed, I thought it would be safe to live here again."

But it wasn't. He found her again after a few months.

I run my fingers down the groove of her spine. When I reach the small of her back, I press my palm there and pull her closer.

"His infatuation with me had only gotten worse," she says. "All that changed was that I wasn't a naive teenager anymore. I didn't want to live a life that was ruled by fear. So when things got bad, I went to the police station to file a complaint against him."

Her chest rises and falls in quick, uneven breaths.Something happened on that day.

"That was the evening my grandmother got sick," she says. "There was a cup of tea left on the counter. It was the same one my grandmother had every night, but my intuition told me something was off about that tea. Instead of throwing it away, I saved it."

"Who did you give the sample to?" I ask.

"I told someone at the hospital. They gave it to the forensics team," I say.

"Have you heard back from them?" I ask gently.

She shakes her head. "There's no report yet. They're still working on it."

It's been weeks since her grandmother got sick. If they don't have an answer by now, it's because they can't identify whatever was in that tea.

"I know someone who can help," I say slowly. "Her name is Vera, and she lives in Chicago. We can visit her tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" She blinks.

"Unless you have other plans?" I say.

She wets her lips and turns to her side to face me. The outline of her silhouette makes my cock hard again.

Alaric was wrong.I've had her, but she most definitely is not out of my system. If anything, she's burrowed her way deeper inside me, becoming a part of me.

Becoming the most vital part of me.

"What about the kids?" she asks.

"I can drop them off at Alaric's," I say. "Or we could take them along with us."

I didn't want the kids leaving the premises because an unidentified threat lurked out there.

That's not the case anymore.

Based on the description she gave me, I know who attacked me the other night. The big blond buffoon is her stalker. I should be alarmed that he knows about her whereabouts, but honestly, it's a relief. I want to be the one to deal with him once and for all.

"Okay," she says.

"It's settled then," I say. "We'll take the private jet to Chicago tomorrow afternoon. It's been a while since I took the kids somewhere."

"I can't believe we're going to Chicago on a private jet," she says.

"Would you rather I keep you locked in my bedroom and fuck you for a week straight?" I ask.

She gives me an impish smile. "I wouldn't be opposed to that."

The moment that smile hits her eyes, I know my life will never be the same again. I'll spend the rest of my existence making sure that this girl gets everything she deserves.

I grab her hips and flip her over so she's underneath me again.

I gather her wrists and pin them above her head.

"I was told I would get over you if I had a taste of you," I say. "But the opposite seems to have happened. If anything, I've grown even more obsessed with you."

Her eyes widen when I shove her thighs apart to make space for my hips. I rest my bare cock against her pussy.

"What have you done to me, angel?" I say, licking up the soft column of her neck. "What is this sorcery? It feels like you cast a spell over me, turning me into someone I barely recognize."

She bites down on her bottom lip.

I take over, tugging her bottom lip free so I can kiss her. She tastes so familiar, like I've been kissing her all my life. She gasps into my mouth when I grind my cock against her. Her soft tits are flattened against my chest, her nipples dragging against my skin with every pump of my hips.

"You took my come inside you like such a good girl," I praise her. "Are you going to keep opening these thighs for me every time I command you to?"

She whines in reply, her wrists straining against my hold.

"What's the matter, baby girl?" I ask her. "Is it too much for one night?"

I press her deeper into the mattress. Her body is perfectly lined up with mine now. She tries to shift underneath me, but there's no room for her to move.

"You signed your fate over to me the second you fell asleep on my bed tonight," I say. "And now, you're mine to do with as I please."

I grind my cock up and down her puffy slit, making sure she knows who she belongs to.

"I still have your virgin blood on my cock, but you're such a slut for it, aren't you?" I say, pushing against her opening. "I spilled my seed inside you one time, and you're already a fiend for it. Do you think this tight little pussy can handle being fucked again?"

She arches her back, moving her velvet pussy against the swollen tip of my cock.

I shove myself inside her, filling her to the brim. It catches her by surprise. The tiny muscles of her pussy spasm around my length, trying to milk me already.