Page 154 of Obsession

“Pathetic kills?” Furious, I try to turn around to glare at him, but he keeps me pinned against the bar top with his body.

To the outside world, we look like a loved-up couple. What they don’t see are the bruises Robbie’s punishing touch is branding on my neck, how tense he is behind me, or how he snarls, “You stabbed one to death with a pen and the other two with a kitchen knife you kept inside your bra.”

“What can I say?” I taunt. “I like to ride dick and bathe in blood.”

“You won’t say that when you’re in prison. Do you think you can handle it in there, baby?” His cruel chuckle against the shell of my ear rubs me the wrong way. “You trembled like a leaf in the wind the first time you met me. A pretty girl like you wouldn’t last a day behind bars.”

Fuelled by a sudden burst of anger, I sneer, “I can always fuck the guards for special favors. We both know I excel at that.”

Robbie stills behind me. He even ceases to breathe. My pulse thunders beneath his calloused fingers on my neck.

Releasing me, he walks away, disappearing into the crowds.

Tears cling to my lashes as I stare down at the queen card for a beat, feeling the bartender’s eyes on me.

Anger flushes through me, and I grit my teeth.

My heart slows to heavy thuds. Thuds I feel everywhere in my body.

Shoving off the counter, I storm after him.

I shoulder my way through the crowd and push open the door. Robbie is halfway across the road, the muscles bunched in his broad back. I can see them from here, hidden beneath his dark coat.

“How fucking dare you walk away from me again? Fuck you!” I shout, crossing the road.

He comes to a halt, his chin touching his shoulder as he turns his head slightly, but not enough to face me.

“Who the fuck are you to come back here after all this time and tell me who I can or can’t fuck? Who the hell are you to think you have any say in what I do anymore?”

As I catch up to him, I shove his back. He stumbles forward and swivels around. Fire flares in his blue eyes, and he flexes his hands by his sides.

Good.

I want to evoke a fucking reaction from him. I want him to be just as angry as I am.

“You disappeared on me, Robbie. You left me.” My voice is weaker than I want it to be, shaking precariously when I point an accusing finger at him and say, “I waited for you. Don’t you fucking get it? I fell for you, and you left… You fucking left.”

“I did leave you,” he growls out, eyes burning intensely as he bends down to meet me head-on. “And don’t tell me you didn’t want me to return and unleash over a year’s worth of pent-up frustration. You want to fuck other guys? Is that why you killed them afterward and put a calling card on their dicks? Or was it to get my attention?”

His smile sends shivers down my spine, but I don’t respond. “Congratulations, Savannah, you have my attention. I tried to stay away and do right by you.” His gaze swims with emotions,and he looks away, clenching his jaw as though it hurts him to continue.

When he pins those blue eyes on me again, I hold my breath, craving whatever words are about to escape his lips. I need them. Need his truth. Need him to bleed out and bare his soul to me. I need it like I need my next breath.

“You can’t tell me you want to be with a deranged serial killer. Is this what you want from life? Live the rest of your days on the run from the authorities? Always looking over your shoulder? And that’s if I don’t snap and kill you first?—”

Pressing my fingers to his lips, I silence his tirade. “Stop, Robbie. Just stop. Ssshh.” I close my eyes briefly as the breeze shifts my hair off my neck. “I love you.”

I open my eyes, and my breath catches in my throat. There’s so much pain and fear in his gaze.

“I’m not scared of you, Robbie. You hear me? I’m. Not. Scared. Of. You.”

He wrenches his lips from beneath my fingers, cups my cheek, and trails his cool fingers over my tear-stained cheek, touching me gently yet firmly enough to know he’ll always protect and love me. “I love you too. I love you so much it consumes me, but I would never forgive myself if I hurt you.”

Instead of replying, I press up on my tiptoes and capture his lips.

With my arms around his neck, I lose myself in him, kissing his trembling lips with everything in me.

Our tongues tangle and our breaths dance between our lips every time we come up for air before colliding again, like waves touching the beach in a back and forth coming together.