Page 25 of Roommate Wanted (Knotty #1)
Nia
When Lyall came into the bedroom, I discreetly minimised the search window on my phone. Never in a million years did I think I would be held hostage in my own home and research if I had Stockholm Syndrome or not.
He kept the apartment clean and fed me delicious food. The problem was that he was a creepy bastard. He was never far away from me. When I sat on the sofa, he practically sat on top of me. I’d found his cameras and tossed them in a bowl of water.
Yes, something had gone terribly wrong in my life.
Lyall pulled his towel off, revealing his taut abdomen, toned thighs and the rising beast in the middle.
Okay, a few things were terrible. Perhaps not everything.
My brain screamed for a reality check. I turned my face away, as if that would help. It didn’t. His scent still wrapped around me like warm honey.
Mmm. Honey.
“Are yae still hungry?”
he asked casually, drying his hair with my towel.
Oh, if only he knew where that towel had been an hour ago.
“You’re naked.”
“Aye. I live here.”
“So do I!”
“Which is why yae should be used tae it by now.”
He dropped the towel onto a chair and climbed into bed without a shred of self-consciousness.
I rolled to the edge, phone clutched in my hand like a lifeline.
“I’m just saying it’s weird.”
He reached over, plucked my phone from my hand. He glanced at the screen before tossing it onto the nightstand.
“Normal people don’t research psychological conditions while lyin’ beside the man who’s ruined their arsehole and made them scream four times in one night.”
“You're the reason I never dated pretty men,”
I mumbled into my pillow.
I felt him stiffen beside me.
“Fur yer safety and ma sanity we’re goin'tae pretend that ye’ve never hud sex with anyone but me,”
he growled.
“Do you know your accent gets stronger when you are mentally disturbed?”
“Cum’ere, yoo. I’ll show yae mentally disturbed,”
he said, dragging me beside him. His body curled around me, and his scent engulfed me.
I laughed and tried to grab the edge of the bed, but he didn't do anything. His face was in my hair with his breath on my bite mark. He took a deep inhalation, and when he breathed out, I could smell the mint toothpaste.
“Ye smell so gud, Nia. Tae me an’ Conall. Ah wud do it all again just to hawd yae like this,”
he said, grinding his cock against my thong-clad cheeks.
I suppressed a shiver, but his grip around my waist tightened.
“Yae dinnae understand. Ah didnae huv a choice. If yae were a shifter, yae would have reacted tae me being yer mate. You drove me crazy.”
My mouth opened, but no sound came out as my brain dismantled and dissected his words.
“You're victim blaming me?”
“Naw. Am just saying wae ma instincts tae mate wae yae, tae bond wae yae they arnae human rituals. Ahv been burning fur yae fur months.”
“Am just saying,”
he continued, voice rasping low in my ear, “it wisnae logic that made me fuck yae like that. It wis instinct. The kind that howls and claws at yae until it gets what it wants.”
I swallowed, my tongue heavy in my mouth.
“And what happens when your instinct gets bored?”
His chest rumbled against my back.
“Am no human, Nia. We don’t get bored. Once a bond’s forged, there’s nae out. It’s forever. Yae can fight it, cry about it, curse me fur it—but yer soul’s already marked. And every part of yae, from that smart mouth tae yer soaked wee panties, knows it.”
My thighs pressed together. I hated and loved that he could feel me, know me.
“Ah wud die fur yae. So would Conall. That's wit we wud do tae protect yae,”
he said, kissing my neck.
I paused at his words before remembering his stalker walls and all the shit he pulled.
“Still sounds like you’re blaming me for your crazy,”
I muttered, even as he slid his cock along the seam of my ass, teasing, insistent.
“Naw,”
he murmured, biting my shoulder lightly, right over the fading mark.
“Am thanking yae. Fur being ma mate.”
His hips rolled forward, slowly. Possessively.
“Because now ye’r mine. Properly. And ah’ll never let yae forget it.”
I reached back and tentatively touched his thigh, then ran my hand down the hard line of muscle. He sucked in a sharp breath. His cock jerked and leaked as he ground against my ass. His chest rumbled again. Only this time, it was Conall I heard growling through him. They were both reacting to my touch.
“You like that?”
I asked softly, dragging my nails up his thigh. I was part curious and part horny.
“Both of you?”
His hand snapped around my wrist, not to stop me, but to anchor himself. His cock throbbed against my ass, his breath ragged now.
He pushed himself up on his elbow and dragged my hand to his chest, over his pounding heart.
“Then listen. He’s already trying tae surface. Yae want tae see what he’d do if ah let him out? Yae want tae see what happens when a wolf marks what’s his wae no rules left?”
My lips parted, but I didn’t answer. I was tempted to know what would happen if he unleashed the beast.
What was I thinking?
Fucking Stockholm Syndrome.