Page 12

The lights are on in her apartment, in fact every light she has is on, and loud industrial music blares from the closed windows loud enough that I can hear it over the idling of the bike. It sounds like she’s having a party up there, and I am slightly and irrationally miffed that I wasn’t invited.

The ride home took a detour, and here I sit as dusk approaches, on my motorcycle across the street from her place, looking up into the second story abode where she is. She’s so close, yet so far away.

“What are you doing up there princess?” I ask, hearing my words echo back to my ears through the musicless speakers in my helmet. “Are you having fun?”

The bike shifts between my legs as I flick down the kickstand and sit back, pulling my phone off the magnetic mount on the gas tank. With a swipe of my finger, I pull up the feed from her bedroom camera, hoping to catch a glimpse of her and am immediately enraged at what I see.

In the middle of her room, with an open bottle of liquor dangling from her hand, she has her arms wrapped around some shirtless guy. They’re dancing and grinding together, their bodies pressed against each other tightly. Heat floods through my face, and my hand grips my phone so hard that it squeaks against the leather of my glove. I can feel my heart pounding in my chest, and the vibration of it against my sternum has me twitching.

“What the fuck?” I spit out. “Oh, no, this will not do. Not at all, baby. You’re mine, and mine alone.”

Everything in me wants to go up there, rip them apart, kill whoever the dude is, and spank the shit out of her for her transgressions. I know it’s irrational and shit, but I don’t care. The only thing holding me back is the scrap of daylight that’s left, and the amount of traffic that still drives by. There is the potential of too many witnesses.

“You’re lucky, for now asshole. But when night falls, you’re mine.” I growl, aggressively pushing on the screen to enlarge the images of them, watching his hands roam all over her, then cup her ample ass.

She winces at the touch, and it brings a satisfied smile to my face that his touch causes her pain. My touch didn’t. It didn’t even wake her. But his does. Her cane marks must not be healed enough yet, and that just might be the grace that keeps him from taking her, if she’s smart.

Come on baby, make the right choice here.

The minutes, then hours drag by so slowly as I watch through the little lens. They dance and drink. He touches and she moans, but she doesn’t allow it any further, turning him down with each pass he makes at touching her more intimate parts.

“Such a good girl.” I croon when she finally flops down on her bed, pushing him away when he tries to kneel between her thighs.

She shakes her head no, and mumbles something I can’t understand, but her body language is all I need to see. She’s done, but he’s not. He advances, sliding his hands up her thighs, pushing her skirt up. She leans forward and pushes against him playfully at first, then harder when he tries to drag her closer to the edge of the mattress with a yank from behind her knees.

Her smiles and laughter turn to a serious look on her freckled face, then her eyes open wide in shock as his hand disappears underneath her. Her lips curl up and her little hands ball up into fists, and I’ve seen enough.

“For fuck’s sake.” I grumble, hopping off the bike and grabbing my keys, stuffing them in my pocket.

I’m across the now empty street before I can even consider the consequences of my actions. I don’t have my truck here. I have nothing to conceal his body, and there’s no way to hide the fact that he is now absolutely going home with me.

“Fuck!” I yell at myself for my rashness as I climb the steps to her apartment three at a time, with my long legs taking me up them as fast as they can go.

The door swings in with one hefty kick, the single small lock doing nothing once again to keep me from gaining access to her. It crashes on the wall behind it, shaking the pictures on the wall of the front of the room, but I don’t care. My princess is in danger, albeit one she so stupidly put herself in.

“What the fuck?” The asshole yelps when I grab him by the dark hair, pulling him off her. His limbs flail uselessly trying to break free from my hold.

In the seconds it took me to cross the street and break down the door he got her on her back and climbed on top of her.

“Do not touch her.” I yell inside my helmet, my voice filling the small space loudly, and my spittle hitting the tinted visor.

She scrambles across the bed away from him as I set him on his feet in front of me, whipping him around to face the monster that he could only dream to be as bad as.

“Who the hell are you?” He spits out, his hand forming a fist at his side.

“Go ahead, take a swing, I bet all you do is break your hand, you stupid prick.”

I can see him considering it as he looks at me, his head tilting to the side like a dog hearing the word “walk”. His brown eyes scan me up and down, taking in the black leather, and blackened helmet. How intimidating I must look.

“Who…who are you?” Lily cries out from the bed, her back pressed against the pile of pillows, her legs pulled up to cover her body and protect herself.

“The one who has to save you for a second time this week.” I say lowly, turning to face her, ignoring the prick with the urge to swing at me.

It’s humorous to watch as she lifts her chin and stares at me, her little nose twitching just like it did at the café. She can smell me, she recognizes me, and she visibly relaxes at the memory of just days ago when I carried her from a scenario even worse than this one. At least this time I got to her before any more marks could be left on her pretty flesh.

“You?”

“Yes, princess.Me.”

“That doesn’t tell…” The guy starts to say, interrupting my words with Lily, pissing me off even more.

He drops to the floor like a sack of bricks on a pained cry with a single jab to the face.

“Shut the fuck up.” I growl, stepping over him as he writhes on the ground, cupping his nose that gushes blood like a faucet.

Kneeling on the bed, and crawling across it, I approach her, and she freezes. I lean over her, my hand on the headboard trapping her under me, and look down at her. She trembles, but at the same time she looks at me with those stormy grey eyes in something other than fear. It’s softer, almost welcoming.

Sliding my hand up her leg to her thigh, I push it down, opening her up. She looks at where my crotch settles against her, the erection building under my leathers growing hard against her, and she bites her bottom lip.

“Such a needy little thing. So much so, you keep getting yourself in trouble.” I say, tracing my gloved finger down her cheek, watching her gaze fix on my visor. “But princess, if I have to rescue you again, I’m not going to be so nice next time.”

“What if I don’t want you to be?” She purrs, obviously still feeling the effects of the alcohol. Why else would she challenge the killer hovering over her, where he could ruin her before she could cry out.

“Be careful what you wish for, baby.”

With a quick slap to her cheek, just hard enough to get her absolute attention, I chuckle menacingly, push myself off her, and step off the bed.

“But who are you?” She asks as I walk over to the window and pull the decorative rope tying the curtain back from its hook, wrapping it around my hands while she watches in morbid curiosity.

“Shhh. You’ll know soon enough.”

She watches silently as I loom over the bleeding guy on the floor who curses under his breath, his hand reaching out for me when I grab his hair again and lift him to his feet. He clumsily gets up, his bloody hand grabbing the edge of the bed to help relieve the tension from my grip, leaving a perfect red handprint on her otherwise clean sheets.

“You broke my nose.” He complains, trying to decide what to do, continue holding his broken face, or reach out for me.

“Yeah I know. But that’s the least of your worries. You’ve touched what’s mine. You tried to defile her. For that, a broken nose is just the appetizer.”

“Yours?” Lily gasps from the bed, but I ignore her.

She knows all too well what’s going on here, and deep down inside no matter how shocked she acts, she wants me to claim her, to own her, to keep her. I can smell the desire for me on her. Tonight just isn’t the night for me to bring her home with me. First, this piece of shit needs to take the ride he deserves.

“Come on. We’re leaving.” I say to the jackass with the blood covered face and dark hair, whom I really have no desire to learn anything else about.

He barely puts up a struggle as I grab his wrists and tie them together with the rope in my grasp. Not until I start dragging him through her apartment does he begin to fight, but by then it’s too late. His feet kick out from under him, throwing himself to her kitchen floor, and I simply drag him behind me, kicking and screaming, out her door, and down the wooden steps outside. His body bangs on each footing, tumbling downwards behind me with a clamor that could wake the dead, but thankfully no one is around besides the flower upstairs to see me drag him away.

“Help!” He hollers as I drag him across the pavement of her driveway, then the street towards my bike.

I didn’t think this out at all, and as I reach the bike, I stop,, and yank off my boot and pull off my sweaty sock, giving it a sniff for good measure. I can’t have him screaming the whole way back home. That would be so annoying.

“Ugh.” I laugh, then shove it in his mouth to shut him the fuck up.

A quick check of the maps on my phone and I find a back way home, full of quiet and private roads that I can lead, well drag, him through to his final resting place.