Page 51 of Cut Me Down

I come back down from my laughter to the warm feeling in my chest again. The adoring plague ravaging its way through my entire body. It’s becoming more and more frequent, with no signs of stopping or a cure being invented. With every sweet word that comes out of his mouth, that’s just one more lock picked on my defiance.

“I'll be sure to come up with something better next time.” A dark cloud descends on our happy mood, and I immediately feel the regret join my butterfly plague. I shouldn’t have said that. I'm not even sure if I meant that, but I suppose you never know what the future holds. I had said before that it would never happen again. Guess I was wrong. Look what happened only four nights ago.

I watch as he lays his hand on my thigh and his eyes burrow deep into my soul. Any evidence of his playful mood is now gone, and I know it’s my fault. I really need to start learning to keep my thoughts to myself when I’m around him.

“There will be no next time.” He gently squeezes my thigh. “I will kill any man who even thinks about getting near you. Any man will be lucky to live after breathing the same air as you.” The crazy thing is, I believe him. He’s possessive, obsessed, sex crazed, and dangerous.

Though, he’s not dangerous to me. I may be the only person on the planet who is immune to his violence. He’s done nothing but show me patience, temperance, and attentiveness. Even as I’ve screamed, yelled, and mouthed off to him, I’ve never thought he’d hurt me.

“I believe you.” I say quietly, needing to say it, but a part of me hoped he didn’t hear it.

“Good.” He pulls my hand gently, guiding me to lay against him again. I nestle up to him, and he quickly jerks the remote out of my hand and turns it to Final Destination.

Chapter nineteen

Ashia

The Next Day

Last night was strangely comforting. We talked all through Final Destination about how stupid some of the characters were and made fun of the ridiculous ways they died. Normally, talking through a movie would bother me, but he’s actually really funny. He pointed out the most ridiculous things and even explained how some of it would have never worked in real life. I didn’t ask how he knew that of course; I didn’t want to know the answer to that.

He picked on me a little. Wrote down a few of the death scenes on a piece of paper and asked if I wanted to draw today’s excuse or skip to the end and use the ‘piece of metal flying off of a railroad track’ bit.

Asshole.

If we weren’t both so tired, we may have even watched the second one, but by the end of the first his soothing voice had almost put me to sleep. I could hear the vibrations from his voice mix with the beating of his heart while I laid against him, and just before I fell asleep, he ran his fingers through my hair, and that did it for me.

It wasn’t until later on we had sex, and to be honest, I initiated it. I had woken up at some point last nightreallyhorny and felt his hard dick in my back. So, I may have pushed myself into him until he woke up and fucked me. Not may have, I did, and I’m not sorry. But at least this time he didn’t string me up like a rag doll. He was actually quite gentle. Well, as gentle as doggy style could be with a man like him. I wonder if he’ll come over early tonight too. Probably not, because any other day it’s the middle of the night before he wakes me up.

“Hey, bitch!” I tear my focus from my thoughts and my client, Ben, to see Serena walking in the front door of Cut Me Down. She’s in her navy-blue scrubs, and her hair is down and perfectly wavy like it always is. Her make up is flawlessly intact, and she looks like she just got ready five minutes ago, though I’m sure she’s been at work all day. I don’t know how she keeps herself up like that. I’m quite jealous of her ability to always look pristine.

“Hey! What are you doing here?” I ask her, raising my eyebrows slightly. We had agreed that until I knew she was safe coming around here, that she would stay away. It’s not that I don’t want to see her. I’ve been texting her almost non-stop, and I’ve missed her like crazy. I just couldn’t stand the thought of anything happening to her.

“I hit too many hours last week, so to even them out they sent me home today, and I came to get my best friend for shitty onion rings and alcohol. You got anyone after him?” She points to Ben.

“Nope, he’s it for the day and I’m almost done.”

“Perfect! I’ll wait up here. You can come in your work clothes. If I’m going in scrubs you can go in that.” She giggles as she sits and looks around. Leaning over to the side and looking towards the back room before glancing up towards the ceiling. “I don’t see tall, dark, and creepy here. Is he hiding upstairs?” She jolts, pretending to be afraid. “Is he in the attic?” She draws in a sharp gasp and places her hand over her heart. “Is the call coming from inside the house?” A mischievous smirk sprouts on her lips.

“You are so hateful sometimes.” We giggle together and she visibly relaxes. “You won’t find him here, Ser, he works late.” I widen my eyes at her and nudge towards my client to let her know to keep her mouth shut.

“Oh, that’s right. How unfortunate, I was hoping to scare him a little today.” My very fit, slim, blonde best friend scare my tall, menacing, muscled slice of man? Yeah, sure.

“I don’t think you could scare him.” I shake my head playfully.

“The fuck I can’t.” We giggle as I roll my eyes, and she finally lets me finish up with my client. As I ring him out, I look over to see Serena on her phone, and I think about texting Damien and telling him where I’m going. I shouldn’t really give a shit if he knows, but I have a feeling if he looks at the cameras, or comes over and I’m not here, that he’ll go ballistic.

I pull out my phone as Ben walks out.

Me:

Hey, not sure if you’d want to know or not, but Ser and I are heading to the seafood bar on 3rdSt. for a few drinks. Didn’t want you to worry, I won’t be out late.

I start cleaning everything up, but my nerves start to rattle. What if he gets mad that I’m going out? What if he shows up? Was it stupid of me to tell him exactly where we’re going? Probably, but I’ll be damned if I ever have to ask to see my best friend again. He may control my orgasms, but I’ll be damned if he controls my life. I’ll never fall into that again.

I almost yelp the moment my phone buzzes. Not only alerting me to Damien’s response, but to the fact that my confident declaration of independence is still overshadowed by my paranoia.

Damien:

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