Page 48 of Pen Me

No one would review them if I didn’t disturb anything. I wasn’t sure how long I’d been there, but if they had motion detectors and alarms, I’d hear or see trouble before it found me. Well, I might, if I could take my eyes off my fucking wrists.

They were bruised along the outer edges and scuffed from where the cuffs had dug into my skin. It had only taken a few minutes. Three maybe? I it was hard to say, because that was when time fucked up for me.

I knew when she slowed the car it wasn’t good. Larissa had promised to free me, but I couldn’t trust that. The bitch was just involved in a plot to kill me. If I got out of that car, I had no way of predicting whether she would shoot me and say I was attempting an escape or keep to her word.

All I had was an opportunity, at the expense of a woman who had already proven she was willing to look the other way while I was being murdered.

I kept telling myself that, but it didn’t stop my hands from shaking, or the tears from leaking down my face.

What was wrong with me? I wasn’t a pussy. Keefe wasn’t the first person I’d ever dropped. I sighed and tried to focus on the glow of the streetlight and the headlights and the traffic.

“What the fuck is wrong with me?” The question came out on a sob as Larissa’s ghost hung from my wrists, the memory of her lifeless weight in them cuffs crippling me all over again.

“Damn you.” I curled up, gripping my hair and tugging at it as I hid in the valley of my arms. “Why?... You– Stupid… stupid girl… Why did you make me do that?”

I raged at the memory of her wringing her complacent hands and watching me be propelled toward the shower room.

“Fuck!” I screamed.

I’d killed men. Some of them horrifically, but goddamn it, up until Keefe, they’d always given me a reason! I’d never hurt a woman before.

Never!

It made me sick. My thoughts raced and the tears blurred my vision. When I became aware of my surroundings again, the lights on the freeway didn’t seem so bright. I looked at thestreetlight, and though it was still glowing, I thought perhaps it was gradually dimming for the morning.

“It’s gonna be daylight soon…” I looked for the moon.

It was still there, amongst the hint of stars, but nowhere near the midpoint it had been earlier. Octavia was at the cabin. I needed to get to the cabin, but there was no way I’d make it out there like this.

Even more, there wasn’t a chance in this life or the next I was going anywhere without my girl. Even if she didn’t know she was mine, or didn’t comprehend that, as it were.

Fucking Griz.

I growled and shoved him from my mind as I marched through the shadows and cut through the lawns. I didn’t realize I’d committed to the journey, until I was standing on her porch.

I raised my hand to knock but froze. She had neighbors. Would the sound wake someone? Inspire a dog to bark? Draw attention? Would she let me in?

I couldn’t risk being turned away or spotted, and every breath made my conviction stronger.

I was going to see and know her! She was mine.

The door opened silently, effortlessly, almost like it was my house. The windows permitted just enough moonlight to illuminate my path as I traveled to a kitchen and then down a hall. I placed the outside of my pinkie against the door and lent weight to it.

My heart hammered in my chest, and my pulse rang loudly in my ears.

What if Griz was lying there with her? I’d fuckin’ strangle him, too.

The door squeaked, but the woman on the bed didn’t stir. The tension slowly left my body as I accepted it was only her in the house. The room was tidy, but not overly girly. I didn’t see any makeup desk or any of that stuff. Then again, when she turned and poked that ripe, little ass of hers out, there could have been an elephant in the room, and I wouldn’t have noticed.

I gravitated toward the sight of that roundness and the black shorts that clung to it and gently shifted into bed with her. She murmured and flopped toward me so hard and fast I was sure she was awake. I froze, but she settled, curling into my chest.

She nuzzled and I hesitantly blanketed her with my arms.

Fuck, she was beautiful, and she smelled so damned good. She stirred and slowly wound onto her back again. I don’t know what the fuck possessed me, but I moved with her. My body hovered over hers, her breath teasing my lips with each exhalation.

My dick had never been harder in all my life, nor had I ever been as mesmerized. Several hours ago, I was convinced I’d die, and this was all I wanted. Sammy Nash was my only real regret.

It was surreal.

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