Page 65 of Ruin Me Gently

Mr Stalker

Excuse me?

Lilith

Yeah. There’s no way that’s you. Try again.

Mr Stalker

You think I’d lie about something like my own body?

Lilith

I think you’re already sneaking around and hiding your face, so let’s just say your credibility isn’t exactly solid.

Mr Stalker

It’s me, Lilith.

Lilith

Right. And I’m the Queen of England.

Mr Stalker

You want proof?

My stomach tightened.

Lilith

Nice try. I’m not about to ask you for proof just so you can steal more photos.

My pulse thumped erratically as I watched the three little dots flicker on my screen. A beat passed. Then another attachment.

I was expecting… well, I didn’t know what I was expecting. Maybe a glimpse of his jaw, his cheekbone, something face-adjacent at the very least.

This was worse. It was still that same body, same tattoos, same borderline-offensive levels of muscle. But this time, his hand was in frame, holding that damn scarf.

It was areallygoodhand. Big. Veined. The kind of hand that looked like it had wrapped around throats before. His fingers were long and strong, coiled right around that fabric, like he could’ve just tightened his hold and—

I made a noise. Ashamefulnoise.

It was normal to be attracted to hands, right? That was a thing. A normal thing. Some people had kinks. Some people liked feet, some people liked backs, some people liked… whatever this was.

I swallowed hard, my phone screen blurring as I tried to remember how to breathe like a rational adult.

Lilith

What is going on right now?

Mr Stalker

I panicked.

Lilith

You have a tendency to do that, don’t you? For someone so bold, you seem to panic a lot.

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