Page 87 of Under the Bed

Kaleb bites my thong. Shrugs into his clothes. His boots.

Everything he has on looks new.

Where did he get it from? It’s imperative that I have this piece of information. Without it, how can I protect him?

I jump out of bed, gripping the sleeve of his hoodie. “This isn’t funny. You getting caught isn’t fucking funny to me, Kaleb.”

Tilting his head, he takes my thong out of his mouth. “You see me laughing?”

“No.”

His lips press together. His jaw works.

“What?” I ask.

He huffs, pulling me into him. Locking me in his arms.

It’s the strongest hug. The warmest embrace.

It’s over way too soon.

“I’m fine.” He tucks a strand of my hair behind my ear. My scar is on the other side. I’m grateful that he doesn’t see it. Not tonight when everything’s volatile. When he’s such an enigma to me. He’ll demand answers while still not giving me any, and I won’t have that. “Don’t worry about me.”

“I do worry.” Eleven years. That’s how long I’ve been worrying over him. Over a goddamn decade.

Now he’s back. He promised he’d stay. Except he’s leaving. Why?

“Please, stay.”

While I look at him—while I beg—he shoves my thong between my legs, rolling it from my slit upward. “Mmm.”

His touch and the satisfied sound are my undoing. My knees buckle and he hooks his arm around me, holding me upward with my thong in his hand while he leans over to pick his mask off the floor behind him. He’s strong enough to do both. Tall enough to reach.

“Go to bed.” He pulls it on, my monster. “I’m not going anywhere. I’m not done with you. I’ll never be done with you. I won’t leave you a second time. That’s a promise. But we’re playing a game and it won’t be over until I say so.”

I open my mouth to argue, to demand that he spend the night. To beg him to stay with me.

Despite everything, I don’t want him to leave me ever again.

He won’t let me. There’s no arguing with him when he presses a finger to my lips. When he renders me silent by stuffing my soaked thong into his mask.

We’re both silent after that. As he helps me into the bed. As he stuns me further by going to my bathroom and returning with a cloth, wiping me clean.

I reach out to him when he pulls the covers over me. He only shakes his head.

One last look, and he’s gone.

14

SHILOH

“Mr. Ronan Talbot’s office, how may I help you?”

Confusion hits hard. I’m quiet, needing a second to regroup. Just one so I can come to my senses and snap my mouth shut.

When I manage, I put my coffee mug on the kitchen counter, the second one for today. I really needed that one. Kaleb wore me out last night. Physically and emotionally. I’m still sore between my legs. Still unsure of what happened.

Many things did. If I had to sum them up in one word, it’d be afirework.

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