Page 15 of The Stalker
The thought makes bile rise in my throat.How many nights?How many times did I curl up on the couch, thinking I was alone, when he was standing in the shadows, watching?
And why ...why does that thought make me shiver in a way that isn’t just fear?
I unlock the door with shaking hands and slip inside, locking it behind me this time, every bolt, every chain.But even as I press my forehead to the wood, my body trembling, I know it doesn’t matter.
Locks won’t keep him out.Not Griffin.Not whatever he’s become.Not tonight.
I slide down the door to the floor, burying my face in my knees.I should hate him.I should want to disappear, to run, to escape Ashburne forever.But all I can feel is the ghost of his touch, and the way he looked at me like I was the only thing in the world that mattered.His words play on a loop in my mind.
God help me, I don’t know if I want him to stop.
Chapter Nine
I Will Always Find You
Griffin
I could break her door.
One shove, and I’d be inside again, pressing her down on the floor where she’s curled up right now, trembling and crying.I can see it—the way her hands shake, the way her shoulders hitch with every silent sob.
It would be easy.
It would be so damn easy.
But I don’t.Not yet.Because I want her to understand.I want her to feel the truth deep in her bones, that there’s no escape, no hiding from me, no pretending I’m not the only one who’s ever loved her the way she deserves.
So I stand in the dark, just beyond her window, and I watch.Like I’ve watched every night since she came home.
She still doesn’t know all of it.How many nights I’ve slipped into this house, stood in this very room while she slept, her breath soft and shallow, her scars glowing faintly in the moonlight.How many mornings she woke up thinking she was safe, never realizing I’d been inches away.
The memory makes my cock ache, a sharp pulse of need that has me curling my hand into a fist.
“You should’ve taken her then,”Thomas snarls inside me.“She was laid out, defenseless, already yours.You’re weak, Griffin.Pathetic.”
I grit my teeth.“I wanted her to be ready.”
