“Take the bed,” he says as he flips off the light. “It’s not like you haven’t fucked in it already,” he mutters.
“Oh my gods, I remember that!” comes a high-pitched voice from on his desk. Marrabelle, the five-inch tall woman he keeps as a pet, has moved out of his fish tank and now has full range of the room. Thankfully, he has also started giving her clothes – doll clothes that he’s modified to fit her.
“Marrabelle, love, remember what I said about you being quiet?”
“You don’t like it because it makes you feel like you’re not doing a good job?” she says with a nod. “Oooh –” she says with a moan.
“No!” he cuts in quickly, blushing hard as his eyes dart to me. I donotmeet his gaze. I don’t even want to lie down on his bed now.
But the idea of being able to sleep without harming the woman I love is too much to resist. I collapse down on top of it, trying not to think about what’s happenedinit.
“Are you not going to take off all your clothes first?” the little woman asks, her voice one of disappointment.
“Hey.” Maddox scoffs. “I’m right here.”
“I wish you weren’t,” I mutter.
“Right. You heard him, Maddox. Out. Mama’s gonna –”
He grabs her and tosses her into a drawer, that he then shuts firmly.
I glance at him finally. “Did you put a silence rune on that?” I can’t hear her at all.
He shrugs a shoulder. “She has enough air in there for weeks. Besides, it’s my underwear drawer, so she’ll –”
“Maddox?”
“Yeah?” he asks, a grin stretched across his mouth.
“Shut up and let me sleep.”
“Of course, bruh. I’ll be here when you wake.”
My chest tightens. I haven’t told him all that happened to me onboard Antonio’s yacht, but he still understands that I can’t stomach being alone… That the world doesn’t feel safe enough to sleep in.
That the sleep itself isn’t safe…
Someone is on me.
I’m being waterboarded with Ricks, the smell of tobacco and cedar permeating through the rag covering my face. I cough hard as I struggle to breathe. I jerk my head side to side, trying to throw them off.
But the sickness in my veins has made me weak. Every toss of my head sends sharp pains through my brain. The migraine is making it hard to think.
But I don’t need to think to know this is wrong.
That I don’t want this.
None of these women are my wife.
The rag is removed, and I turn my head, coughing and sputtering and trying to breathe.
And all this time, some whore is riding my cock. Another is humping my foot, forcing it inside her. The third places the rag back over my face and pours more Ricks across it.
I jerk awake, throwing the covers off and jumping to my feet, my fangs already bared.
“Easy, tiger.” Maddox switches the light on, and I turn my head to the side as I close my eyes.
My heart rate starts to slow.