Page 19 of Summer's Cage
He’s a little more brazen in his approach this evening, shadow falling over me, his knees audibly popping as he crouches beside the mattress. I can’t help but peek through my arm at him; his hair is windswept, his pecs stretching his plain black short sleeve shirt taut. Mask securely in place, he tilts his head to the side and reaches out to me, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear with a gentleness so unbecoming of his size and strength. Fire erupts along my flesh where our skin touches, and I can’t fight the shiver that races down my spine.
Sighing heavily, he pulls his hand away and rests his forearms on his knees, studying me.
“Leave me alone,” I huff into my legs. His eyes crinkle slightly, a sign that tells me he’s smiling beneath that mask. He shakes his head, then holds up a finger, as if telling me to wait. I want to fire back that I have nowhere to go because of him, but I just turn my face away and hide my eyes from him. Unperturbed by my surliness, he stalks back up the stairs, disappearing for a few moments before coming back down.
A small, frightened mewl has my head popping up in shock, and there stands Kage, tall and proud, the grey cat named Princess snug in his sturdy arms. My jaw drops in shock, my eyes bouncing from the cat to his proud face and back a thousand times as it sinks in. He…he listened to me, to that story I told all those months ago, and he went and picked her up for me.
Her green eyes are round with fear, and I instinctively reach up for her, aching to cradle her to my chest and shelter her from the abhorrent life she once lived. Kage crouches down again and gently hands her to me, her claws digging into his shirt and stretching it taut for a moment before it snaps back and she’s safe in my lap. She’s terrified of this new environment, now digging her rather pointy claws into my chest as she attempts to climb onto my shoulders.
“Shh, shh, it’s me, remember?” I whisper soothingly, cuddling her close up under my chin. “No more stinky, loud dogs and bright lights.”
Just a derelict basement and a stalker named Kage.
My eyes—swimming with tears—find his. I don’t even know what to say to this gesture, because I’m equal parts angry, sorrowful, and elated. I can tell he’s smiling; he saw I was depressed, and he did this for me. Without hesitation, without needing to ask, he simply knew I needed something other than him to cling to to get me through being here. It cements one singular fact for me; Kage may be wrong for how he ripped me from my life, but there’s a bigger purpose to my being here.
And I’m starting to think it’s to keep me safe.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
SUMMER
My fingers dipinto the soft curls atop Kage’s skull, my thighs trembling in exhaustion, sweat slicking both our skin as the lascivious sounds of his mouth on my pussy echoes in the cold, dark basement. Another keening moan rips from my throat as my back arches, his teeth scraping over my sensitive clit and coaxing forward my next orgasm. His fingers wrap around my thighs and dig into my muscles so deep I can feel him against my very bones.
Chest heaving chaotically, I pant, “I can’t…please…too much…”
He ignores my pleas for mercy and pries another climax from between my quivering thighs like a lion ruthlessly making a kill. Screaming his name to the gods as I come again, he still doesn’t relent, his expert tongue flicking over my abused bud, my cunt clenching and my womb aching. He worships me as though I am God, and he Satan, begging to be restored to Heaven.
My eyes flutter, and I suck in a heaping breath of air, clutching at the bare mattress beneath me…
Alone in the dark, my thighs damp with arousal.
It’s the third wet dream I’ve had of Kage this week alone, and I’m blaming it on my first ovulation in years.
Pressing a hand to my sweaty forehead, I steady my breathing and prepare for the onslaught of guilt and disgust. I shouldn’t feel this way toward him at all. I know it’s just because he’s my death and life all wrapped into one, and there’s a type of reverence toward someone who wields that amount of power over you.
The chains binding my wrists are a constant reminder that I didn’t choose this, and so I shouldn’t be choosing him in any capacity. The only problem with having so much time to think and reflect on your life? You start to convince yourself that your oppressor is actually somehow your savior.
Because I can’t stop comparing Kage to everyone close to me before this happened, and I know with a sinking feeling that of all the people I would be able to count on, he would be the only one. My family would be there for me in any capacity I needed, naturally, but it’s your chosen family you need to construct carefully, and I did a piss-poor job of building a solid foundation around me.
Sighing, I turn my head to the side, unable to keep the grin from my lips. Poppy—Princess’s new name—purrs contently next to me, legs folded up under her like a loaf of bread, eyes pinched shut, and a smile of bliss on her cute little snout. She’s been spending the majority of her time near me or hunting big ass beetles in the laundry room. At least once a day, she trots happily over to me, primordial pouch swinging as a shiny black bug wriggles in her mouth.
The first time, I’d screamed so loud that I’d roused some nesting quail in the shrubs by the only window. At least Kage had been gone to work; it’s one less thing he can torment me with. I don’t have phobias, per se, but I have rather strong aversions to certain things. Thunderstorms, needles, creepy crawly bugs or wriggly, slimy ones. After this ordeal, we can add clowns, chains, and showers without walls to that list.
Turning my face back to the ceiling, I count the exposed beams for the millionth time before I try to figure out which wire leads to what important switch in the house.
Kage will eventually mess up. He’s oddly lax around me, which only further proves my suspicions that he’s more worried about someone gettinginthan me getting out.
There’s a sort of cockiness to him, a reassured swagger in his gait around me, as though he’s completely sure of his abilities to outsmart and outmatch me. The most depressing part is knowing that’s true; I don’t have much to offer society, and so I had to make a mirage and let the worldthinkI did.
I’m not brave. I coasted by in high school, far more concerned with parties and maintaining vapid friendships than academics. I can’t stand the sight of people vomiting or bleeding, so becoming a nurse was always off the table. I’m not overly fond of kids, either, so that kills a few other career choices. I hate math and suck ass at it. Accounting was out, which saddened my mortgage broker father. Anything physical? No fucking thank you. I break out in hives if I have to speed-walk to catch a flight.
So did Kage become obsessed with the façade, or could he sense the real me behind the camera? And if it was the mask I wore that he loves…when will he realize it was all fake and kill me?
The door to the basement pops open, and he stomps down right on schedule, scaring Poppy back into the abyss of the laundry room. Grumbling in annoyance, I push myself up, the chains warm against my worn, bruised wrists. He’s dressed for whatever his job is, two coolers in hand—the blue one, mine, and the red, his.
I hate how when his eyes crinkle, my heart squeezes in lust, knowing he’s smiling at me beneath that mask. I make him happy.Then he turns around and shows up in my dreams with his face buried in my pussy.
Setting the little cooler down near the edge of the mattress, he pulls the notebook from under his arm and kneels to my eye level, writing something down quickly before turning the pages to me.
