Page 30 of Come Back To Me
I push my way through the heavy swinging door and walk to the first empty stall I see. As I’m closing the door, someone pushes against it. I go rigid and I’m shoved into one of the stall walls. I tuck into myself as it smashes against me, and when it closes, I slowly peel my eyes open. My next breath stops in my throat.
“Hey, sweetheart.” Gareth’s smile is big, and much like so many other things about him, very, very wrong.
“What . . . what are you doing here?”
“You said a couple of hours. It’s been three. That’s more like a few.”
“I told you to stay at the house.”
“For a couple of hours. And I did. After patiently waiting like you asked me to, I’m doing things my way now.” He shuffles closer, sliding a hand up the front of my shirt as he nibbles on mybottom lip. “Fuck, I’m trying so, so hard. For you. I’m trying so hard for you.”
For youis all I hear, my stomach swimming. “You have to leave,” I say, after reminding myself as to why he can’t be here. As to why him stalking me and trying not to eat me isn’t at all romantic.
“Why?”
“Because I’m eating with my friends and no one can see you.”
“Why?” He parrots his last question.
“Why what? Why am I eating with them, or why can’t anyone see you?”
He blinks. “Both. No one here aside from them knows who the hell I am and that I’m supposed to be dead. And why can’t you eat at home with me?”
“For one, we don’t exactly eat the same food. And another . . . you just need to go back to the house.”
“I will when you do.”
“I’m not ready to go back yet, Gareth, and my friends definitely are aware you’re supposed to be dead.”
“I’ll wait outside for you, then. They won’t see me.”
“That’s ridiculous. How did you even get here to begin with?” I swat at his hand as he rubs my nipple.
“I saw my phone on the nightstand and used that app where you can schedule someone to get you or whatever. It was like riding a bike once I clicked on it. My fingers remember what the rest of me can’t sometimes.” His hand snakes back up to my chest. “Like all the ways you like being touched.” He tugs at one of my nipples and lightly pinches.
A jolt of electricity shoots up my spine, and he moves to the other, repeating the same action.
“I can’t think when you do that.”
“Then don’t. Only think about what I’m doing to you. About me and you.” He lifts my shirt and sucks one of my hard nubs between his teeth, nicking it enough to make it bleed a little.
“You said you’d try for me,” I remind him.
“This is me trying. I wanted to bite you a lot more than that.”
My skin breaks out in goosebumps, and he laps at the small cut, humming as he sucks on my sore flesh.
“Go home, Gareth. Please. Get another car to come get you.”
“Not until I see you leaving first.”
“You’re being unreasonable.”
“You missed me and wanted me with you so badly when I was gone. Now that I’m here, you’d rather leave the house with other people. I don’t understand.”
“I wantedhimback.”
“We’ve talked about this already, sweetheart. I am him. I’m the closest to him you’ll ever have again.”
