Page 10 of Obsessive Cravings

The rest of the weekend, I avoided getting near Riley, burying myself in my work, and leaving the camera on my phone turned off. I forced myself not to think of her, to leave all thoughts of my plan, of revenge, of her brother, of her aside until I was back in control.

By Monday, I felt more like myself. Venturing into the building later than normal, I saw her there, talking to Matt, the bastard openly flirting with her. I’d have to do something about him. He was already on my radar for prior violations and seeing him talking to Riley left me with no reservations about keeping an even closer eye on him.

He was mid-sentence when Riley turned her emerald eyes to me. My step almost faltered, my heart pounding erratically as recognition filled her face. I lifted my sight to her and cocked a sideways grin as I walked by, not giving her any more notice. This was my game, and I was in control again, even if every part of me wanted to bend her over that desk and fuck her. I’d have my chance.

As the elevator door closed, I let out a sigh of relief that I’d maintained my composure, not letting that craving for her overtake my senses again. I needed Riley in my hands, but not until I was ready. And when I was, there would be no stopping me because I wanted Riley Brinks and from the look in those hungry green eyes, she was mine for the taking.

That brown-nosing jackass Matt was hitting on Riley, and I wanted to punch his snotty little nose and wipe his blood up with his face. Insisting my men didn’t need to accompany me, I’d followed Riley after she left the office, curious when she’d agreed to go out for drinks with her co-workers. I had no doubt my men were still trailing me, not taking a chance, but this game was mine alone.

There was no risk of Riley finding anything out about me from her co-workers other than what I allowed to be shared. There was a respective fear of me in my city and that’s the way I preferred it. I kept to myself, kept my business associates close to the cuff, and my dealings underground. Businesses like the firm Riley worked in were to keep my head above water and prevented the government cronies from getting too nosy. As it stood, people like me ran the province, our territories divided among separate families. We didn’t venture into each other’s territories unless it was necessary. And when we did, as Mason Brinks had, it stirred trouble. Some retaliated swiftly. Others, like me, took their time. Riley was me taking my time.

Hidden in the shadows, watching them, my jaw clenched when Matt asked her out. My fists were wound so tight I thought about killing him before he could make it home. Rolling my neck, I listened to her response, letting my breath out when she gently turned him down. Her words caught my attention. She was fresh out of a relationship? That was news to me. Nothing I’d found said she’d dated anyone in over a year. Her brother had to have buried it or kept it under wraps. But why? My mind had more questions than I liked.

I waited until Matt left before I entered the building, keeping far enough back that she’d have time to enter her apartment without seeing me enter the one next door. Letting the tension from earlier fall from my muscles, I sat, watching her through the camera. I should have set it up in my home, but there was more excitement to sitting unseen next door to her and the camera on my phone sufficed when I couldn’t get there.

Her clothes came off and, as happened each time I’d seen her strip, my cock lurched. She had a tight body with curves that made me drool. Tonight she wore a black lace thong and when she walked, her ass jiggled invitingly. Fantasies of sinking my dick into that ass flashed through my mind until she turned and her perky tits were in my view. I wiped my hand down my face, trying to get a grip and wondering why I was torturing myself this way. My initial intention had been to find out more about her—her likes, habits, and movements. Instead, all I’d done was give myself a raging hard-on each time I watched her.

Riley pulled on a black tank top, and disappointment filled me until her ass turned back to me. She disappeared into the bathroom for a few minutes, and I took the time to slow my breaths and calm my body.

When she emerged, her hair was in two braids, giving her a girlish look that did nothing to settle my dick as I imagined grabbing them as I fucked her face.

“Shit, Grey,” I muttered, sitting back and watching her crawl into bed.

I’d had my decorator situate the bed so that it was directly across from me, the window behind her. The full moon shone in, lighting her body as she lay there. I stared for a few more minutes, readying myself to leave, when her hand moved up her shirt. I sat back into my seat, my jaw dropping. The sheets moved as her other hand lowered below them. She was touching herself, and my dick jerked angrily against my zipper. She kicked the sheets down, giving me the perfect view of her spread legs and those fingers as they moved below her tiny panties.

My fists bunched, and I resisted stroking myself while I watched, mesmerized by the sight. She tightened her legs around her hand, then drew her knee up, her back arching. I could tell she had dipped her fingers deeper, and my dick throbbed, wanting desperately to replace her fingers. Her thighs quivered, tightening around her hand, my eyes going wide as she came, her whimpers filling the room. She’d left me enraptured, my entire body wanting to burst through the wall and fuck her. It was the most erotic thing I’d ever witnessed. I couldn’t tear my eyes from her body as she relaxed, her hand moving from below her panties. She flopped her arm over her face and, in time, drifted to sleep.

Sitting back, I stroked my aching cock before convincing myself to leave. I needed to remain in control, and that sight had almost unraveled me. Had she been thinking of that asshole Matt? The thought threatened to burn me from the inside out. Pushing away thoughts of murdering him violently, I drove home and ran a shower to calm myself. It didn’t keep my thoughts from turning to Riley and her writhing body. The need to make her mine, to claim that body for myself, raked through me and I grabbed my cock, stroking it as I imagined sinking into her. Thinking of how wet she likely was as she’d touched herself, I stroked to the same rhythm she’d taken with her fingers. I leaned my other hand on the tile wall and increased my movements, pumping with the ferocity of the images that were berating me until I spilled over the shower floor, wishing my hand was Riley gripping around me as she came undone.

Catching my breath, I rested my head against the tile. My legs were shaking. I hadn’t come that hard in a very long time, nor had any woman worked me up the way Riley had. My need for vengeance was turning into an obsession. One I didn’t know if I could control. One that had begun the day I’d dared talk to her, to look into those sage eyes and let her ensnare me before I could further weave my web.

I left the shower, toweling off before throwing a pair of boxers on and dropping into a chair, phone in hand. I deliberated calling her brother and telling him to come get her. To take her from my city and from my grasp. But I didn’t think that would help at this point. She could be across the world, and I would still crave her.

I hit the camera instead, stroking my calming dick as I watched her sleep, then chastising myself for the behavior until I heard her mumble in her sleep. It was a quiet, breathless sound that resounded through my chest like a thundering storm. “Greyson.”

Chapter Eight

RILEY

The sun beamed over my face, waking me, and I blinked against the brightness. Heat rose in my cheeks as I thought of how I’d touched myself while envisioning Greyson Tides. He’d plagued my dreams, his eyes, that smirk, the confidence all insinuating their way into my sleep and leaving me even further contented by the time I woke. I didn’t want to sleep in today and given how my mind was already playing scenes of chance encounters with Greyson Tides, I knew going back to sleep was not an option. Instead, I took my time getting ready, munching on my bagel as curiosity about Greyson Tides nagged at me.

After cleaning up my breakfast, I dug through my purse and pulled out the cellphone my brother had given me for Christmas last year. I’d turned its tracking off when I left and had powered it down, knowing he would likely still locate me through it even if the tracker was off. I should have left it in Treemont, but there was something about leaving it behind that had seemed like cutting the last connection to him off, and I wasn’t ready for that. Plugging it in, but leaving it off still, I sat on my new loveseat, tucking my feet under me as I stared at it.

I missed my brother. Mason and I had always been close…until I’d discovered the lies and the life of deception he’d woven. Dropping my head back, I stared at the ceiling, thinking about the last time I’d seen him. He’d been in his kitchen, his tie undone as he read the paper and sipped on his coffee, not bothering to sit because that was how he was. His green eyes that matched my own had risen, and he’d given me a questioning look. It was the first time I’d talked to him since the truth had come out, even after he insisted I move into the guest house. Ignoring him had become a habit.

It was the morning I left. I’d been waiting for him to head out before I packed up what little I had on me. I’d arranged for the movers to move my things from the storage unit discreetly and prayed he didn’t find out until it was too late.

“You finally talking to me?” he’d asked, dropping his cup in the sink and folding his paper.

It had hurt to leave him, but then, he’d hurt me, and the lies he’d fed me all those years had hurt me in ways I didn’t think he’d expected. If I’d known the truth, I might have protected myself, but he was my big brother and I supposed he felt he needed to protect me. He hadn’t, and what had happened had left me fractured.

“Not necessarily,” I replied, my tone sharp.

“Well, you need to. Get over it, Ri. It’s time to accept the truth and come into the fold.”

“The fold? You mean the criminal shit you and your guys do? You want me to be part of that? After all that happened, you think I’d even consider it?”

He flinched, and I knew the reminder of what had happened hurt him. He turned his back on me and grabbed his sunglasses.

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