Page 42 of Grave Obsession

This firecracker never ceases to amaze me as she rips open my door and climbs up on the side step. Levelling me with her smouldering glare.

“What the fuck was that all about?” she snarls at me and all it does is turn me on. Shit, she’s so hot all fired up.

“I don’t like being ignored,” I respond coolly as the car alarm that has been going off this whole time finally stops.

“So, you just decide to show up here and make a fucking scene?” The volume of her voice raises along with her irritation. Giddiness pools in my gut and I have to fight back a smile. I’m getting exactly what I wanted and she doesn’t even realize it. I’ll take her attention whatever way I can get it.

“Forgive me for wanting to make sure my girl is okay,” I say louder than necessary. Her eyes raise back to mine. I watch as the anger dissolves from her body as bone-deep misery starts to pour from her. I can see it, feel it, emitting off her and filling the space around us. The air is heavy with her sadness when her emotion laced voice meets my ears.

“We need to talk.”

“Get in,” I direct.

“No, I don’t th-”

“Get in the truck, Mallory,” I drop the register of my voice and it works her over. Her feet hit the pavement as she closes the driver side door and crosses to the passenger side. I can see her reflection in the side mirror. She’s battling with herself again, knowing she shouldn’t climb up in here with me. She’s right. I’ll do anything I have to in order to call her mine. Ghost already has her but Nox does not.

I see the moment she resigns herself to whatever fate she’ll face when Ghost finds out about this. But she wants to do the right thing by me, because I deserve an explanation as to why she’s been so cold towards me. I’ve done nothing wrong. I’ve been the perfect boyfriend material. Warm, soft, accepting, and helpful; I put her pleasure first and disregard my own. I’m protective and apologetic. I don’t know why she wouldn’t want to be with the good side of me. This is all really quite confusing. It’s going in the complete opposite direction than what I expected. Even though the end result is the same, my plan is breathing life back into her. I just assumed I would have to try harder to have her accept the dark part of me. I expected she’d fawn over the Officer Graves side of me and cower before the imposing beast beneath my good guy façade.

My foot pushes down the brake pedal and I shift the truck into drive the second her hand grabs the door handle. She pulls herself up into the cab of the truck and sits down. I’m ready to rip out of this parking lot the second she closes the door. Her eyes widen as she takes in everything around her. I have to guess she’s never even seen a vehicle with a touch screen dash before, much less been in one. Her shocked face is adorable. I’ll allow her this small moment in time before I lean over like a barbarian and close the door for her.

However, it doesn’t come to that and she closes the door on her own, bashful toward the fact she left it open in the first place.

My eyes rake up her body, not missing the way her breath catches and her pulse ratchets up when she catches me checking her out.

“Buckle up,” I say, as I release the break and hit the gas.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Mallory

Lennox peels out of the parking lot and aims us for the on ramp to the highway. His brow is furrowed and if his looks could kill, I’d have dropped dead twice over by now. He’s unrecognizable from the man he presented himself as and it’s unsettling me. He looks so goddamn hot pissed off. I hate that his anger is directed at me, but I deserve it. I need to pay for how my actions made him feel. His ridiculous tire spinning display for attention made it impossible to ignore him. Especially when he set off the alarm on Victoria’s car, but I liked it. I like that he sought me out and made me talk to him. He forced my hand. I’m sure Ghost won’t see it that way but that’s a problem for future Mallory to deal with.

I quickly grab the seat belt and click it on around me. My history with men is not a good one, and his flip in emotions and personality has set me on edge. I try to calm my racing heart by rationalizing that he isn’t going to be the happy-go-lucky flirt when I’m about to essentially break up with him. I’m sure he can feel it coming.

We drive in silence, the sound of the engine ticks up as I watch the speedometer climb. We round the bend that leads down to the highway and he flawlessly merges with the oncoming traffic. I risk a look at him but he’s not acknowledging my presence in the seat beside him. I lean my head against the cool glass and watch as the town falls away behind us and the wilderness surrounds the multi-lane roadway. I close my eyes and let the monotonous vibrations of the vehicle shake away my raging landslide of emotions.

“You wanted to talk, Mallory, so talk.” The flat and deeply emotionless tone of his voice startles me. I turn toward him. He has one arm against the window supporting his head as he steers with the other. He’s leaned himself as far away from me as possible, like he can’t stand to be near me, like he knows I’ve chosen the other guy over him. Have I? I can’t even bear to think about it, it’s why I haven’t reached out to either of them for the last few days.

“We can’t see each other anymore.” I’m so quiet, borderline nauseous, my body repelling against the words that have come from my own lips. My voice barely reaches my own ears, but I know he heard me. It’s like every muscle in his body has flexed, strung tight with emotion. I’m positive his knuckles have turned white under those gloves he always wears from how hard he’s gripping the steering wheel.

“I’m sorry.” I need to get out of here, away from him. Getting in the truck with him was such a bad idea.

“You can take me back to the hotel now.” Every moment I spend locked in this emotionally charged cage brings me closer and closer to throwing myself at him. Ready to tell him to forget what I just said because I want him. I want to kiss away the pain I see etched into the fine lines of his face. Erase the grim expression that mars his sinfully delicious mouth as he dismisses my request.

“Why?” His gravelly voice barely disguises the feelings he has swimming beneath the surface. I’ve hurt him and it’s crushing me. When I don’t respond fast enough, another question is fired at me. One of the many I’m sure he has locked and loaded after my days of selfish silence, wallowing in my own misery.

“Is it the other guy?” he all but growls at me and I wince. Nodding, I pull my knees up to my chest, resting my forehead against them. I hide my face in shame as tears threaten to spill over. I don’t even know why this is so hard, it’s not like we are even dating. There was only a flicker of something good on the horizon. It’s the severing of this connection I feel with him that’s gutting me from the inside.

The truck swerves and the roar of the engine becomes deafening. I raise my head to see what the fuck is happening, but all I see are colours and lights from how hard I was shoving my eyes into my knees to chase away the tears.

“Nox?” my voice wavers, apprehension dripping from the way I utter his name. He ignores me, again. It feels like eons before my vision clears enough to see properly but when it does, I become a new level of frightened. Not just of him, but from the speed at which he is weaving in and out of traffic.

“What can he possibly give you that I can’t?” he rasps, and it cracks the very fragile shell I have constructed around myself to hold my shit together.

“What? It’s not like that…”

“Then what is it like?” he asks, desperate to know why I’m not choosing him. The scenery is nothing but a blur as he allows his emotions to race us down the asphalt.

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