Page 34 of The Ripper

I loved that image.

“I know, and I’ll answer every single one of those questions with the truth, but you have to know that nothing I’ve done these past six years was meant to hurt you, Arella. I would never hurt you.”

“Six… six years? You mean we met before that Halloween party?” She took the bottle from my hand, muttering some unintelligible words before she raised it to her mouth and gulped down some of the alcohol, wrinkling her nose when it burned down her throat.

“We hadn’t technically met before the party, no. I noticed you,” I said calmly.

“You noticed me…”

“Yes.”

“And you decided to stalk me instead of coming up to me?”

“Yes.”

“Do you know how fucked-up that is?” she almost yelled, and I was seriously struggling to hold in the laughter bubbling up inside me.

“I’m aware.”

“Why are you so calm about this? Aren’t you afraid I’ll go to the police and report you?” She arched an eyebrow, crossing her arms over her chest.

I copied her stance.

“Not in the slightest,” I laughed. “If you wanted me out of the picture, you would’ve gone to the police the second you figured out you had a stalker, but you didn’t, because deep down you knew that my intentions were good, or maybe…” I paused, the corner of my mouth slightly tilting up. “Maybe you liked knowing there was someone watching over you, maybe you liked the thrill. I would even go as far as to say that it aroused you, but I’m still debating on that last one,” I chuckled.

“It didn’t arouse me,” she scowled, and I grinned.

“Funny how that’s all you took out of my entire speech. Are you brave enough to prove it?” I raised an eyebrow, carefully analyzing her features.

Her stern exterior faltered a little as she started fidgeting, a blush creeping up her cheeks. She sucked her bottom lip between her teeth and averted her eyes.

Damn, red looked so good on her.

“Why me?” she asked, changing the subject.

I took a step towards her, but she stepped back, so I stopped and sighed, searching for the right words as she waited for my answer.

I promised honesty, and I hoped she wouldn’t be scared when she found out the truth, so I took a deep breath and gave it to her.

“My brain is wired differently, in a way. I obsess over things and people easily, and when I become intrigued by someone, I make it my mission to find out everything there is to know about them, and you awakened that need inside me the first time I saw you. I thought I would get bored after I knew more about you, as has happened with everyone else before you, but that wasn’t the case… With each new thing I learned, that need grew thicker. When I sleep, you’re in my dreams, and when I wake up, you’re the first thing I see. Every day for the past six years, you’ve been the only thing on my mind. I ache for you, I fucking ache. Fuck, I yearn for you as if you’re air and I’m suffocating.”

I barely took a breath between words, the last sentence draining the last of my oxygen, and I had to inhale deeply once I finished, because I was, in fact, suffocating.

She seemed shocked, overwhelmed, intrigued even, her emotions running wild on her features, and she took another long sip straight from the bottle, wrinkling her nose in such an endearing way that I wanted to kiss every crease.

How did she do that? How could she allow her feelings to be so legible on her face? Why wasn’t she trying to conceal them like she did when she patched me up? What made her so in touch with her emotions outside of work?

“I’m not going to lie, everything you’ve done scares the crap out of me, Grimm,” she said as she rubbed her thighs together.

I grinned.

My name sounded like a prayer on her lips, and I wanted to answer it.

“It shouldn’t, because, as I said before, if I wanted to hurt you, I would have done it by now.”

“I know,” she whispered.

She couldn’t stop it anymore, and I couldn’t either, because this pull was stronger than both of us. I knew she felt exactly the same as me, and my words tattooed on her wrists were proof of that, no matter how much she denied it right now.

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