Page 88 of The Ripper

“My wild card?”

“Precisely; I’m the card you pulled out of the deck without knowing, and when you flipped it, you found a Joker. I am the card that can replace all the others. I can be your friend, your lover, your confidant. I can be your everything,Snezhinka, and all you have to do is let me.”

“You know, for a menace to society, you’re oddly lyrical tonight,” I chuckled.

I turned to face him because I couldn’t go another second without seeing him, but I didn’t have much time to admire his masculine beauty because the next moment he was all over me. Kissing me, touching me, utterly consuming me.

Just like he always did.

*

The next morning, after the best and most restful sleep I had in a long time, we stepped into the garage, where Grimm stopped next to a cabinet on the right side of the elevator door and pulled out a set of keys, which he quickly tossed at me.

Luckily, I was already paying attention to his every move and was able to catch them before they hit me in the face.

“What am I supposed to do with these?” I laughed as I looked at the logo on the key, then at the cars in the garage, shocked to realize that it was a private place, which meant that all the cars in there… belonged to him.

“Drive,” he said with a shrug.

“These are not mine…” I jingled the keys.

“Yes, they are,” he interrupted, leading me to the car parked right next to the one he usually used. “Just like this is your car.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“No fucking way.”

“Yes, fucking way,” he pushed me towards the driver’s door.

“You can’t just give me a car,” I stuttered as my eyes analyzed the monster in front of me, and it wasn’t Grimm.

“I just did,” he opened the door for me.

Just like that, as if he was giving me flowers.

“Grimm, this is a car,” I explained, highlighting the word as if he didn’t understand what it meant.

“No shit, really?” he laughed.

He laughed. That is, he opened his mouth, and the sound of laughter came out. Not a chuckle, not a grin, not a giggle. A full-blown laughter. And it sounded like the best melody ever written.

“I can’t accept this,” I said stubbornly.

“Which is why I wasn’t asking, baby,” he glared at me. “Get in the car, Arella.”

I rolled my eyes and got in, the smell of a new car mixed with expensive leather filling my nostrils, and when he took a seat on my right, his scent mingled with both of them, intoxicating me completely.

“What car is this?” I asked as I stroked the steering wheel with my fingers and almost moaned at the feel of it.

“It’s a Camaro,” he said as I pressed the start button and the engine roared to life, then faded into a steady hum.

“Why?” seemed to be the only question that kept running through my mind since he came into my life.

“Because that piece of scrap metal,” he pointed at my Corolla, “is a fucking coffin on wheels.”

“Hey, Gina’s been in my life a long time, we have history together.”

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