Page 117 of Morally Gray Daddies

“I’m not gonna lie; it’s hard to wrap my head around that right now.”

“You will soon enough. Trust me.”

He shifted his body, letting go of my legs and turning me to my side. He slid beside me, both of us still on top of the covers, and pulled me close. I didn’t fight him. He was big, but he turned slightly so I could wiggle back against his broad chest, nestling into place. He smelled of… sex. We both did. In fact, the entire room did. And the weird thing was, it didn’t feel awkward, or uncomfortable, or wrong. It felt… right.

We both lay there in silence as the day finally caught up with me. I’d been running on equal parts adrenaline and anxiety, focus and fear, but now an indolent lethargy began to overtake me. Eyes closed, I was almost at the point of drifting off when I felt him shift, moving toward the edge of the bed. I turned on my side toward him as he stood up and began to head toward the door.

“Are you… leaving?”

He stopped and looked back. “I need to use the bathroom,” he answered evenly.

“Oh.” As he started to turn away, I asked, “I’m a little thirsty. While you’re going, can I get something to drink?” Before he could respond, I added, “Sir.”

The corners of his mouth ticked upward. “Of course, but be careful walking around in the dark. I don’t want you getting hurt, okay?”

“Yes, Sir,” I replied as I slipped out of the bed and followed him out.

He crossed the hall to the bathroom, and I retraced my steps back down the hallway and into the kitchen. As I went, the reason for his warning became clear; without any lights on, the house was a cave. Aside from a tiny faint bluish glow at the end of the hall, everything else was a tunnel of black. When I stepped into the kitchen, I discovered the glimmer I’d seen came from the clock on the microwave, but even with my eyes adjusting, the kitchen island and everything beyond were nothing more than chunky shapes of blackness.

Remembering the shock of brightness when he’d first turned on the lights earlier, I squinted before I opened the fridge. It helped, and I found another of the bottles of sparkling water he’d brought out for our impromptu dinner. I shut the door, and while my eyes adjusted back to the darkness, I drank.

So weird. It was so insane to be standing here in a stranger’s home after having had the most intense sex of my life with the man who’d kidnapped me, and even though there was nothing—nothing—about any of this that should feel that way, it actually felt… normal.

Oh, god, Aubrey, you’re out of your mind. You’ve completely lost it.

I probably had, but that didn’t change the way I was reacting to all of this. After I gulped down the last of the water, I turned to set the empty container down on the counter behind me.

And froze as my heart seized in my chest.

A man stood there in the darkness. Dressed entirely in black, he was half-crouched and still, waiting. While the rest of the room was nothing but blocky shapes, his silhouette was in sharp contrast to everything else, a figure like some sort of ninja or commando straight out of a movie. He had an almost military bearing, as if he was expecting to go into a fight at any moment.

“Shit!” The hoarse cry slipped out of me as I nearly dropped the bottle.

He silently raised a finger to his lips, giving a tiny shake of his head. His eyes moved left to right, then his gaze bore into mine.

‘Where?’ he mouthed.

For a second, I felt lightheaded. I knew exactly who he was looking for, and I had zero doubt why he was asking the question.

So, do it, Aubrey.

And I did. I pointed ahead of myself, across the living room we’d crossed when we first came in, the opposite direction from the bedroom I’d just come from.

Away from where he was.

The intruder nodded once then turned and headed in the direction where I’d pointed. As he faded into the blackness, I turned and moved quickly the opposite way, down the hallway toward the bedroom where we?—

I was jerked abruptly to the left. A hand closed over my mouth as I started to scream instinctively.

“Shhh. It’s me.” His voice was a breath against my neck, even at this close distance the sound barely audible over the blood thumping in my ears.

I gulped in air in quick jerks, as if I couldn’t draw it in fast enough.

“Don’t speak. Get inside and lay down on the floor beside the bed. Wait for me.” The orders came out rapid-fire then he was gone.

I did as he’d ordered. As I lay on the floor, I could feel—hear—my heart pounding. The exhaustion from earlier was completely gone, replaced by a flood that had every nerve in me alive with electricity. I listened intently for any sound, something which would tell me what the hell was going on. But as the minutes which seemed like hours passed, there was nothing but the shhshhshh of my own pulse in my ears, and the tiniest scrape of my body against the carpet as I shifted in nervousness. At one point, I thought I heard a thump, but beyond that… nothing. No sounds of fighting, no gunshots, no curses, nothing to indicate what was taking place outside the room.

Until the door came open.

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