Page 8 of Kept By the Bratva

Then the next?

I huffed, feeling my hard breath against my fingertips.

The next second, he was just gone.

He’d run from me, and I couldn’t withstand the whiplash.

I felt the phantom push of his body against mine as he held me to the wall. I shivered, recalling the sensation of his rough fingers gripping my chin, his firm lips tickling and teasing my sensitive flesh below my ear.

From utter, rabid heat and want… to nothing.

I stood there, continuing to stare down the unlit path he'd sprinted down. Catching my breath and trying to make sense of this sudden,abrupt stop to the pleasure he teased me with, I blinked and fought the urge to scream.

How could he justgolike that?

I pushed off the wall, rubbing my lips and wondering how long the burn of his kiss would linger there. He’d zapped me with such need, I didn’t know how to calm down on my own.

Just like that. He hunted me down, and then was gone!

What the hell was his game? Obviously, he only wanted to tease me and play with me. He was fucking with my head, and that was only after a single, torrid kiss in the dark.

No. What the fuck wasIthinking?

I couldn’t figure it out. The experience of that stranger kissing me lasted all of a minute, but it was seared into my soul.

That tall man had been checking me out in the club. I knew that. Even though gorgeous, naked women were dancing all over in plain sight and trying to get all the dollar bills, he’d concentrated onme. I couldn’t lie. It felt good to know I had attracted a man like that.

When he’d followed and chased me, I fought a losing battle between the fear of being chased and hunted and the excitement of pulling someone closer. The anticipation of his reaching me in the alley felt thrilling somehow, and that was my first clue that something was gravely wrong with me.

“What thehellwas I thinking?” I muttered as I resumed walking home. I licked my lips, tasting him there, and shook my head.

I hadn’t been thinking. Not at all. I obeyed my body, letting my actions flow without logical thoughts to interrupt my reaction.

I had no business kissing a stranger. But I had. The second he’d leaned in closer, I felt like I’d fallen into a spell of déjà vu.

He seemed familiar somehow. For a fleeting second, I thought I’d heard Nate again. This man in the alley had a similar deep timbre, a hint of impatience and authority in his tone that made me think back to how Nate had coaxed me to come and ordered me to let him pleasure me like he wanted to.

“But that’s impossible,” I whispered. Talking to myself couldn’t be a good indicator of my sanity, but I spoke the words aloud, lending them more credibility. Because it had to be impossible. There was simply no way that this stranger could have been Nate.

But…I frowned, wondering why that stupid thought wouldn’t budge from my mind. When he’d kissed me, it was with that same drugging magic that made me want more and more.

Okay, I was drunk that night.Who knew what I remembered as actually having happened or what I'd dressed up as fantasy?

I sighed heavily, growing more concerned about how stupid I could be. I hated how hung up I was about Nate. He’d clearly lied about who he was, and that stung. I loathed the instinct to wonder if I had been good enough for him, this fear that I could’ve been so bad in bed that he’d wanted to lie and deceive me to get out of my apartment quickly.

As I walked back home, I wished I weren’t only leaving that strip club behind, but also my damn doubts and misgivings.

Nate—and that stranger—were no good for me. And I should’ve known better than to let random men matter so much.

In the morning, I woke up unsettled and still bothered about how quickly I’d lowered my guard for that man who’d chased me into the alley.

I sat up in bed, frowning at the time. I’d overslept, but it was just as well that I had. When my alarm clock went off earlier, I lacked any energy to get up and start my day. Plus, my stomach was upset. Sleeping in helped, but I couldn’t avoid reality for good. I had a second shift to deal with at the clinic.

Yawning wide, I stretched and slipped out of bed. I didn’t have an appetite for toast, all that I had in the cupboards for breakfast, and I gagged at the smell of coffee.

“When is this going to be over?” I rubbed my stomach and sat down on the couch. The place wasn’t messy yet. I’d only moved in a couple of weeks ago and I still hadn’t emptied all the boxes.

I didn’t have much to unpack. I was orphaned when I was three, and my life had lacked stability ever since. I was in and out of foster homes, then once I was eighteen, in and out of junky apartments. Landlords could be such con artists, upping the rent or making up bullshit reasons to evict me even though I always paid rent on time.

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