Page 97 of Stalker

“Dane.” I whispered, suddenly shy and second guessing my actions. I was revealing myself to him for the first time in months. But as he shot up in bed and stared directly at the camera in the corner with a look of pure shock on his face, I knew it had to be done. “I’m here.”

“Puppet.” He growled, kicking the blankets off and standing on the bed to get closer to the camera, and I’m guessing the speaker playing my voice. “Puppet!” He yelled when I hesitated.

“I’m here.” I repeated, as I sank back down into my own bed fighting the urge to pass out in anticipation of what he’d do now that I had crossed that divide between us.

“My god,” He whispered and sank to his knees in the center of my bed. His mouth opened and closed as he blinked at the camera like he suddenly was at a loss for words, before blurting out, “I love you.”

I smiled to myself and sighed at his declaration. Out of everything he could have said in that moment, his proclamation of love was most important to him. “Why are you in my bed?”

His lips turned up briefly in a devastating grin, and he scrubbed a hand over his face. “Because it’s the only place left that smells like you. It’s the only place I feel sane.”“I know the feeling.” I admitted.

“Have you been stalking me, Puppet?” He asked, still staring up at the camera.

I could hear the smile in my voice, “Nearly every second I can.”

“Let me see you.” He demanded, pulling his phone out of his pocket in a hurry, “Link to my phone.”

I hesitated, knowing once I did it, I’d be his again. Forever.

There would be no walking away for me after making that move. But it was what I wanted more than anything. So I changed camerasto his phone, overwhelmed by just how devastatingly sexy he was up close, and then clicked the camera icon to open my camera.

The relief in his body language took my breath away as his shoulders sagged and his eyes roved over the entire screen like he was trying to take in every last one of my features.

I was lying on my side with my phone held tight in my hands so he could see only my face as he laid back down on the bed and turned onto his side, mirroring me. It almost felt like we were laying in bed like two normal people, side by side instead of in the weird technological limbo we were always in.

“There she is.” He whispered with the ghost of a smile on his face. He looked so tired compared to what he looked like as my boss before everything fell to pieces. “Hi.”

“Hi.” I whispered back, fighting back the tears that always burned in the back of my eyes as I stared at his perfect face on my secret phone.

“Don’t cry, Puppet.” He sighed, “I’m sorry Peyton, you’ll never understand how fucking sorry I am.”

I shook my head and closed my eyes as the tears escaped, rolling down my temple into my pillow. “I know you are. It makes sense to me why you lied and chose to keep your true identity a secret.” I took a shuddering breath and opened my eyes again, “I don’t blame you for that anymore.”

Confusion furrowed his dark eyebrows together as he asked, “Then why are you crying?”

“Because I miss you.” I admitted, as fresh tears fell. “I miss both sides of you.”

He swallowed, staring back at me so intently. “Come home to me, baby. Just come back and we can start fresh.”

“How?” I wondered, “I have a job and responsibilities here,” I shook my head. “I can’t just quit.”

“Why?”

“Because there are no alternative options for a hotel manager near Hartington Estate, that’s why. And I have bills and—”

He growled and clenched his teeth together, silencing me with effortless power. “I’m a fucking billionaire, Puppet. Do you think I can’t take care of you?” He scowled deeper, “Or that I’d let you out of my sight again to go work for someone else?”

“I don’t understand.”

“I’m going to take care of you, every second moving forward, Peyton. You don’t need to work. You don’t need to worry about anything ever again.” I started to protest simply because no one had ever taken care of me before since I was a child, but he shook his head and silenced me. “I told you the very first time I slid inside of your body that I perfected myself for your wants and needs. Let me be your everything, because you’re mine.”

I mulled his words over in my head and couldn’t voice a single reason I shouldn’t give in and take everything he was offering me. Until the one reason reared its ugly head in the back of my conscience.

“Tell me about Tyson.” I said in response. “I need to know the truth.”

He watched me silently for a moment and then nodded. “He raped you, Peyton.” His words were so steady and strong it was like they held my frantically beating heart in place as I processed them. “He deserved far worse than I gave him.”

“You blinded him, didn’t you?” I questioned.

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