Page 32 of All Your Hate

“No. Didn’t need one for just me. I like to think I’ve become a pretty good cook over the years.”

“You really live alone?”

“Not anymore,” he winks at me as he lifts the pan off the stove and places it on the cooling rack on the counter.

“Mmhm,” I hum to myself as I head through to the dining room. The same two places are already set at the table. To piss him off I take his seat at the head. There’s this irrational need in me to defy him at every turn.

Bones follows through a few minutes later with two plates of food. He doesn’t say anything about the seating arrangement and takes the other seat with a smile on his face.

Curiosity getting the better of me I ask, “Where were you all day?”

“You missed me?”

My cheeks flash red with anger. “Of course not. I just didn’t know if I was expected to fend for myself or if you wanted me to starve.”

“You have free roam of the house. It’s yours now after all. Help yourself to anything.”

That’s it then? I’m stuck here for the inevitable.

“If you are curious, I was driving my friend and his girl home from the hospital.”

Oh.

“Why were they there in the first place?”Did it have something to do with the blood on his neck?

“He got shot while I was saving you. Don’t worry he’s fine, he shrugs shit like that off real easy and his girl will look after him.”

I didn’t say I cared. Still knowing that someone who aided in getting me away from my tormentor was shot puts a weird spin on my emotions. All I want is to hate everyone involved, but it’s way more complicated than that.

Before I lose my nerve, I get straight to the point of what I really want to know and ask, “What do you want with me? And no games this time.”

He doesn’t react to my question, his small smile remains there on his lips.

“You’ve put me on birth control, you made me sleep in your bed, you’ve even forced me to come.”Thatmakes one of his eyebrows shoot up. “If you want to keep me for sex then what are you waiting for?”

“You heard the doc. Gotta wait to find out if you’re clean.”

Yet he still ate me out?

I can’t believe I’m saying this. “Condoms exist.” It’s like I’m begging him to have sex with me. That’s not what this is. I just want to ease the anxiety of the unknown.

He pulls his chair closer to me and leans in until our noses brush. Then he cups my jaw with his large hand and brushes his thumb over my lip. “You look good in that chair. I’ll gladly sit by your side.”

I reach up to push him away, but he pushes me back into my chair. “When I fuck you, little viper, and believe me,I will. I’ll be fucking you raw. There’s going to be no condom between us. Your pussy’s going to be dripping with my come and you’re going to be begging me for more.”

“I’m never going to want that.” My stomach twists and I’m unnervingly aware of how close our lips are.

“Fuck.You still smell like me.” I’m not sure if he intended the words to leave his lips, but they hang there in the air. He runs his fingers through my hair and my breath hitches as he brings a strand to his nose and inhales.

“You wanted it, didn’t you?” His voice is soft and soothing. Another trick to lure me in.

I come back to my senses and tear his hands away from me. “No! Screw you! You don’t get to keep saying that. You think I wanted you to touch me? To have a doctor manhandle me? You think I wanted to be forced into a man’s bed so he could try and impregnate me? Make me have his fucking demon spawn while countless men hurt me?” I clamp my mouth shut as soon as I realize how much of the truth I’ve spilled. I was hoping to never have to tell anyone what happened to me unless it was the cops and it guaranteed him paying the price.

Bones’ lips slowly part, then he closes them tightly. His throat bobbing as he swallows. “That’s why you were so relieved about the pregnancy test.”

I turn away from him and focus on an abstract black-and-white painting on the wall, but he forces my gaze back to him.

“Whatever happened to you, I can help. Tell me who I need to kill.”

---