Page 87 of Hunting Pretty

I hated admitting it, even to myself, but the truth was there, twisting in my chest.

I was afraid—terrified, even—but underneath the fear was something else, something I could barely name.

The way my heart raced, the way every nerve in my body lit up when he was near—it wasn’t just fear driving me. It was desire.

Iwantedit to happen again.

I liked it.

I came, hard, around my stalker’s knife handle and even harder around his cock. And I wanted to come again. Again and again.

On his fingers, on his tongue, on his cock.

I tried to focus on the wrongness of it all, but I couldn’t deny how alive I felt when he was close. The tension between us, the unspoken electricity, made everything sharper, more intense.

Even as my mind screamed at me to run, to stay far away, but my body… it betrayed me.

I wasn’t sure if I feared what would happen next, or if I longed for it.

Maybe both.

And I knew that if it happened again, I’d be lost. I’d cross a line so dark, there’d be no finding my way back.

“Go.” I nudged Ebony. “Bring me back something nice.”

Ebony gave me an amused look and tapped her chin. “Several days of board meetings at the Oxford Medical School… I could bring you back a pickled pig’s heart?”

I made a face. “Er, okay, maybe just bring yourself back, then.”

Her guard closed the trunk of her car. “We’re ready, Miss McKinsey.”

“Thank you, Angus,” Ebony called back to him and readjusted the coat on her shoulders.

“Safe travels,” I said, my fingers flinching out as if to grab her in a hug and not let go.

She hesitated on the step, turning to study me again. “If there was something wrong, you’d tell me, right?”

“Right.” I scratched the back of my neck.

Ebony pressed the back of her hand on my forehead, her eyebrows furrowed with concern. “If you’re not feeling well, tell O’Rourke. He’ll take care of you while I’m away.”

From over her shoulder, the butler in question scowled at me, making it very clear that he wouldnotbe looking after me at all while she was away. I’d be lucky toseehim in the main house let alone get a glass of water from him.

He wouldn’t come running to help, even if I were being killed.

I shrugged off Ebony’s concerns. “I’m grand. It’s just school. My classes are really kicking my ass this term.”

Ebonytsked. “Homework before newspaper work, young lady.”

Ebony was best as the stern mother figure. It was most natural.

Like I was a little girl who needed instructions when being left alone at home.

But I hadn’t been a little girl for a long time.

Hecertainly hadn’t touched me like I was a little girl…

“I promise,” I lied.

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