Page 99 of Cruel Lies

Three. Four. Five.

Maybe I should count slower so he has a chance to not fuck up.

Six. Seven. Eight. Nine.

Come on, Sport, time’s a-wasting.

Ten. Eleven. Twelve. Thirteen. Fourteen. Fift?—

Fuck this shit.

I slid down the fire escape like a madman, hopping over to her building the second I could move from one to the other without anyone noticing. I took a bunch of risks, stalking herlike some sort of predator, but I couldn’t help it. If I didn’t feed the dark urge to keep an eye on her, to make sure she didn’t forget who she truly belonged to, I’d do something stupid. And I couldn’t afford that.

Rowan was on a mission, a side job he took to bring in money while awaiting St. Clair’s determination regarding our failed contract.

He hadn’t told her the whole story, and she knew a lie when she smelled one. So she saw right through him, and promised to make a decision on our future with the guild when she got back from wherever the fuck she’d run off to with the cop who hung on her coattails like he was pussy whipped for her.

Cool metal cut into my sore palms as I crouched a floor above Harper’s window, straining to hear her through the cheap, single-pane glass her landlord thought was adequate.

"Thanks again for walking me home, Sport. I really appreciate it." She giggled at something he said as she wandered into her kitchen and opened a cabinet. "So, how long til that rideshare gets here?"

Soon, he better hope, or I might lose it and kill someone tonight.

"Oh, that’s not long at all," she replied, setting two glasses on the counter. "You want something to drink while you wait?"

I was losing my patience, but she slipped from the kitchen before I could hop down and confront her for letting another man in her house.

I’d gone from being only slightly psycho to being all-in on this monster personality of mine. Stalking her was like cutting myself. It was bleeding out the emotions so I didn’t have to analyze the way my heart felt. I didn’t want to have emotions like these for a woman. Especially one who could break me so easily. But the longer and harder I struggled against them, the more prominent they became, until I was banging my head against the wall to keep from killing myself or going insane.

She turned the light out in the kitchen, and I hurriedlyslipped in through the window she left unlocked—apparently, she hadn’t learned her lesson ages ago. I crouched under the table in the corner and waited, listening to every word they said, until five minutes later, he stopped the banter, excusing himself to head home.

Yeah, that’s right, Sport. Run along. She’s into darker men than you.

Or maybe she wanted something normal, and I was just deluding myself. Thinking what I wanted to be true.

Manifesting my future.

The slam of a car door outside signaled his departure, and I grinned widely as I peered around the corner in time to see my fucking Harpie girl slip into her room. The sound of running water threw me back, back to a time when she and I spent time together in my bathroom, her perky ass perched on my counter as she ministered first aid to my superficial wounds. As she pushed me and pushed me until I snapped and sent her away with the cruelest words I could come up with.

If I could take them back now, I would. A million times over.

I was drunk on her and never wanted to sober up again.

I stayed there in that apartment in hiding until she climbed into bed an hour later. Only once I could hear her deep, even breathing did I move into view, leaning over her like a fucking ghost, sniffing her breath as she snored softly to make sure she didn’t smell like another man.

I was certifiable now, breaking and entering, stalking, and as the blankets slipped and bared her naked shoulder, I added voyeurism to the mix. Before I knew it, I was harder than a steel beam, and ready to bust one out on her fucking chest. I could fuck my hand and come all over her, marking her as mine and leaving something behind to remind her of me.

But there was a small part inside of me that said I shouldn’t.

I shoved it to the side and pulled the zipper of my leather pants down slowly, wincing at the sound of the metal teethseparating one by one. When it reached the bottom, I wasted no time in pulling myself free and jerking my cock wildly, needing to do something to alleviate this rampant lust I had whenever I looked at her.

She rolled over, facing me now, and the blankets bared her further, and for the first time in weeks, I felt myself twitch in my hand as her full chest came into view. Her tits had never looked so damn good, and with a muffled groan, I busted like a fucking teenager in his first pussy, making sure the hot ropes of my seed landed across them.

I wiped the last drop from the tip of my dick and swiped it across her lips, wanting her to taste me the minute she came awake.

I needed to be a part of her in some way. Needed her to know on some instinctual level that I was still watching her. That she’d never be rid of me. I wanted to punish her for ever daring to walk away from us.

But I also wanted to stay hidden. I wanted her to guess, or maybe wonder, but never know for sure. I wanted her on her toes, on the edge of sanity for every second of her life.

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