Page 5 of Between Dusk and Dawn

"Always," I retorted. She donned a snug baby-blue minidress with knee-high, heeled boots and oversized gold jewelry.

She was my opposite, as I was in my typical all-black attire. My black hair and deep-brown eyes adding to my Italian features. The swirls of my black tattoos peeked through the open buttons at the top of my shirt. Her head was to my shoulders, the perfect height to lean down and take her as mine.

"Going somewhere?" I asked as I stalked toward her on the other side of the small apartment.

"I’m going to get fucked up tonight with some of the cheerleaders." She gave me a little wink while swinging her hips side to side, so I got a full view of her lush curves.

"Why? You don’t even like them?"

She furrowed her brows and scrunched her face. "Yeah, I do. What’re you talking about?"

"Just a sense I have." I shrugged, taking a dangerously slow step toward her bedroom.

"Did Cagen say something to you?" she questioned.

"No." I would not let her in on my stalking secrets, er…obsession. Whatever you wanted to call it.

She crossed her hands over her chest. "Who are you to tell me who I like and dislike? You don’t even know me."

I laughed maniacally.

She went to turn around but stopped. "They are my friends. They hang out with me. They party with me." She paused. "They are my friends."

With her repeating herself, I knew she didn’t believe everything she was saying.

"Are they, Muse?" I asked.

"Have you been stalking me?" she barked.

"Yes."

"Ha-ha. You are hilarious."

"I know your last name is Ryan even though sometimes you use Kensington at school."

She balked at my confession. "How?"

"Facebook." I shrugged, not admitting I had a full background investigation done on her.

"That’s not creepy," she retorted.

I’d memorized her entire schedule after twenty-four hours and even altered a few things so we would run into each other more times than she probably would have liked. Thanks to my father’s underworld connections, I knew how to stalk my prey.

"And you are fucking my plans up," I responded, closing the distance between us.

"What plans?" Her voice was breathless as she backed into her room.

Stay in control. I was supposed to be this born leader, and dating Cagen was part of that plan. She was a popular girl, the one my father told me to be with for my image at the Alpha house, the fraternity I belonged to. If I was to be the leader of the fraternity, I needed to be dating the sorority president. The current leader was dating the current sorority president, and the tradition went years back. It was expected of me.

When Cagen moaned my name, I imagined it coming from the lush lips my muse wore. When Cagen writhed beneath me, I imagined the way my muse would feel against my skin. When Cagen touched my cock, all I could think was how Madison Ryan’s hands would feel against my hardness.

"Nothing you need to know," I stated. "At least not right now," I mumbled, hoping she didn’t hear me. My naive little muse never suspected anything.

My muse wasmygood girl.

She was dressed and ready to go out with her friends, but I knew the truth. They were not her friends, courtesy of Cagen, who spilled the truth about their disdain for the way she desperately tagged along, making herself stand out like a sore thumb. She was so desperate to fit in that she would go to any lengths to get them to like her.

I took hold of her choker, relishing the weight of the imitation gold in my hands. "If you want to wear a collar, baby, you know I'd give you one."

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