Page 9 of The Heart of Midnight

Seven

Scar

What kind of a fucking idiot installs cameras without audio?

Me, that’s what kind. I was so impatient to replace the ones I already had that I couldn’t bring myself to wait long enough to get better ones, and now I’m paying the price. Before this, the only angles I had came courtesy of my own exterior cameras which I pointed at her windows. Unfortunately, they rarely gave me what I wanted. I thought by getting camerasinsideher house, things would be better, but seeing her walk around her house talking to herself is torture when I can’t hear what she’s saying. She looks pissed, did she have a bad day? Or is she angry that I denied her yesterday when she was clearly trying to flirt with me?

I didn’t have a choice. Getting involved with her in the daylight would complicate things, especially now that she’s threatened my masked persona. I’d have to keep going back at night, see her in the daytime, and there would constantly be a mammoth-sized secret between us. Besides, is it still considered cheating if she doesn’t know it’s me both times? I don’t know how to feel about that.

It’s just a disaster waiting to happen and she deserves far better than someone like me, at least before dark. I’d only bring her misery and danger, not give her the life I know she wants. It’s too late to do things the right way.

Leaning back in my chair, I glance away from her only long enough to check the exterior monitors. I installed one above her front door and one facing each side yard, but left the back alone so no one will see me sneaking into her bedroom window when I do allow myself to have her again. Avery’s too bright not tonotice how suspicious it would be for the intruder to come from the direction of my house and leave that way, too. It’s better if it stays unmonitored.

Not shockingly, there’s no one else peeking through her windows or standing in the garden waiting for his chance to strike. That’s a role reserved only for me, so I switch my attention back to the interior cameras I told her I wouldn’t have access to. Whoops.

I locate her quickly in her bedroom, stripping for a shower. Watching her clothes fall to the floor makes my cock stir, and I regret not finding a reason to install a camera in her bathroom, too. Putting one in her bedroom was a hard enough sell. Fuck, I hate it when she goes off screen. The door is open which means I can see soft billows of steam floating into the room, but I can’t see her washing her hair or running her hands over her stunning body.

“Come on, kitten. Come back out where I can see you.”

Her shower seems to drag on forever, but eventually, she re-enters her bedroom and drops the towel on the floor. Her nipples are peaked from the cooler air, and I can see her bottom lip disappearing between her teeth as she makes up her mind to do exactly what I need her to do.

Watching her spread out on her bed is intoxicating. She stretches first, and I watch her trail her fingertips along the inside of her thighs until I’m so close to the screen, my nose bumps against it. Shit. Her hand is already on her pussy by the time I free my cock from my jeans, but I’m still ahead of her here. I’ve been hard for her since the second I turned the monitors on.

But something’s wrong. I’ve seen Avery come so many times that I could draw a flipbook of the process, of the faces she makes, and these ones are all fucking wrong. She looks pained, frustrated. Her little nose is scrunched up and her brows are pinched even as she works her fingers faster.

“What’s wrong, pretty girl?” I whisper. “Come for me.”

She sits up suddenly and opens her bedside drawer, pulling out a vibrating wand. It makes me chuckle when she grins like she just won something. Hell, maybe she did. I squeeze my cock and stroke slowly as she settles back down and puts the head of the wand to her clit, wondering if she knows I lied, knows I’m watching. Would she hate me for it? Would it turn her on more?

Would she beg me to come over and take her the way I’ve done so many times?

Fuck. Exhaling hard, I stroke faster and lean back a little further, getting closer. It’s hard to focus on her face when all I want to do is go over there and pin her down, but since I can’t hear whatever the fuck she’s saying to herself right now, her expressions are all I’ve got.

“Do you like it, baby? Does that feel good?”

I might not be able to hear her, but I can see the yell she lets out as she gets up again and goes back to her drawer. This time, she pulls out a dildo roughly the size of my cock, stares at it, then throws it back into the drawer and lays down, orgasm forgotten.

It stops me in my tracks.

She needs me, I know it. But I watched her earlier. She locked every door and every window tonight, even the one she always leaves open for me. I can’t get in to help her this time. I can’t—

Wait.

Glancing down, the silver house key she gave me glints in the low light of the monitors. If I use it, she’ll know it’s me. I’ll have to admit I know all of her dirty little secrets and she’ll hate me for it. Unless... I could wait until she falls asleep, go in the front door, open one of the windows, lock the door again and just pretend I came in through the window? No, that won’t fucking work because I have the front and both sides monitored. Not to mention that nosey old bat who lives across the street would see me come out of my house and walk into hers. It wouldn’ttake ten minutes for her to call Avery and ask when we started fucking, and my cover would be blown anyway.

God fucking damnit, how did I get here? It used to be so easy for me. See, take, leave. Want, have, discard. Now I’m jumping through hoops trying to be the man she sees when she looks at me while having a pile of growing skeletons in my closet. They’ll bury me soon if I’m not careful.

My cock is softening and I’m just about to give up when I see her give me the greatest gift of all: she opens the window. It’s just a crack, but that’s all I need. It’s as good as an invitation, if you ask me. She needs me. She can’t get off alone anymore, not without me pinning her down and reminding her who she fucking belongs to.

Don’t worry, Avery. I can do that for you.

I get up so fast my knee knocks against the underside of my desk and jars two of the monitors, but I don’t stop long enough to make sure they’re not broken. I’m already in my usual all-black attire like some little part of me knew I’d be going to see her tonight, so all that’s left is the mask.

The sick, twisted part of me almost grabs the Muerte mask just to see the fear on her face, but I don’t. I can live without it if it keeps her more comfortable. What I can’t live with would be the look on her face if I show up without a mask at all, so I grab the ski mask I use only for her and sneak out my back door.

It’s exactly thirty-seven steps to the base of the window and two more to hoist myself up and drop down inside. From the window, only four steps separate me from her.

“You came,” she whispers, sitting up quickly.

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