Page 89 of Mine to Keep

“You’re welcome. Now, I’ll feed you.” He sat beside me, took a fork from the other side of the table, stabbed a few eggs, and held it out to my mouth.

I turned my head away. “I said I wasn’t hungry.”

He grabbed my hair and pulled my head so I was facing him. “You’re going to eat every egg on this plate, or I’m going to shove a tube down your throat and force feed it to you.” He grinned. “I don’t want to hurt you, Matt, but I will.”

He released me and held the fork out again, and this time I took a bite.

“Good boy.”

“Where are we?”

James tsked. “You’re asking questions you already know the answers to.”

“I know we’re in the building, but I don’t recognize this apartment.”

He nodded. “It’s on the top floor. Remember Mr. Black?”

He was an elderly man who’d passed away a year ago. “Yeah.”

“Well, when he died, I decided not to rent it. I’ve been coming up here most weekends, getting it all fixed up.”

“For what?”

He caressed my cheek with his thumb. “For you, of course…for us.”

“I have an apartment.”

He laughed as he scooped more eggs into my mouth. “You won’t need that place anymore. We’ll be together now.”

After I swallowed I said, “I don’t think Nicole would like that very much.”

That was apparently the wrong thing to say, because he stood and threw the half-empty plate against the wall.

“Don’t say her name!” he shouted. “Matt, listen to me. I love you. We are going to have the most amazing life together.”

“I’m in love with someone else.”

He reached out and wrapped his hand around my throat. “No, you only thought you were. You love me, Matt. I saw how you looked at me when you moved in here. The sparks flew, but it was a few months ago. You were going out, dressed in your clubbing outfit. You winked at me, and I knew what you were telling me.”

“I wasn’t telling you anything.”

“You were.” He pressed his cheek to my cheek. “You wanted me. You craved my touch, my tongue. I wanted to unwrap you and lick every inch of skin on your body, fill you with my seed, and make you bloom.”

He sniffed my hair as my stomach began to roil.

“I will, I’ll do all of that.” He pulled away. “But like I said, you’ll need your strength. So, let me get you something else, since the eggs were a miss.”

A miss? He’d thrown them. Shit, no way was I going to willingly sit back and let this crazy fuck touch me.

I watched as James went about opening a can of soup next. He was determined to feed me. Maybe if I kept denying it, he wouldn’t give up until he picked a winner.

“Such a mess,” he said once the soup was up. “Nicole knows better than to leave things around.”

I turned my head left and right, thinking she’d appear, seeing as he was referring to her…Had he forgotten he was the one who’d done it?

“Hey, James?”

“Hmm?” He grabbed a dustpan and broom.

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