Page 68 of Stalker

Even if that meant I’d need to forgo another game. I’d also need to maintain some level of control lest I feast until there was nothing left.

It was fascinating, the effect she had on me. The hunt had been entertaining, but had left my hunger unsated, and I’d spent the remaining hours of my night inside my home gym. Even after three hours of intense weightlifting, boxing, and use of the treadmill, the adrenaline had continued to act like a drug.

The four glasses of scotch hadn’t dulled my senses or controlled the ache either. My drug was all about tasting and touching the woman sitting only a few feet away.

“Lady Butterfly,” I whispered and was almost certain she’d heard me even from the distance.

She dragged the tip of her tongue across her bottom lip, doing her best to act nonchalant. All the while I sensed the pull toward me, the unexplainable need that had exploded between us.

The ridiculous mask I’d been asked to wear wasn’t able to hide my features just like the butterfly mask was unable to ghost her identity. Maybe our magnetic chemistry was the real reason I’d recognized her immediately.

Her recognition of me hadn’t been instantaneous. Yet I knew the subconscious mind very well. I’d studied the minds of monsters and decent humans over the years in my effort to try to relinquish the demons burrowed inside of me.

My sweet butterfly was putting the pieces together, yet her confusion of whether it was a coincidence or a planned event had already begun to weigh heavily on her mind.

Had my scent lingered in her home? Had she awakened wet and hot knowing someone had been inside her personal space?

I’d wanted to be angry with her, instantly feeling as if her investigation was betrayal, but it was so much more.

While I hadn’t planned on seeing her in any formal event or pretending to run into her at her favorite coffee shop, it would seem fate was enjoying fucking with me.

Maybe it was because I sucked at compromise.

Everyone on earth would suffer through reincarnation until they finally learned and accepted the one thing required by some higher being. It could be anything. The love of mankind. Patience. Kindness.

But in my case compromise had proven to be an Achilles heel.

I blocked out the ugly noise in the ballroom, concentrating on one thing and one thing only.

My Lady Butterfly.

I could almost hear her breathing, could feel her rapid heartbeat in the palm of my hand. Was she wondering if somehow her friends had found out, luring me to the event as they’d done with her? She was even questioning her sanity, concerned about how much she’d enjoyed the hunt, worried she was losing control of the very darkness she’d been searching for.

And anxious that I was capable of breaking her resolve.

If fate was involved, the being had no understanding of what this could mean for the both of us. However, who was I to look a gift horse in the mouth?

The announcer briefly drew my attention, his supposedly charismatic attitude grating on my nerves. He was selling me like I was a prized poodle in the window of a local pet store. Meanwhile, he knew nothing about me other than the glossy fabricated stories found on the internet.

I’d managed to avoid a single clear photograph.

I only wondered how long it would be until my name and picture was splashed across the news. Not that I should care other than from the annoyance.

“Alright, ladies, I have eight thousand dollars on the table. This has been a particularly lively auction.” The auctioneer pointed toward me again. “Remember, ladies. This man has remained in the shadows. Can you imagine the secrets he’s hiding? Come peel them away and enjoy the forbidden fruit inside.”

The women squealed.

I envisioned peeling away his skull like the very fruit he was tossing out like candy.

“Ten thousand dollars.”

Very briefly I shifted my gaze to the woman standing to the side. She was lovely but had no full comprehension that if she won the bid, she’d be sucked into the lair of a predator. No one else in the room could handle me.

Only my Lady Butterfly.

But what would she do?

I leveled my gaze on her once again, the vibrant electricity we shared transcending the thirty feet between us.

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