Page 24 of Monster

8

Charlotte

I felt weak—dizzy—andI had no idea if it was daytime or nighttime.

I looked down at my hands and saw two pairs of them, and I figured it was finally my time to die. The growling of my stomach rattled my eardrums. My stomach had begun to protrude with the starvation tactics I had dropped into my own lap. And with every hour that ticked by, I knew he wouldn’t cave. He had all of the luxuries in the world. His body wasn’t eating itself. But, mine was. And if I wanted to survive this, I had to cave. I had to obey.

No matter how much my soul didn’t want to.

“Come on, you can do this,” I whispered.

The basement door opened and it made me jump.

“Who’s there?” I called out.

The door closed. “Just me. It’s dinner time. Lyle won’t be joining us, so it’s just you and me.”

I sighed. “Lucky girl, I guess.”

He sat in a chair next to my bed. “I felt like steak tonight. Do you like steak?”

My eyes fell to the food. “I do, yes.”

He cut off a sliver. “Would you like a bite?”

The stubborn part of me refused to answer. But, my eyes betrayed me. They followed his fork all the way to his lips, where I watched him chew every single bite of that steak as slowly as possible. My eyes watched his throat bob as he swallowed. The motion of his tongue caught me off-guard as he licked up the juices the steak left behind on his plump lower lip.

Why the hell is this man so sinfully beautiful?

“Sure you don’t want a bite?” he asked.

I swallowed hard. “Maybe… just a little one?”

He grinned. “Great. We’ll start small.”

He cut off the smallest piece of meat I’d ever seen and held the fork up to my lips. But, when I tried to take the fork from him, he pulled it away.

“No, no, no, no,” I whimpered.

He stood from his chair and moved to the bed. “Let me feed you.”

I furrowed my brow. “What?”

“Shut up and do as I’m asking, or I leave and the food comes with me.”

I didn’t have the energy to fight, so I simply opened my mouth. And when he placed the piece of meat on the tip of my tongue, so much saliva rushed my mouth that I drooled all over myself. I felt it dripping down my chin as I swallowed the piece of meat whole. My eyes watered with satisfaction at the incredible taste of it.

Then, I felt something dabbing at my skin. “There you go.”

My eyes slowly found his. “What are you doing?”

He cut off another piece of meat. “Cleaning up the mess. You drooled on yourself.”

I blinked. “And you’re not going to chastise me for that?”

He held another piece up to my lips. “Open wide.”

I slid the meat off the fork and forced myself to chew it this time.

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