Page 38 of Bottoms
“Can you help me find answers?” I asked, meeting Fynn’s gaze.
“The truth is usually the most painful thing out there, sweetheart. Are you sure you’re ready for that?” He looked over to the knife before looking back to me, signaling that this was another area of Fynn’s unorthodox methods.
“Pain I can handle. Not knowing, not as much,” I sighed.
“Just remember you asked for this,” Fynn reminded me as he strode forward and took a seat in the chair. “Hop on up. I need to see the screen, and so do you,” he sat, patting his leg.
I moved from the table onto the small space between his thighs. I had to look down at him from this angle. There wasn’t any point in asking him to go easy on me or to try not to shatter a piece of me in this truth-hunting endeavor. It would be pointless. You cannot ask for the truth and only part of it.
Using slow movements, I crawled into his lap. He smelled like gun oil and gasoline, with a slight hint of copper. He moved the chair forward, surging us towards the screen, but I was busy looking at the blood splatters on his neck.
“Whose blood is that?” I asked. Part of me worried that Fynn had gone back and killed Nik for pointing a gun at him. I had fallen asleep before taking the punishment like I bartered.
“Just some guy,” Fynn muttered while his hands went to work, using the mouse and keyboard.
Despite shifting my gaze back to the screen, I couldn’t keep track of everything he did. Prompts would appear and then retreat before I had a chance to read them. Then a new image filled the screen.
Nik was sitting on an unfamiliar couch, lounging back with his legs splayed. He was still wearing the suit from earlier, but his tie hung loosely around his neck, and his hair was disheveled. He looked strikingly handsome despite his unhinged appearance. I took a moment to realize that I found men the most attractive when they looked like they were one piece of bad news away from taking the gloves off.
Nik had a bottle, half full, of its own dark liquid on top of an old wooden coffee table in front of him. Wherever he was, it wasn’t full of luxury top-end furniture like I had seen at Bottoms. My eyes narrowed as I leaned forward to get a better look, and I felt Fynn’s arm wrap around my middle like a seatbelt, holding me onto his lap while I inspected where Nik was.
“Fucking hell, Vanessa,” came from the speakers. Nik’s voice filled the room, and my heart nearly stopped for a moment.
“I didn’t know these had sound,” I muttered. Getting closer to the screen while Fynn held me back from tumbling onto the floor.
“Only when I turn it on,” Fynn said lightly. I felt his thumb as it started to move in a rhythmic pattern against my sweatshirt. “Otherwise, there would be way too many disconnected conversations bouncing around the room if I left them on all the time.”
I nodded absentmindedly as I stared at the screen, hoping Nik would say something again.
“Now, Colten,” Fynn said, leaning forward, but holding me in place. I felt his chest against my back as his other arm went to work, clicking buttons and typing commands. He didn’t work as fast with one hand, but his other seemed preoccupied with keeping me close.
The image on the screen changed to a more familiar location. I knew the inside of Colten’s apartment well, and I could see the faint shimmer of colorful lights from the city as they cast a glow onto the couch. Colten wasn’t sitting; he stood at one of the tall glass panels with a drink in hand as he stared at the city below.
Colten wasn’t wearing his suit. He had changed into a pair of sweatpants and nothing else. The tattoo of three birds was visible between his shoulder blades. I watched Colten down the contents of his drink before turning slowly, as if sighing and heading into the kitchen to refill his glass. The camera angles shifted as he moved around his home. Automatically switching to one that would provide the best view of his actions.
“How does it do that without you doing stuff?” I asked, turning back to face Fynn.
He hadn’t sat back in the chair. His face was far too close to mine as our eyes met. The electric current between us seemed angry in its intensity, and I got the distinct feeling of “fight or fuck” again. With Fynn, I didn’t even have to question what it would be. We were both steadily heading down the path that led to him buried inside me. If I didn’t end up buried in a hole first.
“The system is following the GPS locator in his watch,” Fynn explained.
I turned back toward the screen, finding it too difficult to listen to Fynn when he was close. I ended up watching how his lips formed around words now that his beard was shorter. Trickles of nervous energy washed through me as my brain reminded me that I thought Fynn looked incredibly attractive now that he was cleaned up.
“Did you set up all these cameras yourself?” I asked as the camera angle changed again, and Colten took his refilled glass into the bedroom.
“If there wasn’t a camera in a place where I needed it, then yes. For the most part, I hacked into the cameras and sent a copy of the stream to my network. My programming works well for most situations. The hardest part is getting new cameras installed when most people are usually in the places I need to be.”
I didn’t want to think about the times Fynn had crept into a room, placing a hidden camera under the shadows of the night. While I had laid oblivious to the fact that anyone was with me. I felt a little better as I watched Colten shed his pants and boxers before getting into bed. I caught just the slightest glance at his dick before it disappeared. It was probably wrong that I felt excited seeing him naked while he didn’t know I was looking, but it wasn’t enough to make me look away.
At least I wasn’t the only one Fynn spied on.
Colten didn’t toss and turn like Tanner had. Instead, he smoothed the blankets at his waist before laying down flat on his back. He looked up to the ceiling. It was almost like he was looking directly into the camera. Fynn’s hand went back to mindlessly toying with the front of my sweatshirt, but my eyes were fixed on the screen. Colten looked like he had an intense conversation in his mind. I noticed his hand slowly moving underneath the thin blanket covering his waist.
It didn’t take long to figure out what he was doing.
It was almost like watching a car accident. I knew I shouldn’t look, but I couldn’t bring myself to tear my eyes away from the screen as I watched Colten’s movements under the blanket. I wanted to figure out some way to pull the blanket back so I could watch properly since I couldn’t be there to help.
It wasn’t creepy when I knew he would want me to see his dick. That was a valid reason, right?
