Page 18 of Relapse
“Yes.”
“About the contract I have on his daughter?”
“Correct,” Lou confirmed.
Well, that was weird.
Did hewantme to take his daughter? If someone in this house was hurting her, then I guess it made sense that he’d want to get her out. Especially if said culprit was his son. I never did like Sean.
“Ned is a businessman,” Lou explained. “He understands the bonds of a contract.”
Uh huh? Sounded like a bullshit excuse to me. What kind of guy hands over his daughter? A better question was, why the fuck was I still climbing this tree if I could walk through the front door?
I glanced down at the dark ground, then up to the last branch held tightly in my grip.
Ah, fuck it. I was almost there.
“Well?” Lou said when I finally reached Harper’s window.
It was dark inside, but the moon lit up the room enough that I could make out someone curled up on the bed. My eyes roamed over the small blanketed form as I slowly slid the window open.
The scent of cinnamon and peaches smacked me in the face like a freight train. That smell was a part of me for so long, it still followed me around. Filling my nostrils with a temptation I both wanted to devour, and destroy.
“Mason!”
Harper sighed and rolled over. Did she know I was here? Could she feel me watching her? My dick twitched at the thought of those big doe eyes blinking up at me in fear.
“What?” I whispered in a growl.
“The contract?”
Harper kicked out, throwing the blankets off enough to expose her thigh. I watched the moonlight dance across her creamy skin and thought about digging my teeth into that flesh. Pierce her so deeply that the taint of her blood lingered on my tongue.
“If I enact the contract, that means I can do whatever I want with her, right?”
I could practically see Lou nodding in confirmation. “That’s right.”
“Enact it,” I said, and tore the headset out of my ear.
Lou’s voice echoed up as the earpiece fell to the ground. I didn’t give a shit what he was saying, and sure as hell didn’t want him mingling with the voices already in my head. Like Micha.
I was still pissed at him, but he was right about one thing. It was time to stop playing the victim. Victimizer was much more fun.
I ducked down and crawled through the window–which was definitely harder to do than when I was a kid. I had to twist around to get my shoulders through, but I made it. And with elegance. Micha was constantly giving me shit about my need to fight. I’d like to see him slip through a girl’s window without making a sound.
My brother thought I had anger issues. He was partly right. My earlier fight with him was proof of that. If I wasn’t so pissed, he wouldn’t have landed half as many hits as he did. But fighting wasn’t about venting my anger.
It was the other aspects I craved. The entire thing was a game. One that I was good at playing. I liked watching my opponent try to figure out my next move. Was I gonna go left, hit low or high? The mind-fuckery of it all was the best part.
My eyes landed on the sleeping girl across the room. Now I got to play another version of that game. The only difference was, this one didn’t involve fists. At least, not mine. I doubted Harper would fight me, she was too timid to try some shit like that, but how hot would it be if she did?
Her tiny little fists beating against my chest in useless struggle. I’d let her fight for a bit, maybe even let her think she might win. All so I could crush her hopes like a bug. The trick to beating someone in the ring was knowing your opponent, and I knew everything there was to know about Harper Callaghan.
Not much had changed since we were kids. She still had the same white desk and pink canopy bed with fairy lights hung above. A sixteen year old girl with little twinkling blue and purple lights. What the fuck? If that didn’t scream defile me, I don’t know what did. My gaze trickled over to little navy shorts on her exposed thigh.
I stand corrected. That shit screams defile me.
Who’d have thought little white bunnies would be so fucking hot. I actually had to take a second to adjust my dick before strolling across the room.
