Page 116 of Obsession
Tipping his bloodied, bruised chin up with the blade, I grind my teeth to dust at seeing the look of cowardice on his face. “Your God doesn’t forgive your sins. He has already forsaken you and left you to rot in Hell.” I pivot on my heel and make my way to the small table. Savannah sobs quietly over by the entrance, tormented by her past and broken by the confession. It’ll be my honor to paint these walls with Michael’s screams.
Armed with a butcher’s knife, I walk up to him and trail the blade over his left wrist. His hand fists, and he struggles against the rope that’s securing him to the armrest. He begins to scream as he thrashes in his seat, his fear skyrocketing. I shake my head and tut. “You’re scaring the girl.”
“You’re fucking crazy!” he shouts, spit flying everywhere, his eyes frantic. “What are you going to do? Kill her too? Do you think she’ll want you after this? Do you think any woman wants a fucking monster like you?”
“I think,” I start, dragging the blade down his shoulder and arm, a trail of blood rushing to the surface, “that she needs to see the real me, every crack and imperfection.” I look over my shoulder at her and flash a demented smile, the kind of smile that has caused other women to flinch. “This is me, baby. Your very own monster.”
“My devil,” she whispers, straightening from the wall and hobbling over on her cut feet and ruined knee.
My chest tightens as I watch her approach.
She stops by my side and gazes up at me through her tears. “It’s your turn to trust me, Robbie. Untie me, please.” When I don’t move, she pleads again, “Please.”
I reluctantly undo the knots, and the rope falls to the floor before she rolls her shoulders, massaging sensation back into the muscles. I hold my breath, waiting to see what she’ll do, waiting for her to tell me what a freak I am, waiting for her to run scared and never look back. She does none of that.
Inching closer, she wraps her small hand around mine and whispers, “Let go.” She unfolds my fingers from around the butcher’s knife. “This isn’t your nightmare to end. It’s mine.”
With the knife clasped in her hand, she turns away from me and gives me her back.
“Do you know why I never reported you to the police?” she asks Michael, circling his chair.
The man in question stays silent, fisting both hands, his jaw clenched tight.
“It was easier to pretend it never happened. The past could only hurt me if I allowed it to, right? So, I pushed it to the back of my mind for the longest time, but my father was a constant reminder of the past. Some days, I struggled to breathe inside my own house because he was using the same air as me. It didn’t matter that he couldn’t move a muscle or speak. He was there, and it was enough to cause the memories to torment my dreams. It wasn’t until Hammond brought it all back to the surface that I couldn’t go on pretending it never happened. Because it did. You broke me.”
She swallows back a choked sob and swipes at her tears. Despite the urge to pull her into my arms and kiss away her sorrows, I stay silent, allowing her this moment to purge.
“I think it’s time to take back my power, one piece at a time.” Raising her arm, she brings the butcher’s knife down on his wrist with a heavy thud. Metal clashes against metal. The severed hand barely hangs on, sinew and bone protruding from the flesh wound.
Michael’s hoarse scream bounces off the walls, and the shadows grow taller, chasing his cries like otherworldly demons released from the pits of Hell. With a manic, vengeful look in her eyes, she swings again, severing the hand completely. It falls to the floor, and blood pools around it, like a calm, dark lake full of secrets and deadly myths.
She cocks her head and studies the carnage, eyes aglow with satisfaction. “He’s quickly bleeding out. How do I stem it?” She turns and slides her hands up my heaving chest and neck. Her nails leave scratch marks behind as she sinks her fingers into my hair. “On second thought, screw that and screw him. I need you. I want you to fuck me, Robbie.”
I don’t need to be told twice.
In a swift motion, I grab her ass and pick her up, then kick the severed hand out of the way and lower her back down.
Laid out like a feast in the blood of her childhood tormentor, she gazes up at me with hungry eyes. I rip her shorts off, then tear her T-shirt down the middle before palming her full breasts. Both of us are deaf to the pained groans and sobs beside us, the desperate pleas of a dying man. Carnal desire is the only word to describe what I feel when she looks at me with those eyes and burning heat that licks a delicious path to my aching cock.
I kneel between her spread legs and strip out of my clothes, discarding my hoodie and T-shirt on the floor before unzipping my jeans. I push them down my thighs, and my hard cock springs free. Savannah wets her lips when I kick them off, and then she digs her sharp nails into my chest muscles.
I brace myself on my elbow before sliding my fingers through the still-warm blood on the floor.
“I used to fantasize about your hands covered in blood,” she admits.
Smiling, I hold my bloodied palm up in front of her face. Rivulets of red trail down the length of my wrist and forearm. “Like this?”
With her lip trapped between her teeth, she nods almost shyly, then gasps when I slash my fingers down her forehead and across her cheeks in several angry streaks.
“There,” I whisper, clasping her slender throat with my bloodied hand and staining her pale skin. I lick her lips, tasting the desire in her heated breaths. “My very own warrior.”
She swirls her fingers through the blood and then drags her thumb across my stubbly cheeks in a move that’s entirely too gentle for the horror surrounding us, yet this moment has me in a chokehold.
Her eyes rove over my face. But before she can slay me with that heated look, I taste her lips. Her tongue caresses mine, and I groan. I want to ravage her slowly and fuck her in time with the beat of her heart. Inhale her every breath.
“Fuck me, Robbie,” she begs between kisses, her hips lifting off the floor. “I need you.”
Fear trickles in before I can stop it.
