Page 31 of Taunt Me (Dark Odyssey 2)

It takes me a moment to realize I’m not fucking breathing, but I couldn’t care less if I don’t take another breath.

It’s her.

I move to her, my heart carrying me and I cup her face. Her beautiful, beautiful stunned face. Part of me wonder if this is another dream. If she’s real. Will she fade from before me in a few seconds like every other image I conjure of her.

Her skin, her satin smooth skin feels real.

She’s real. Really here and I’m touching her.

It’s her.

It’s really Charlotte.

Her lips tremble and her hands shake, but we move to each other at the same time, moving in for the kiss we’ve both been starved of for the last ten years.

Chapter Nine

Charlotte

The minutehis lips come crashing down on mine, fire washes over me, racing through my body from head to toe in one sweeping motion.

It tingles every ending of my nerves and sets my soul alight with the luxuriating sensation of it.

The same sensation that robs my brain clean of thought and memory of the nightmare the last ten years held for me. It’s like it never happened and I wish it didn’t. I truly wish it didn’t.

Because I could almost believe I’m that girl again from ten years ago and this was what happened to us after I last saw him.

I could almost believe this was the next day or even a few days after he made love to me over and over again and promised me we’d be together forever.

I could almost believe it, almost … but the nightmare of what actually happened flows through my mind and it’s grief that makes me jump. Because we never had this.

It never happened.

I was taken to a place where I thought I was going to die and imprisoned by a man who used my body.

I pull away from Gabriel.

I don’t mean to but this kiss is… confusing.

Gabe looks at me. Seeing him in the sunlight makes my stomach flutter with nerves.

In the darkness of the club last night I’d only caught a taster of the full masterpiece of him.

Now I’m seeing the full blown, ten years older version of Gabriel Giordano and he just kissed me.

“It’s really you,” he states, looking me over like he’s trying to figure out exactly that. If it’s me.

“It’s… me…” I nod and wipe away a tear from my cheek. I’m not sure what to say next.

“It was you last night too, at The Dark Odyssey.”

I nod… “I went.. I was…” My voice trails off as I stop and search my mind for the right things to say.

“Why didn’t you come to me?” He narrows his eyes.

I bite down hard on my back teeth and swallow hard as a bout of tears threaten to take me.

I haven’t really broken down in years. I’ve cried. Yes, but not long or hard enough to get out the horrific things I bottle in, all that I’ve seen and experienced.

---