Page 54 of The HalloQueen

“Thomas, you’re not acting right.”

“Bels,” He shook me slightly, “Did you even hear me? You ran into Yusuf. My Yusuf.”

“Wait,” I dug through our previous conversations and pulled the name from my mind, “Yusuf, like Monique and Yusuf? Like soulmates for hundreds of years and disappeared off the face of the planet, Yusuf?”

“Yusuf,” he nodded, “was a woman with him?”

I furrowed my brow and thought back, “I…I don’t know. I’m sorry, Tommy, I wasn’t looking. I knew he was an Other and he was giving me the heebie-jeebies so I left as fast as I could. If I’d known-”

“Non, chérie, you did exactly right. You did exactly what I want you to do if you find an Other and I’m proud of you. Besides, there’s no way you could have known it was him or to look for her. But you’re okay? You’re safe? He’s the only one you sensed?”

Scoffing, my voice raised unintentionally from his fussing, “I have no idea! I’m just a boutique owner; I’m not Buffy the fucking Vampire Slayer!”

His expression dropped and his eyes darted about absently like he was trying to solve the puzzle, “I sensed another, but I didn’t recognize the scent - I don’t know-”

“Yousensed? Or you can currently smell?”

“Quoi?”

I frowned, my anger boiling over, “I knew it! You followed me. You were there! You couldn’t let me have one night out with my friends, could you?”

“Bels,” he raked his hands through his hair, tugging his scalp slightly, “there was something else out there - if Yusuf beelined to you, who is to say something else won’t?”

I shrugged, “Maybe he beelined to me because he smelledyouon me. Ever think of that?” I could see his wheels spinning, “Thomas - you followed me. You can’t do that.”

“I needed to see you -”

“Are you a bird?” I spat.

He froze for a moment before reaching for me, but I swatted his hand away.

“You’re a fucking bird! I thought vampires were bats! You followed me as a giant fucking bird and scared the shit out of me you asshat!”

“You were out with him, looking like that, and I knew Others would be there, and I needed to know you were safe,mon coeur, it is my job to protect you - you’re mine.”

“You are not clothes shaming me, bird boy. I can wear whatever the fuck I want whenever the fuck I want to, and I’m not yours - I belong to myself. Got it?” I gestured to my body with a sweeping motion, “Property of Annabel.” I started to walk out of the kitchen but he grabbed my arm again, this time spinning me and pinning my body against the fridge.

He spoke clearly, his voice low, possessive and unyielding. “You aremine, Annabel. You are mine until November - those were your terms, remember? This means that you do not put yourself in harm's way, you do not shove me aside to try to make me jealous, and you never, ever stop me from touching you any fucking way I want to. Mine.” His lips slammed into me, and his hands cupped my breasts, rubbing my nipples through the thin singlet with his thumbs, “you haven’t even let me have a good look at you in this - all I saw was what everyone else saw online, but I get to see it all, don’t I, Bels? I get every. Single. Inch of you. I get to see the parts of you that no one else ever will,” he kissed his way down my neck and I melted at the sensation of his lips against my skin, temporarily giving in to the heat blossoming inside me.

“Stop, Thomas, I’m mad at you, remember?” I gasped, arching into his touch, “you followed me and watched me - that's stalking. You should leave. This isn’t normal.”

He chuckled, “You’re worried about this being normal? Look at us,chérie.” He slid his hand up to my throat, stroking the side of it and growling, “Non.I’m not leaving.” He pulled his face back so he could lock his eyes with mine, “tell me you want me to leave. To my face, chérie.” I narrowed my gaze and he slowly smiled, “I feel nothing coming from you but desire. Desire for me. Now do you want to be difficult or do you want me to show you just how much I own you?”

I swallowed, “you can’t follow me.”

“Answer. Do you genuinely want me to leave? Anything else isn’t up for discussion right now.” He leaned in, dragging his teeth over the place he held my throat and my body became heavy with desire. He moved to hold one side of my head while the other held a bruising grip on my hip. “I should put you over my knee for even suggesting us being apart. You are my everything, Bels.” His menacing growl melted into a deep, low, sensual timbre, “I would cease to exist without you. I need you.”

The brattiness bubbled up in my throat and slipped out, unable to be contained, “Oh yeah? You say that to all your food or am I just lucky?”

He slowly dropped to the floor, never breaking eye contact, and placed my knee over his shoulder and ran his hands up under my skirt, rumbling in approval when he felt my soft skin above my thigh-highs. “I’m the lucky one,mon coeur.” He placed a kiss on my inner thigh, “You know you’re everything. You want to only be my food? You want to water this down and pretend that that is all this is? I will eat your pussy again and again and again until you admit that you are mine. I could consume you until there is nothing left of you but the sliver you are willing to admit belongs to me. But I don’t want a sliver, I want all of you, do you understand me?”

I leaned my head back against the fridge, taking a shaky breath and running my hand through his soft hair, “it’s only until November.”

“Mmmmm,” he hummed skeptically and reached up to pull down my skirt slowly, dancing his feather-light fingers across my skin, leaving me in my snake singlet and thigh-high tights. His fingers dug into the strip of naked flesh and he leaned in, running his nose along my crease through the fabric. He inhaled and groaned before placing tortuous kisses on and around my center. I dampened and knew it wouldn’t be long before he would taste me despite my pussy being covered. I wanted to take the damn thing off. I wanted to be bare and push his bossy, clingy, possessive mouth right on my clit and take back the power. I belonged to myself. He was meant to service me. Help me. I tightened my grip on his hair and tried to press him into me.

“I thought you wanted me to leave, Bels,”

“Shut up.”

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