Page 7 of Claimed By My Stalker

Bruno ignores me and keeps talking to Carrie, her hand still in his. “I’m a philanthropist myself, I have a lot of experience helping people regain their freedom from tyrannical figures.”

"I'm afraid you are mistaken, Mr. Bruno. I'm here of my own accord," Carrie says.

“He surely isn’t treating you like you have rights, if I didn’t know any better I’d say he owns you.” Bruno goes on.

“How dare he?” I mutter to myself.

I clap repeatedly. “Okay, playtime is over, let’s wrap this up. Somebody get Bruno out of my sight.”

Bruno takes out his gun before Enzo can get to him. “Get back,” he orders.

The sight of a gun makes Carrie pale. She takes a few steps backward, panting heavily.

“What is it about this girl that’s got you so wound up? Who is she anyway?”

The last thing I want is bullets flying while Carrie is present, I have to handle this another way. I signal Enzo to back down.

_ _ _

Bruno left the house in a foul mood. I know I’ll be seeing him more often than I want to, Carrie on the other hand could be in danger. Bruno will try to find out everything he can about her.

Rosa walks up to me with pleading eyes. “I left for barely a minute and she was gone. She vanished, I looked everywhere for her, I didn’t realize she wandered all the way down to the…”

I ignore Rosa for her own good. If I decide to react, she will be fired or worse.

I burst into Carrie's room, Rosa remains behind the door, peeping and whispering excuses.

“Leave us,” I thunder.

The woman scampers away.

I turn to Carrie and can barely hide my annoyance. “I told you not to leave the main house,” I say with a stern look.

“I got lost trying to find the kitchen”

“That’s not an excuse, you shouldn’t have wandered out of Rosa's sight.”

”You don’t expect me to stay cooped up in the room forever, living in Rosa's shadow, besides she has a lot on her plate already. I thought hovering over me was a chore.” She gives an unbothered shrug.

“It’s what I pay her to do, it’s not in your place to care about whether she likes her duties or not. I could fire her right now and it would be your fault.”

At first, she gives me a look that suggests she knows I'm bluffing but her expression changes to one of fear, Carrie looks at me with pleading eyes. “I’m the one at fault here, if anyone should have to be fired, it’s me. I’m sorry.” Her eyes well, her lips tremble and I wish I hadn’t been so hard on her.

She starts to sob. I stretch out my arms and she melts in them, smuggling in as I envelop her small frame.

I take the strands of hair that keep getting into her face and tuck them behind her ear. For some reason I can’t explain my hands remain behind there, on her ears. She doesn’t shrug or shake me off. I wonder how she’d react if I touched other parts of her. I can feel the rhythm of her soft breaths against my chest. The beating of my heart intensifies revealing how tense I feel. I wonder if she can hear it too.

I turn her around gently and trace my hand from her earlobe to her neck, she responds with a slight shiver. Without thinking, my mouth moves to the base of her neck that leads to her shoulder, and I kiss it lightly. Her whimpers drive me crazy. Taking it a step further, I turn her back to face me and pull her in by the waist, her chest bumps into mine with a gasp.

I bend over to place a light kiss on her cheek, I pull backward and search her face and eyes, trying to read her emotions. I need to know if she wants this too. I'm crazy about her, but her consent is important to me as well.

Carrie's face is flushed. She looks down to avert my gaze and fiddles with her fingers. I decide to try my luck again and cup her face, raising it up to look at me.

“Do you want this?” I rasp.

"Yes," she whispers.

I position her head to align our mouths and draw closer. I invade her lips, maintaining a slow and steady pace. A shiver runs down my spine. I have waited my whole life for this, I can’t get enough of her. A moan threatens to erupt from me but I hold it back, I don’t want to appear that needy and vulnerable to her.

---