“A sick, spineless stalker that can’t get it up unless he tortures an innocent woman?”
There’s so much hate lacing his words. I’ve never seen Brandon so worked up before. “A desperate man with everything to lose.” I climb behind the wheel and pull back onto the road. “And desperate men make mistakes.”
“Where are we going now?”
“The safehouse. You need proper stitching, antibiotics, fluids and rest. The cabin is off the grid and full of weapons, exactly what we need to plan the next move.”
Three miles from Lambert’s Cove, I get a text from an unknown number.
My blood runs cold as I read it.
“What is it?” Brandon asks.
I show him. The message on my screen is two words.Nice try.“It’s from Ashford. It has to be.”
Ding! Another text comes through. An image this time. My hands shake as I open it.
“What the fuck?” Brandon whispers.
It’s Birdie. Naked. Tied and pinned to a table like a butterfly on display.
Ding!Told ya she’ll be mine. Only mine.
CHAPTER 22
Butterfly Man
She’s the altar and the sin. I kneel in her shadow and call it salvation, knowing perfectly well she’s the pulse beneath my ruin.
I push inside her sweet pussy, and my eyes roll back with tears. Yes, I’m crying. In loving her, I’m the echo of everything I’ve ever wanted, finally answered. She can’t see my tears behind the mask. She can’t know how much I’ve missed her.
“When I’m inside you, I’ve never been this close to peace…or madness. Maybe they’re the same thing.”
“Don’t you fucking dare quote me right now.” She bites down on her lip to keep from making that sound, that small, involuntary gasp that doesn’t lie like she does. But I hear it anyway.
Her eyes flutter closed, and I’m done for. I know that move. I’ve watched and studied it hundreds of times. My fingers rub her lips for her, completing her arousal tell.
Her gaze pins me with anger for reading her too easily. That blush of rage makes me harder. I grasp for control. Control is all I have, but she… I push inside her again. Every thrust is a prayer to the only goddess worth worshipping.
“That body of yours…so responsive to me…” I can never get used to the sight of that body or get enough of that energy that radiates off it. When I touch her, it runs through me. She ignites me, turns me on, sets my demons on haywire, and yet makes me human again.
Only with her, I see things,feelthings I haven’t experienced before, emotions I’ve never known I’m capable of.
“Look at us in the mirror and marvel with me,” I whisper as I feel her skin. I wish I could touch her everywhere at once. “You’ve never been this honest. And you’ve never been this mine.”
Her breath flows across my mask. “You’re delusional and insane.”
“You’re the one who made me this way. You wrote the blueprint for obsession and then looked surprised when someone built it.”
“In the depths of a mind insane, fantasy and reality are the same.”
My thumb circles her nipple. “You wrote that in your work-in-progress? Doesn’t sound like you.”
“It’s a song by Slayer.Dead Skin Mask.”
Dead Skin Mask.Is that what she sees when she looks at me?
Abruptly, she sings the song at the top of her lungs.
