But he’d moved and I’d had to let him go. And now, fate had brought him back to me. Except, he felt different than all the others did. Like fate had different plans for him, for me, for us. The need to claim him and make him mine was still there. It just wasdifferent.
Part of me wanted to insert myself into his life. To become invaluable, make him crave me, depend on me,need me. Because fuck knew I needed him.
My head turned to look at my phone, but I refused to go through the pictures again. I’d already memorized them. But the pull to look at the one I knew I shouldn’t have taken was strong, too strong.
I didn’t know what had possessed me to take the photo of Aiden asleep in that bed. He was on his stomach, his perfect ass up in the air as though it were an offering to me. The blanket had been thrown down, barely covering one bitable cheek.
The truth was, I hadn’t wanted to leave him. I’d felt an urge to crawl back into bed and wrap him back up in my arms, and that wasn’t me. So, the photo was the best I could do so that I could keep him with me.
But that was a lie. And I knew it. Because my little bird was under my skin. And he was mine and I wouldn’t let him go. Couldn’t let him go. I’d find a way to get to him and make him mine, whether he liked it or not.
Though, I’d prefer it if he did like it.
Except, he was a cop.
I blew out a breath.
That made things a hell of a lot more difficult for what I had planned.
Tearing my eyes away from the phone, I looked back at thecomputer screen that continued to mock me. The cursor blinked, daring me to type in my search query. My leg bounced as I typed in the name of the hotel I’d been at the night before and pressed enter.
I couldn’t breathe as I waited for the results to load. But as I scrolled through, there wasn’t a lot to be found. I clicked at the top of the news section and let out a sigh of relief to see that while there were articles about the man I’d killed, they were only about his disappearance.
My head fell back against my chair as the tension drained from my body. I still had to worry about Duncan. My brain wouldn’t let me let him go, especially considering I’d let Aiden live. And that would make things more complicated with my little bird, to have two people disappear or be murdered who were connected to the hotel where we had met.
But a disappearance? People disappeared all the time. They were unhappy with their lives, jobs, relationships and just left without a word. Of course, there were times when people like me came around and something happened to them and no one knew.
I wasn’t stupid enough to believe that no one would ever find the young man I’d killed. Especially considering the hotel had been crawling with cops and I’d let Aiden distract me, which meant I didn’t get a chance to get back to him and move him before morning.
Duncan had been too much on my mind, and my plan for him. He’d distracted me that I hadn’t even considered that the hotel would realize they had a staff member missing or that he would have family who would miss him and file a police report. Let alone take the time needed to map out the security cameras and their angles in the corridors. For all I knew, they could have caught me with him and then I’d really be fucked.
The itch, the overwhelming, consuming need to slide my knife through flesh hit me like a freight train. I wasn’t sure if itwas because I hadn’t taken out my intended target the night before or because so many things seemed to be spiraling out of my control.
I needed to find a way to rein it all in or things could end very badly for the people around me. People I had no intention of hurting.
But, for now, I did have a name on my list who could sate the beast within me.
After ignoring my phone for so long, when the text tone went off, it made me jump in surprise. I sucked in a breath and let out a low chuckle as I picked it up. As soon as I read the message, I let out a groan and wished I’d decided to ignore it.
Christian
When are you going to spill on the new guy?
Fuck. Why did I ever tell Christian anything? I still didn’t know what had possessed me to tell him I’d hooked up with someone the night before. It was none of his business.
But I knew why. He’d started to get clingy. To hint about picking up where we’d left off and that was never going to happen. And I’d been desperate to find a way to let him down that didn’t involve a knife to his gut.
There’s nothing for you to know.
You have a job to do, so do it. I expect a full report on the zoning for the condos by the end of the week.
I hoped he got the hint and left well enough alone. He was decent enough of a friend, I supposed. Not that I had much experience in that department. Even if I thought Christian wasn’t trying to get in my pants and had a genuine interest in where things with Aiden were going, I didn’t think I could give him any information.
Mostly because I had no idea myself. He had me all up in knots, though. That much I knew.
FuckingDaddy.
I leaned back in my chair and looked up at the ceiling, searching for answers when I wasn’t even sure what the questions were. I had no idea what had possessed me the night before. I’d never been into any sort of Daddy kink or age play before. I still didn’t think I would be into any age play. But something about being my little bird’s Daddy, it sent a shiver down my spine.
