Page 3 of Savagely Scarred

I’ve been watching.

She can’t see me yet, but she will. I move in the shadows once again, like a ghost with unfinished business. I study her routines, her smiles, and the cracks behind her eyes she thinks no one notices.

I whisper to her in dreams. I haunt her reflection. And soon… I’ll be standing right in front of her again.

This time, she won’t get away. This time, the knife will be mine.

She thinks she escaped the monster.

But I’m not a monster.

I’m her creator.

And I’ve come back to finish my masterpiece.

Chapter Two

Olivia

“Stop!”

I shove his chest, but he barely moves. I might as well be pushing against a brick wall. His grip tightens on my hips, and he backs me up against the island counter. Shivers follow the path his stubble makes up my neck until his lips brush against my ear.

“I don’t want to,” he whispers.

“Sage—,” His lips cut off my warning. I nip his bottom lip before pulling back. “They’re going to be here soon, and I need to get dressed.”

He groans with displeasure. “Then maybe you should stop cleaning in nothing but a thin tank top and your underwear. You know they always end up on the floor.”

I narrow my eyes at him. “I get hot when I clean.”

“Yes, and I end up making you sweat afterwards anyway.” His hands slide around and squeeze my ass. “Come on, the door’s locked so they can’t get in until we let them.”

I smile up at him. “Ava knows the code.”

Sage’s eyes close briefly. He sighs in defeat and curses under his breath. “So do the guys. Safety and all that shit. Tell me again why we trust them so much? Because right now, I’m thoroughly regretting it.”

“Because they’re our friends. And you know how Ava is. We can’t just celebrate her birthday on one day. It has to be the entire month,” I remind him with a sly smile.

“Yes, I know. We have to appease the Princess of Brooklyn.”

I flinch slightly at his choice of words and he backpedals immediately, placing his hands on my cheeks.

“Shit. Baby, I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”

“It’s fine.” I swallow and force a smile. “You better get back to the food. No one certainly wants me touching it.”

“We’d have to order take out again.” He chuckles and kisses my forehead.

I wriggle out of his hold and walk out of the kitchen. Sadie bolts from her dog bed in the corner of the living room and attaches herself to my side like a pitch-black shadow as I ascend the wooden staircase. She’s fully grown now, shoving all sixty pounds of herself past me at the top of the steps and takes a right.

Sadie enters the master bedroom first with her nose in the air. Satisfied that I am safe, she jumps up on the end of the king-sized Victorian canopy bed, stretches out and watches me open the double closet doors.

“You know Sage isn’t going to be happy that you’re up there.” I cock an eyebrow at her. She pricks up her ears and tilts her head in reply.

Riffling through my closet, I finally select a deep purple, low cut top. My wardrobe mostly consists of blue and black, but purple is Ava’s favorite color. She’s so anal about her birthday that there’s a dress code for every event. I’m grateful this is just an intimate gathering of friends, and I don’t need to go all out tonight. I’m exhausted.

Sage has been waking me up in the middle of the night for the past week. His dreams are fitful, often resulting in me moving to one of the spare bedrooms. When I had nightmares, he could handle my thrashing, but he weighs about a hundred pounds more than I do.