AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter 8
NIKLAS
“Are you up for a walk today?” I ask her.
The tension between us has shifted, still there, still thick, but different. Although it’s hard to ignore the sexual tension building up. The fleeting glances, the hitched breaths when I pass by a bit too close, the stillness when I look at her… fear is one thing, but this… this fear is laced with lust. I can practically see the hate she carries for herself in her eyes, the conflict in her mind. Either way, I thought that at least on my part it would have subsided… it usually does after you fuck someone, right?
Then why do I feel like I merely glanced into the abyss and now sense this burning need to take a leap? Why do I want more?
After I pulled out of her, she sat there for a few seconds, focused on something deep in her mind, her breaths short yet heavy. When her eyes refocused on the present and she found mine, her demons were peeking through, utterly focused on me.
Fascinating.
I gave her another hoodie, boxers, and an old pair of joggers that look absolutely ridiculous on her short frame, but I have nothing else that could even remotely fit her. Either way, she did not protest, she even thanked me… a strange compliance and I’m not entirely sure how I feel about it.
We ate the breakfast that she cooked for us in complete silence. The tension was thick, but the silence comfortable. The glances we exchanged, even the fleeting ones, were electrifying, like we were both thinking the same things and found no reason to open our mouths to voice them. A silent conversation. A debate…
“A walk?” she asks me, slightly confused.
“Yes. I want to see if I can jog your memory. It’s still early in the morning, if we start now, we can cover quite a bit of ground and maybe get a bit closer to that motherfucker’s location.”
“Because he trespassed on your territory.” She puts her head down. I know this is a dig at me, but I don’t give a fuck right now. The important thing is to catch him.
“You’re mistaking me for someone I am not. I’m not that type of monster, but still a monster nonetheless, and I believe we have already established that I enjoy the fight… and I can easily make you comply.” I don’t blink as I watch her shift from annoyance to fury by the time the last word leaves my mouth.
She shoots me daggers with her eyes, and I swear to the fucking gods that I can actually feel them piercing my body. My skin prickles. I like it.
“Screw you!” she rasps at me as she pushes her chair back forcefully.
She walks off, but I don’t spare her a glance. I don’t fucking have time for this. I wipe my mouth with my napkin, grab the dirty dishes and calmly take them to the sink.
I turn around towards the stairs and she’s there, on the first step, heaving. I don’t stop, I keep walking towards her, watching her body tense, her posture straightening. She waits until the last moment to turn around and walk up the stairs ahead of me. I follow her gorgeous legs as she climbs every step with composure, resisting the urge to touch her as her round hips naturally sway from side to side. If I do… I’m not fucking leaving this house today.
“I don’t have shoes,” she says, stopping me just before I close my bedroom door behind me. I turn around to see her defiant little face looking at me, holding on to what little pride she managed to pry out the depths of her shattered soul.
“I’ll bring you something.”
SUKI
“Whose are they?” I ask him as I study the hiking boots that are just one size bigger, clearly another woman’s. He shoots me a bored look, like there is no damn way he is going to waste time with this conversation.
Rolling my eyes, I pull them over the thick socks that definitely help with the difference in size. I tie the joggers tighter around my waist and pull the thick jacket over the two layers of sweatshirts I’m wearing. The jacket is clearly not his either, it’s probably one or two sizes bigger than my own.
I cringe at the thought of wearing another woman’s clothes, a woman familiar to him if she has hiking boots and a casual winter jacket here. Maybe he has a wife. Or maybe he… had a wife… For the love of god, I really hope he doesn’t have dead bodies buried behind the house as well.
“You need to move your ass faster and stop rolling your damn eyes, because I swear I will make your ass hurt so bad you won’t have a choice but to stay here.”
I raise an eyebrow at him, his gaze on me unmoving, menacing, laced with something that one could mistake as playfulness. Somehow his threat did not sound like the punishment he intended it to.
And that right there is the reason why I got in trouble the first time around when that bastard, Adrien, trapped me.
— ‡ —
Half an hour later, we’re calmly walking through the woods, him in front of me, making a path in the thick snow. I thought it would be colder, but it is actually quite pleasant outside. The sun is shining, the beautiful rays penetrating the crowns of the pine trees where birds are singing, and there is something quite poetic about this image.
“I’m going to take you where I found you, okay?”
When I do not answer, he turns around to give me a scolding look. I know I am acting like a brat, but I do not care right now. Three days ago this type of behavior would not even cross my mind. Adrien beat my personality out of me a long time ago, but with Niklas… well… he brings it out of me. Pushes me to my damn limits and I do not know whether it is intentional or not.
