Stalked by Seduction and Shadows (Eternal Obsession, #1)

by Maggie Sunseri

“Let me in.”

But in another life, maybe a man like Rune would understand just how much this meant to me.

“And then I will demand everything from you. Your secrets, your desires, your needs, and your every last dream. I will make sure you live the life you have always deserved.”

I’d asked for her secrets, and she’d carved into my flesh to pull out mine instead.

“No. The first time you’re fed from will be after you’ve sufficiently begged me to claim you, and I don’t think you’re ready to do that yet,” he said. “Because after I have my first taste of you, no other blood will ever again be satisfying. And I will be addicted to you even more than I already am, body and soul.”

How could my darkness be too much when it stood in the shadow of his?

“Scarlett, my beautiful, helpless toy, I will bring you more depraved ecstasy than you could ever conceive. I will bring you to the edge of your limits, flood you with so much pleasure and sensation that your body will give out, and then I’ll do it all over again. I will find and exploit your every weakness and use them to both satisfy and torment you endlessly. I will fuck your perfect mind even harder and deeper than I will fuck your divine body. I will make you the best, strongest, most powerful version of yourself. I will destroy you and remake you in my image as your Master and God.”

“Let go, Scarlett,” he whispered, as if he were speaking directly into my mind. “I want you to rid your mind of all thoughts but the ones I give you, all will but my own. Right now, you exist only to feel pleasure. You have no other purpose.”

He’d penetrated my subconscious, sneakily digging his roots deep and locking his vines tight around my mental landscape.

“Sometimes, when you’re really excited about something, or you’re deep in that zone you enter in Odessa when you’re working the room—there are these lapses, as if you realize you’ve flown too high. You clip your own wings. You push yourself back down. You reach to cover yourself, to hold back your true thoughts and feelings. No one is ever born with that instinct; that’s something we’re taught.

“There are many people in this world who would love nothing more than to clip your wings. Stop doing it for them. Soar instead.”

Because when I thought she’d died in my arms, I felt my soul reach for hers, and I swore to the gods that hers had reached right back.

Her surprise at my basic decency and respect for her boundaries had me silently going insane all over again. I wanted to gut every man who’d ever made her feel like her body was something she owed, that sexual gratification was the only way to receive comfort or touch.

“You are here, in this room, with me. And there’s no safer place in this world for you.”

“Please, for the love of all gods, never stop making that sound.”

I wanted to crawl deeper inside his mind and shine a light on all of his dark corners. It was a compulsion, a need. And unlike my long list of marks, it wasn’t because of any ulterior motives.

“You’re not alone anymore.”

“My body is a traitor and can’t be trusted.”

“Whoever told you that was dreadfully envious. Second, like I’ve already told you, you are capable of infinitely more than you give yourself credit for. And if worse comes to worse, I have a multitude of tricks to eradicate you of your fright. The only thing in this world you should ever fear is me.”

“I told you I would require all of you, even and especially the pieces of yourself you’ve learned to bury. Fall and I will catch you.”

“I want to be yours.”

“I am yours, Scarlett, here to protect you, serve you, and love you for as long as you desire.”

“I love you, Rune,” I said, and his eyes sparked. “All of you. But especially the parts you save only for me.”

“And you abandoned her in an instant, without hesitation. Without even bothering to hear her out. You made the most heartbreaking moment of her life infinitely more devastating. Today she sobbed in my arms and begged me to cut her powers out of her. She hates who she is, and I fucking hate you for not only allowing it but demanding that level of self-hatred.”