Phantom (Cat and Mouse, #0)

by H.D. Carlton

I’d love nothing more than to be consumed by her words, no matter how they greet me. Whether it’s through those red-stained lips or from her delicate hands. I want to know every facet of her, every centimeter of her—mind, body, and soul.

It’s physically painful for me to walk away from her, but I know that I must. I’m a bad man, but I won’t be her monster. No. I want to be her savior.

If Genevieve is my end, then I open the door to death with no hesitation.

“I told you . . . If you need help, I’m here for you. Whatever you need, anything at all, just tell me. Even if it’s comfort, I can help with that, too.”

creep

“I want you so badly, it hurts to breathe without you near,” he whispers softly, finally—finally—gracing me with his voice.

“Because you possess my lungs, as you do my heart, Genevieve. And I intend to take yours for myself,” he answers, his voice deepening impossibly further.

“I will bleed for you, mia rosa, but I must require you to bleed for me, too,” he warns.

“How sweet,” he murmurs darkly. “You would’ve fulfilled many of my desires if you had.”

I don’t feel like a victim, though. I feel . . . powerful. Like I possess everything this handsome stranger could ever want, and it’s up to me to decide if I give it to him. I quite like how it feels.

“That’s so sweet,” she whispers. “You’re good at holding on to things.” “I am,” I agree. “Just as I will always hold on to you, mia rosa.”

“I call you my rose because for you, I would take all your pain so you would suffer none,” I tell her softly. “I would go through hell for you. Die for you.

Do anything you asked. I love you, mia rosa. More than you will ever know.”

And since I’m beholden to my promise to Genevieve, I suppose the only thing for me to do is spend every waking hour loving her the way she deserves.

“Love cannot define what I feel for you. But I will settle for it with my words and show you what I truly feel with my actions,” he says quietly.

“When you become the ocean, I will gladly sink into you, mia rosa.”

“I would follow you anywhere, Genevieve. If you were standing at the edge of the earth and wanted to fall, I would only stop you long enough to take hold of your hand so I could go with you. There isn’t a life where I wouldn’t be your phantom, or a death where I wouldn’t be your reaper.”

“You think you’ll scare me—that you’ll make me scream. Yet screaming for you is exactly what I would love to do, Ronaldo.”

Truthfully, the sight brings me such immense joy, I’m nearly delirious from it.

“There is little in life I’m deserving of—little that I allow myself to indulge in. Yet you are the crux of all my selfish desires. I would cease to breathe if I could not share air with you, Genevieve. If I can’t live with you, I refuse to at all.”

I lean closer to her ear. “No, mia rosa, not even God can have you,” I growl. “You’re mine, and you will only pray to me.”

“Good boy. You sound so pretty when you beg.”

“If you wanted to rearrange my furniture, you could’ve just asked me.”