Phantom (Cat and Mouse, #0)

by H.D. Carlton

I’m not only riveted by her. I’m possessed by a need to have her. And she must be mine.

He’s blind in that eye, and my curiosity piques as to how it happened.

He’s more of a stranger than the man outside my window.

She’s not ready to hear what I plan to do with her—to her. Most of all, she’s not ready to hear that I won’t be letting her go. Not ever.

“He had spit-up on his shirt, and when I was unbuttoning it to help him remove it, he laughed and asked me to promise not to tell his wife.” A tear spills down my cheek, and I quickly wipe it away. “He wanted . . .” I shake my head, unable to finish. Unable to tell his best friend that he pinned me to the bed and fucked me, fully convinced I was a random floozy.

“I just feel a little under the weather today.” Lies. I never used to lie to my husband.

the strange man entered my home again. I’ve lost count of how many times he’s visited now. Many days, he stays outside, watching me from afar. Other days . . . he likes to see me up close.

So, I begged him to tell me, even offered to get on my knees if he’d only whisper it in my ear. And when that didn’t work, I offered him a kiss. Even a touch, of my breasts or . . . or between my legs.

It’s been two months now,

sandalwood and oranges emanating from him. Just a hint of tobacco,

“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,”

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

“Ronaldo.” “Do you want to hurt me, Ronaldo?” “Never,” he answers. “I only want to cherish you, Genevieve.”

“Ronaldo Capello.”

mia rosa.”

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.”

“You’ve been acting suspicious as of late, and as your husband, it is my right to know why.”

“I just want to know what you’re writing,”

“This is the one thing I have for myself, Johnathan. The one thing that is mine and only mine. And you want to invade that because of what? Because you’re more drunk than you are sane and suddenly think it is I who has things to hide? You’ve been hiding truths from me for months! And you have the gall to accuse me?”

“Don’t think I won’t kill every goddamn person in this house to save you from shame. Their blood would be on your hands, all because you can’t keep fucking quiet and take my cock like a good girl.”

“I have a stack of books waiting to be read and a bottle of wine waiting to be drunk,” I say softly. “Those are the only plans I have.”

I’m getting too old to experience something like that, and for a moment, I’m convinced I’m on the verge of having a stroke.

“I am destined to love you from the shadows, mia rosa,” he says quietly. “I will never be more than your phantom.”

“Then what do you want, Genevieve? Because whatever it is, I will grant it to you. At the cost of my heart and my sanity, I will give you whatever you ask of me.” Another tear trails down my cheek. “I—I just want you.” He nods slowly, his teeth clenched and his fists tightened. “So then it is your phantom I will be.”

“A python wrapped around your throat and holding you still for me while I feast on you and fuck you. It would be a dream of mine.”