Phantom (Cat and Mouse, #0)

by H.D. Carlton

“What’s your name?” I ask again breathlessly. “Ronaldo.” “Do you want to hurt me, Ronaldo?” “Never,” he answers. “I only want to cherish you, Genevieve.” “How do you know my name?” “I know everything about you. Just as I know you will love me, too.”

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

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.

She plagues my mind, infecting it like a parasite and overriding any autonomy over myself. My free will is indebted to her, and without her, I am nothing.

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.

Just for me, baby?

Daisy is still my best friend, and though she lives a few hours away now, I tell her everything. Except about my phantom. It’s the first time I’ve kept a secret from her, and I feel awful about it. Not only because I feel like I’m lying to her for the first time, but rather, if this man ends up hurting me, I will have made it easy for him to get away with it. I’m such a fool.

There’s no physical evidence he was ever here. Yet I feel his presence so strongly, he may as well have left his soul behind. And my God, I fear how badly I hope he stays.

His smile made my heart stop in my chest.

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

“I want you so badly, it hurts to breathe without you near,”

“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.

“I only want to cherish you, Genevieve.”

When he kissed me, I flew into the stars. I don’t think I’ve come back down yet.

“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.”

“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,”

“You look absolutely divine today, my love,”

“Ravishing,” he breathes. “Nothing could compare to the likes of you, my love. You are the most beautiful flower and the rarest gem, more breathtaking than any of earth’s wonders.”

“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.” He places his hand flat on my chest, keeping me at arm’s length. “If you tried to run away from me, I don’t think I’d let you. I would do . . . anything to make you stay. And there are moments where I feel . . . Where there are things that I want to do to you that might cause you to run. And I’m afraid of that, so I walk away first.”