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.

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,”

“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.”

“One kiss, Mr. Capello. Then you leave,”

I raged at him, demanding he tell me his name, even going as far as to hold a knife to his throat.

“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.”

The pupil in his right eye dilates, consuming the blue of his iris until it’s nearly entirely black. They remind me of yin and yang, and it’s a riveting sight to behold.

He stares at me as if I’m a measly mouse caught beneath his paw and he hasn’t eaten in ages.

A mad woman, he has made me. But if this is madness, I don’t ever want to be sane.

“You’ve never scared me the way you should’ve,” I breathe, my chest heaving and heart pounding. “Whatever gave you the impression that I was a scared little mouse?”

How could Ronaldo rule hell if he makes me see heaven?

“Your forgiveness, my love. I ask it of you,” he rasps. I’m rendered speechless as he plucks at the garter straps clipped to my stockings. “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.”

“You taste like nirvana. I could drown in your pussy.”

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.”

I’m relieved that my sordid love affair will never be discovered. At least not while I’m alive.

“You’ve lost your mind,” I breathe. “Since the moment I saw you,” he confirms.

“Do you have any idea how hard it is to only love you in the dark when you deserve to be loved in the light?”