The Bad Guy

by Celia Aaron

I kept a look of disinterest on my face, the most-used mask in my repertoire, even though every gear and cog inside me turned and clanked as if I were a machine waking up after a long, dark sleep.

Inhaling her scent, citrus and floral, ignited an even stronger buzz inside me. Like bees building a hive in my brain, each of them humming for me to take my queen.

Right before I lost sight of her, she turned and smiled at me, as if sending me a spark of hope. The spark lit an inferno. It blazed up and promised destruction for anything that got between us. She was mine. Even if I had to steal her.

“You’re deranged.” He smirked, the quirk of his lips cruel. “You aren’t the first to call me that, though I prefer high-functioning psychopath.”

“What if I’m never ready to give you a damn thing?” “You will be.” His smug satisfaction rankled. “You so sure?” “Yes. You and me. The end.” He pulled the blanket up and tucked it around my shoulder. “You’ll see.”

This was a mistake. I knew it in the deepest part of my soul. Deals with the devil always came back to bite. But I’d be damned if he’d burn my one escape—the one place where I could still be me despite the chains he’d wrapped around me.

Another jump in her pulse. Fuck, even her blood turned me on.

“Time?” I stepped back. “Time to accept that I’m a prisoner and what, fall in love with you?” “Love?” He followed me again, refusing to give me any distance. “I don’t know what that means.” His eyes darted to my lips, and a hungry glint flashed in his eyes. “I just know you’re mine.”

“Just let me go.” Her soft plea would have broken anyone else. It had the opposite effect on me. The more she tried to fly away, the harder I wanted to clip her wings. She was the most precious thing I’d ever found.

I shuddered, but not from fear. This had to be textbook Stockholm Syndrome, because his words heated me inside and out.

I’m drawn to your spark of darkness the same way you’re drawn to the ocean of mine. We aren’t magnets pulled together by a weak force; we create our own gravity for each other.”

My semi turned into the hardest erection I’d had in my life. “Do that again, and I’ll be forced to bury my face in your cunt until you learn how to behave.” Please do it again.

You had a white knight, but you were waiting for your monster. Here I am.” He seized on my clit, his tongue lashing it in vicious

“Every bad guy is the hero of his own tale.”

“You know what that caveman thing does to me.” He laughed. “I do. That’s why I’m rather fond of it.”