Predator

by Michelle Heard

  Her hands start to slip from my chest, and I quickly grab them, holding them in place. “I live you.”

  Her eyes dart up to my face, and then I see the confusion wash over her features. “Love is too much like hate. They are emotions that come and go. Life, that’s a different ball game. You get one life. I live you, Cara. You’re my life.”

  Her mouth starts to tremble, but a smile still breaks through. “I am?”

  I press my lips to her mouth and whisper, “You are.”

  She makes the first move, reaching for my shirt. I let her pull it over my head and then she presses a kiss to my shoulder. “Will you show me?”

  “Hell, yeah,” I growl. I lift her off the floor and drop her on the bed, but then I freeze. “No condoms. Shit, I didn’t think we’d need any.”

  She lifts herself on her elbows, and I see the war behind her eyes.

  “Hey, it’s no big deal. We can wait until we’re home.”

  Instead of agreeing like I thought she would, she sits up and pulls her shirt over her head. Stunned, I watch her strip until she’s naked. She scoots to the edge of the bed and takes my belt off, and then my jeans drop to the floor. I step out of them, not so sure of what my next move should be.

  “I’m on the pill,” she says as she presses a kiss to my abs. “I want this with you, Damian. I can’t let the past keep getting in the way.”

  Her small hand wraps around the length of me, and she starts to slowly stroke me. Her eyes drop to my cock, and I watch her face. “I’m done being scared. They were the ones who hurt me, not you.”

  She crawls up my body, placing quick kisses all the way up my chest, and then she presses herself against me. Her mouth hovers over mine as she whispers, “Fuck me, Sam.”

  That’s all the encouragement I need. “Lie back down,” I growl.

  A smile forms around her mouth and she quickly lies back down. I grab her under the knees and yank her to the edge of the bed. I step in between her legs, forcing them open wider with my hips. I press my knees into the mattress, so I’ll keep my balance and then lean over her.

  As I take hold of my cock, her eyes dart down, and she watches as I rub it against her pussy. “That’s right, Gorgeous. Watch me fuck you.”

  I slam into her, hard and fast, and her mouth opens on a silent moan. I take hold of her hips so I can hold her in place, and I start to move. I keep the pace hard, much harder than our first time together. This is how I like it.

  It only takes a few thrusts for her body to submit to mine. She grabs hold of the blanket and lifts her ass from the bed, giving me better access. “Fuck, yes!”

  She throws her head back, and her body starts to convulse against mine, and it makes me thrust as hard as I can. A tiny gasp escapes her as she starts to come. Her whole body tenses and then her eyes find mine, and I watch as ecstasy washes through her. It only takes one more thrust, and then I release, and it feels like heaven as I empty myself inside her.

  As soon as the ecstasy fades, I slip an arm under her, and as I pick her up, she tightens her legs and arms around me. I walk her to the bathroom and straight into the shower.

  I press her back into the wall and whisper, “Drop your legs for me.” She slowly slides them down, and it makes my cock slip out. I open the faucets and then take the soap. I work it into a lather, and then slip my hand between her legs. I gently wash her, and it doesn’t take long for her hips to start moving. I lean into her and slam my mouth against hers. She opens, and I slip my tongue in just as she moans. I fuck her with my hand and tongue until she’s gasping in pleasure.

  This is how I want to see her all the time, lost in ecstasy because of me. I grab her legs and lift her again, and then settle her pussy over my cock. I’ve never done slow… until now.

  I keep the pace slow, every thrust as deep as I can go.

  “Sam,” she whimpers, and it makes me smile that I’m driving her so wild that she’s reached the point of begging me for her orgasm.

  I keep going slow and deep until her nails dig into my skin, and she drags them up my back. I adjust my hold on her ass and then slam into her. A grin spreads over her face as I quicken the pace. It only takes a few hard thrusts for her to tighten her arms around my neck. She buries her face into my neck and starts to chant, “Fuck, fuck, fuck,” as she comes.

  I follow close behind her, and this time my legs almost give out from the orgasm.

  As she drops her legs from my hips, I reach for the soap, but she stops me. “No, wait.”

  She pushes me slightly back and then looks down at her legs. I frown, not sure what she’s doing. Did I hurt her?

  “You okay?” I ask, still slightly out of breath.

  She looks up at me, and a smile spreads around her lips. “I just wanted to see your cum run down my legs.”

  I’m not sure if that’s hot or not, so I just keep looking at her.

  She presses her body to mine and stands on her toes, and then she whispers, “You’ve branded me, Sam. Now you only have to fuck me from behind, and then I’ll only feel you everywhere on my body. I want to feel you, and only you. I want to smell you. I want to taste you. I want you to replace every image until all I see, all I smell, all I feel is you.”

  I frame her face and almost choke up with the overwhelming emotions flooding me. “I live you, Cara, so fucking much.”

  Her smile turns tearful, and she just looks at me with something akin to awe all over her face. “You saved me, Sam Rees. You saved my life, you saved my body, and you saved my soul. You saved all of me.”

  CARA

  We crash early, getting a good night’s rest. Jet lag’s a bitch.

  I wake up to find Damian staring at his phone. He has that serious look in his eyes like shit’s about to hit the fan.

  I take a moment to just look at him. I can’t believe he wants me. It feels surreal that this amazingly beautiful man wants me.

  “Morning,” he says, and then a smile sneaks over his face. “I can feel your eyes on me.”

  “Just enjoying the view,” I laugh, but still blush from being caught red-handed.

  He lies back and turns the phone, so I can see it. He’s looking at a map. “Tom has a strip club here.” He points to a street name and then looks at me. “Do you know the area?”

  I look again and notice it’s not that far from the street I grew up in. I point to Kloof street and say, “That’s where I lived. It’s not that far from there, maybe ten minutes.”

  Damian frowns and then looks at me. “I wonder what happened to your house. Surely your parents had a will?”

  I never even thought of that. “I don’t know,” I whisper, stunned. “Maybe my uncle took it all? I really don’t know.”

  He gets up and then looks around the room. “We need to clean every inch of this room. Make sure we leave nothing behind. We have to steal a car. Please tell me you can drive.” I see a glimmer of worry for the first time, and it makes me scared.

  “I don’t have a license. I had just turned eighteen when the accident happened. I did drive, though. Dad taught me on weekends. But I haven’t driven in a really long time.”

  “Fuck,” Damian hisses. He starts to stalk up and down in front of the bed, and it’s making me nervous.

  “Let’s just go home,” I almost beg.

  “We’ll get the car, and then you’ll have about ten minutes to get used to it before we go to the strip club. I’ll kill him there, and we’ll have to run from there. I’m thinking we could find our way to the nearest gas station and call a cab from there to take us back to the airport. We can sleep at the airport, and then we leave tomorrow.”

  “Damian.” I crawl to the edge of the bed and get up. I go to stand in front of him so he’ll stop the maddening pacing. “We can still go home. We don’t need to do any of that. Just… let’s just go.”

  His eyes search my face, and then he shakes his head. “It’s the only way we’ll be safe. We need to finish it.”

  DAMIAN

  I
stole the ugliest piece of shit I could find. Cara kept shrieking every time a car came down the road, almost succeeding in giving me a fucking heart attack. Note to self: never steal a car with Cara again.

  Oh, and finding an automatic around here is impossible, so that made things a lot harder. It takes Cara about fifteen minutes to drive okay-ish. The car jerks every time she pulls away, and she lets it die once at a traffic light. But, she got us to the strip club in one piece. I tell her to park in the far corner, near the dumpsters. We quickly wipe the car down, making sure we don’t leave any fingerprints.

  “Don’t lock it and leave the keys,” she whispers. “With a little luck, someone else will come along and steal it.”

  “Really?” I ask like a dumbass. “You think so?”

  “This is South Africa,” she shrugs.

  As we walk to the entrance, an African man waves at us and yells something I don’t understand. Cara waves at him and pushes me forward. “He’s offering to watch the car.”

  “How will someone steal it then?” I start to worry, thinking we should get a place to park it where I can cover it up. It will give us more time then.

  “Damian, he’s going to go sit on his ass and get drunk. He won’t stop a thief. It’s fine there.”

  Cara pays the cover charge, and we go in. I’m instantly on guard as I start to search the place for Tom. Tonight is going to turn out shit for me, one way or another. I did lie to Cara, and tonight she might just find out.

  I glance at her. She’s just as tense as me. I spot Tom at a table in the back. He’s not alone. I take a deep breath and take Cara’s hand. “Just play along.”

  “What?” she whispers, and then her eyes grow huge as I start to walk towards Tom. “You’re just going to walk up to him and kill him in front of all these people?”

  “No,” I hiss. “Just look scared as fuck and do what I tell you.”

  “No problem there,” she snips at me. “I’m about to piss myself, I’m so scared.”

  Tom looks over the floor and to the half-naked women dancing before his eyes finally settle on us. Shock registers on his face, and then he waves at the people around them. They get up in a hurry and scatter in all directions, leaving Tom alone at the table.

  When we’re close to the table, he slams a fist down on it, making the glasses rattle. “Why the fuck did you bring her here?”

  “Is there somewhere private we can do this?” I growl, jerking Cara closer. She stumbles over her feet and almost loses her balance, which makes for a good show.

  “Yes… yes.” He jumps up. “This way.” He hurries down a dimly lit passage, and I check behind us to make sure no one is following us.

  Once we’re in the office, I close the door behind us.

  I can’t even look at Cara as the words leave my mouth. “Seeing as you want her dead, I thought I’d deliver an up, close and personal service.”

  “I thought the deal was off,” he snaps at me.

  “Only because she got away from me. But I have her now, so it’s your choice – dead or alive?”

  “Damian?” she whispers, and I just can’t face her. It will totally throw me if I see hurt on her face. Tom has to believe me.

  Tom’s eyes flick from me to her, and then he starts to talk, and my world crumbles around me. “Sorry, Cara, I can’t have you running around. I thought I could, but they’ll kill me.” He looks around the dingy office. “I’ll lose all of this.”

  Disgust wells up in me as I stare the man down. He turns his back on Cara and says, “Just do it quick. I don’t want her to suffer.”

  Keeping hold of Cara’s hand, I walk to the desk. I grab a pair of scissors and then shove her away from me. I lunge at Tom just as he turns to see what’s happening. I plunge the scissors into his gut and watch him sink to the ground. As I kneel down beside him, I catch his horror-stricken eyes, and say, “I’m a cleaner, Tom, not an assassin. I rid the world of filth like you. You think you’re hiring a hitman, but in the meantime, you’re paying for your own death.”

  I yank the scissors out and plunge it back in, right under his ribs, praying I hit a lung. “Fucking hurts being stabbed over and over, doesn’t it?”

  He tries to say something, but it comes out garbled, blood spilling from the corner of his mouth.

  I yank the scissors out again and then get up, watching as the light goes out in his eyes.

  They say hell is where you relive your worst nightmare, over and over. I fucking hope it’s true for this bastard.

  CARA

  I stare at Uncle Tom’s body, and I can’t find a glimmer of relief. I feel a strange sadness, as if I lost more than my uncle.

  I watch as Damian uses Uncle Tom’s shirt to wipe the blood from the scissors before he tucks it into his back pocket.

  My mind can’t get past what Uncle Tom said, that he hired Damian to kill me.

  Damian was meant to kill me.

  He turns to me and avoiding my eyes, he looks around the office. “Did you touch anything?”

  “Kill me? You have to kill me?” I ask, still reeling in shock over that.

  “Not now, Cara. You can freak out when we’re a safe distance away.” He grabs my hand and drags me out of the office. He closes the door behind us and then walks down the dark passage, towards the back. He shoves a heavy door open, and we slip out.

  He keeps walking, just pulling me along, and like an idiot, I follow him.

  It’s a long walk to the petrol garage. One good thing is that there are no police driving past us, which means they still don’t know Uncle Tom is dead, or the police are taking their sweet time.

  When we get to the garage, I have to make the call for a cab. I don’t know how I keep my voice normal as I give the address to the cab company.

  When I’m done making the call, I walk away from Damian. I need some space. I need to think.

  “Cara!” he whispers harshly, quickly catching up to me.

  When we’re out of the light and direct view of people putting in petrol, I swing back to him. “Kill me! You were paid to kill me?”

  “No,” he snaps at me. “I took the job so I could save you!”

  “You didn’t know me. Why would you want to save me?” I cross my arms, feeling totally hurt and lost. “You said you came for me, Damian. You lied.” A sob ripples up my throat. “You lied to me.”

  “I just didn’t tell you the truth, but I didn’t lie when I said that I came for you. When I got your file, fuck, anyone with half a heart could see that you were innocent. I didn’t lie to you, Cara. I’m a cleaner, I’m not a hitman.”

  “What about that girl you saved? Were you meant to kill her, too?”

  “No, she was kidnapped, and I just had to get her back.”

  “But me… you had to kill me.” I don’t know how to process any of this.

  “That’s what Tom wanted. I couldn’t tell you that. Fuck, Cara, you were broken. Telling you something like that would have destroyed you.”

  “Instead, you let me believe that my loving uncle sent someone to help me? Oh wait, you said he paid so you would look after me? That was just another lie.”

  “Yes, to save you the heartache!”

  “What’s the full story, Sam?” I whisper, needing to hear it all.

  He looks around us before his eyes settle on mine again. They are filled with guilt, and I wonder if it’s guilt over the fact that he lied, or because he got caught?

  “Tom wanted you dead. He sent me your details and the first recording. He said to make it quick, to put you out of your misery. He didn’t want you to suffer.” He swallows and then looks at the road. “I pretended to take the job, and when I got you and the memory disks, I figured it was a win. I returned the money he paid, and I closed the account. I would never hurt you, Cara. I just wanted to help you. Yes, I kept things from you, but it was to save you from the pain of knowing who your uncle really was. I didn’t lie when I told you about the mafia. Your father and uncle got mixed up with the wrong pe
ople, and when your father wanted out, they killed him. On the other hand, your uncle didn’t want out. He’s been laundering money and carting drugs for them for years. But then they found out that you got away. I don’t know how. I only know that Tom wanted a quick death for you.”

  “Is that supposed to make me feel better?” I whisper as the tears start to fall.

  “No, but the fact that I never lied about my feelings for you should count for something.”

  He takes a step closer to me, and I quickly wipe at the tears. “I just need some time. I need to absorb all this information.”

  Just then a cab pulls into the garage. I make sure my cheeks are dry as we walk to it.

  The trip back home is a silent one. I suppose I should be happy that we got away. I should feel something after seeing my uncle being murdered by the man I love… the man I hardly know. I think I should feel happy… but I’m not.

  CHAPTER 21

  DAMIAN

  We’ve been back a week. The news shows that they have no suspects for the murder of businessman Tom Smith, but that he was linked to a crime syndicate and it must be a deal that went bad. I ditched the scissors in a trashcan right at the airport. At least there’s no way they’ll find it.

  Everything should be fine, but it’s not. Things are really shaky between Cara and me. I want to hold her. I want to tell her that everything will be fine now, but I know it’s not what she wants.

  She needs distance, and I’m giving her as much space as she needs.

  Like I said, it’s been a week, and it’s not getting any easier. I’ve been keeping busy with odd jobs, but at night the silence is deafening. I can hear it screaming at me.

  The days just roll by, each one as bland as the next. Cara is quiet, and I’m worried that she’ll sink back into depression. The only thing that keeps the worry at bay is the fact that she goes for a walk every afternoon after work. It gives me peace knowing that she’s reverted back to the walk as a way of coping.