Fear You

by B. B. Reid

  “You were there the night of the fair. How wouldn’t he be guilty?”

  “Yes, but so were Dash and Keenan. They actually kidnapped them. Do you think they killed them, too?”

  I was harsher than I had to be. Her face tightened with anger and then uncertainty. I realized that I sounded like Keiran when he played mind games. I didn’t want to be him. Least of all to Willow. I needed to save my aggression for the person who deserved it.

  “Willow, I’m sorry…” She stared down at the floor and took a deep breath.

  “No, you’re right. If Keiran is guilty, then so are they.” Her eyes shined with the sheen of tears as she backed toward the door.

  “Willow, wait, please,” I pleaded, but it fell on deaf ears as the front door opened and closed with her departure. “Shit!” My fingers gripped my hair in frustration.

  I thought to go after her and apologize but knew she needed time. Willow wasn’t someone you pushed when she was hurt and angry. I knew how much she loved Dash despite her claims and wrongfully convincing her that he was guilty of a brutal murder wasn’t something a best friend would do.

  The sound of running water could be heard from upstairs. I remembered the running bath water. I was no longer in the mood for it but now needed more than ever.

  I ran up the stairs, silently hoping the tub hadn’t overflowed. When I made it to the bathroom, I dashed for the knob to shut off the running water only a few inches from spilling over and then let some of the water drain from the tub before plugging it again.

  I stood up and began lifting the hem of my shirt when the sound of the doorbell ringing for the second time tonight stopped me. My feet swiftly carried me out of the bathroom and into the hall.

  I was living one bad cliché after the other. Just when would this hellish nightmare end? For the second time tonight, I was standing in front of my front door with sweaty palms.

  This was it.

  I could do this.

  He was just one guy.

  But he wasn’t just a guy. He was someone who was unafraid to draw out a person’s weaknesses and to use them against them. He was a guy who could make me feel things I never knew anyone could feel. He wasn’t just a guy… but I wasn’t just a girl, either.

  I turned the knob and opened the door to the past ten years. It was waiting for me on the other side with hooded eyes and an imperceptible expression, just as I knew he would be. We stood there gazing at each other, completely lost.

  “I would say I’m surprised to see you, but you’re a lot more predictable than you think,” I said, breaking the ice that started to form from his cold gaze alone.

  “So you were waiting for me?” His eyes trailed me leisurely as a small smile teased the corner of his lips. “I got to say, you’re a little overdressed for the occasion.”

  “Actually, I wasn’t thinking about it. I was just about to bathe. What are you doing here, Masters,” I asked, taking a page out of his book and calling him by his last name. “You aren’t supposed to come near me.”

  “Did you really expect me to stay away after you turned me in and accused me of murder?”

  I took a deep breath and gripped the door tighter for support. “In case you missed it—that was your only warning.”

  His eyes darkened as an indescribable expression clouded his features. I didn’t see his hand move. My grip on the door loosened as he pried my fingers from the hardwood one by one. “It requires a little bite with your bark to get your point across. You don’t confront the monster hiding in the shadows or under your bed without first getting rid of the fear in your eyes. Wasn’t it you who said you preferred a person’s eyes over their words because they told the real truth?” His mocking grin, as he quoted something from my journal, spiked my temperature, creating a heated flush over my skin.

  “Give me back my journal. You had no right to read it and no right to take it.” I hadn’t realized until after I turned Keiran in and had gone home to cry my heart into the pages, it was missing. I knew there could only be one culprit. It was then I realized a photo of me was also missing from the desk, but why would he take them?

  He walked into my home as if he owned the place and closed the door, locking us both in. Without invitation, he moved further into the house and disappeared into the living room. I stomped after him like a two-year-old and saw he had made himself comfortable on the couch.

  “So what could you have possibly said to send your best friend away crying? Your track record is amazing. Some might say you’re a terrible friend.”

  “Go to hell.”

  “Is this the part when I say, ‘I’ve been there’?”

  “This is the part when you get the hell out of my house.”

  “And miss the chance to watch you bathe? Matter of fact, I think I’ll join you.”

  Say what?

  The chance at a witty comeback or scathing remark passed me by when he crossed his arms and lifted his shirt over his head. I was stuck in a state of drooling and muscle clenching as my pussy salivated over the exposed muscles of his abdomen and chest and those arms…

  Keiran’s body was fit for a man, not a teenage boy. It was seriously unfair. “What do you think you’re doing?”

  “The idea of bathing in a bowl full of bubbles never appealed to me before now.”

  I turned on my heel and headed for the stairs. “I’m calling the police,” I warned without looking back. Detective Wilson’s warning was still fresh in my mind. What if my life really did depend on it? Keiran could really hurt me this time.

  Before my feet could touch the first step, I was lifted in the air and staring down at the floor from an upended angle as I was being carted up the stairs. “You can call Detective Daniels and Detective Wilson later. I’ll help you dial.”

  “You son of a bitch, put me down!” I screamed and beat on his back during the short trek to the bathroom where he set me on my feet and began to undress me. My hands slapped at his as he unbuttoned my jeans with an amused expression. That was until I sunk my teeth into his shoulder. He grunted in pain and then gripped me tighter, pulling me in close to him.

  “Is that how you want to play it, baby?” he growled against my lips. The next thing I knew, I was submerged in water, still dressed in my panties and shirt. He actually dumped me in the tub while I was still partially dressed.

  “Why are you here?” I sputtered around the water.

  “I needed to see you, but you aren’t exactly making this visit pleasant for me.” When I growled at him, he grinned back.

  “You saw me, now get out,” I ordered while feeling and looking like a wet dog. “It doesn’t require you taking your clothes off.”

  “Oh, but it might. That depends solely on you.”

  “You’re out of your mind.” He didn’t bother to answer and instead, shed the rest of his clothing. I gritted my teeth in anger even as I ogled him. The way he shed his jeans as he stared into my eyes, called to my baser instincts, and I clutched my thighs together to will the arousal away.

  “It’s not polite to stare,” he cracked. I sent him a glare before turning my face away. I knew the exact moment that he was naked. My nipples hardened and my pussy began the aching pulse I hated but loved so much when he was inside me. “Scoot forward.”

  I did so without hesitation and ground my jaw harder after I had done so. You’re not supposed to obey him, I told myself, but my body had different plans.

  He stepped into the tub and sat behind me. Before I could scramble to the other side, he wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me between his legs. His cock was already hard and pressed against my lower spine. I shivered involuntarily. I wanted to shed my wet clothes from my body and feel his skin against mine, but I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.

  “Relax,” he ordered.

  “No.”

  “Should I make you?”

  I knew what he meant. There was only one thing that made me weak and it was his touch. I couldn’t take his touch and not want t
o give in, so I leaned back against his chest. My head was cradled on his shoulder, and I tried not to think about how good it felt. As we watched each other silently, his thumb brushed my lip briefly before sliding down to grip my neck. I knew it was a warning when his other hand rose out of the water and began to tease the edge of my panties and the skin of my lower stomach. “Take them off.”

  “Why?” The single word trembled on my lips as my hands itched to obey.

  “Don’t worry,” he sneered and gripped my neck tighter, threatening my air supply. “The water will hide how wet you really are for me.”

  I elbowed him in the stomach, and other than a grunt of pain, he stayed perfectly still, watching me and waiting for me to obey.

  “Fine.”

  I hooked my fingers in my panties and pulled them down slowly to aggravate him. The deep chuckle near my ear told me he had noticed, but it didn’t hit its mark. I expected him to issue out some scathing remark or to punish me with his high-handedness, but instead, he lifted my sponge from its hook and squirted body wash on it.

  “What are you doing?” I snapped. It came out a little harsher than necessary, but I was a little on edge. It was becoming a natural state for me. His hand had paused above my breast for a small space of time before he began bathing me.

  “Are you trying to piss me off?”

  “Is it working?”

  “You can say that, however, the end result might not be what you had hoped.”

  “You know nothing about my hopes.”

  “Maybe not,” he whispered low in my ear as he skimmed a finger across my puckered nipple, “but I know you.”

  “It would be kind of hard not to since you made me who I used to be.”

  “Used to be?”

  “I’m not afraid of you anymore, Keiran.” I didn’t miss the brief way his hand froze from rubbing small, soapy circles over my stomach.

  “Oh?”

  “Are you surprised?” I stretched my neck to see his face, not wanting to miss his reaction, but his expression was as closed off as normal. I knew he cared or else he wouldn’t be here. He once told me he needed the control he had over me and would do anything in his power to keep it. So what was I doing?

  “I can’t say I am too surprised considering the reason I’ve been locked up the past two and a half weeks.”

  “I hope you didn’t come for an apology.”

  “I came for much more than that.”

  “I’m not going to sleep with you.”

  “You will if I want you to, and I do want you to, Monroe. So how do I get you to say yes?”

  “I’ve never said yes.”

  “But you have. When I seduced you, when I was inside of you, when I asked you if you needed more…”

  “Semantics.”

  He laughed again, and I couldn’t help but smile at the rare sound. “You’re really adorable when you get like this.”

  “Adorable isn’t—” A shocked gasp escaped my lips when he dipped the sponge beneath the water and skimmed it between my thighs.

  “This reckless behavior of yours is only going to be a major disappointment on your part. You see, I have no intention of letting you go again. I tried, Monroe, and do you know what you did?” He continued to use the rough material of the sponge to stimulate my clit as he growled his words in my ear. I began writhing against him, seeking more and at the same time, wishing I could end the feelings he was stirring within me. “You sucked me back in. Was it on purpose? Did you turn me in because I let you go? Were you getting your revenge?”

  “I turned you in because—” My screech of pain when he wrapped his hand around my throat and squeezed cut off my remark. He never ceased caressing me with my sponge.

  “You know how I feel about your lies, so fucking tell me it was for those two scumbags. I dare you.” He let go of my neck but continued to torture me. “You did it because I hurt you. I hurt you worse than I ever have when I let you go. If I wasn’t so angry, I would say I was impressed.”

  “Keiran, you killed—”

  “Let’s play a game of don’t talk until I tell you to.”

  “Bite me,” I spat. I didn’t intend for him to take me so literally.

  His teeth sunk down on my cheek and wouldn’t let go no matter how much I begged and cried. The pulsing between my legs increased as he continued to use the sponge against me.

  “Keiran, please. You’re hurting me.”

  “I want to fucking hurt you,” he said when he released my cheek. “I want to hurt you and make you scream.”

  “Oh, God.”

  “Just let go.”

  “I can’t,” I whimpered.

  “You will. Come for me.”

  “Keiran, please don’t do this to me.” I pressed against his hand, creating waves in the water around us.

  “Should I give you my dick instead?”

  Yes, please.

  When he started to lift his hand, I panicked and grabbed onto him, keeping him there. Together, we stroked me to a volcanic release that had to be the most intense orgasm I’d ever experienced though, with him, it was always intense.

  As I caught my breath, he kissed the spot where his teeth had undoubtedly left marks, and I wondered how I could possibly explain it to my aunt when she returned.

  “Now that you’ve stroked your ego, you can go,” I stated in a dismissive tone. “If that’s all you had to say, you wasted your time.”

  I was up and out of the tub before he could respond and made a dash for the door. I needed to get to my bedroom. Locking him out would do no good, but I had something better.

  Two can play this game.

  I completely forgot about my naked state and ignored the chill bumps that covered my skin by the time I entered my bedroom. Wasting no time, I whipped open the top drawer of my desk, pulled out my purchase from earlier, and waited for him to come after me.

  I didn’t have to wait long.

  Chapter Eight

  Keiran

  I was starting to believe cat and mouse was Monroe’s favorite game. She never missed an opportunity to run from me even though I would always catch her. When she ran from the bathroom like a bat out of hell, I fought the urge to laugh. She did exactly as I expected her to and was pleased to find she didn’t disappoint. I ignored the urge to chase after her.

  Instead, I picked up the sponge I had just used to make her come and took a quick bath. I wasn’t one to take leisurely baths in garden tubs with bubbles and shit, but I did it to mess with her head. It was also an excuse to get close to her and touch her as I had been itching to do since the last time. It seemed too fucking long ago.

  I gave Monroe enough time to find her hiding spot before stepping out of the tub. After a quick towel dry, I stalked out of the bathroom in search of my prey. I didn’t have to search hard. The noise coming from her bedroom let me know where she had disappeared to and that she wasn’t hiding. Her bedroom door was open, and when I stepped in the doorway, my heart actually skipped a beat.

  Son of a bitch.

  Legs spread, feet planted, arms extended, and with a determined look in her eye, Monroe held a gun that was pointed straight at my heart.

  “What is this,” I asked, attempting casualness. I wasn’t afraid. In fact, I felt quite the opposite. My dick had never been harder.

  “I want you to leave and never come back.”

  “Or you’ll shoot me?” I took a step inside the room and closed the door behind me. Confusion appeared on her face when I moved closer. It wasn’t the reaction she expected.

  “That would be why I have a gun pointed at you.” The hard edge in her voice faltered, but only for a moment.

  “Why a gun? Why not call the cops?”

  “So you can get out of it and come after someone else I love? Forgive me, but I don’t have much faith in our justice system anymore. The penal system sucks.”

  “So why not just kill me?”

  “Are you seriously going to tempt the person with the gun?”
/>
  “I’m thinking I should call your bluff.”

  “That would be stupid. Leave and don’t come back. Whether I put you away or kill you, I will not let you hurt me again.”

  “Why the change of heart?”

  It was the picture of a dam breaking as large tears rolled down her face and her hand began to tremble. “Because,” she sobbed. “Because I’m done surviving you. That girl is gone,” she screamed.

  “So who is standing in front of me?”

  “The girl who will fight you even if it takes her last breath.”

  “Then why are you crying, baby?” I took another step toward her, but she didn’t seem to notice.

  “Don’t… don’t call me that, Keiran. Please don’t call me that. You’re just trying to mind fuck me.”

  She wasn’t completely wrong, but she wasn’t entirely right either.

  “You’ll always be mine, Lake.” I took another step. “You can use a gun…” Another step. “You can use a knife…” Just a little closer. “You can fucking kill me, but you’ll always be mine.”

  By the end of my little speech, my chest was pressed against the gun, and I felt her fear. I lifted my hand slowly and flipped the safety off. Her small gasp of breath blew across my neck, and I felt my dick stiffen.

  “So shoot me.”

  Her arm whipped out faster than I’ve ever seen her move. The butt of the gun slapped brutally across my lip, and I could instantly recognize the metallic taste of blood.

  She hit me.

  She fucking hit me.

  The expression on her face told me she was just as surprised as I was, but she recovered quickly and tipped her righteous chin at me in a challenge.

  Fuck. Me.

  “You’re going to regret that.”

  “Somehow I doubt that. What I can’t seem to figure out is why you’re still here.”

  “You fucking hit me.” I thumbed at the moist spot on my lip and peered down to see a bright speck of red coating the tip of my thumb.

  “Are you going to cry about it?”

  “Monroe,” I started but stopped and took a few deep breaths. I was having a hard time controlling whatever the hell was pushing against the surface for a taste of her. Whatever I was feeling, she must have seen when her expression became fearful, and she took a step back. “Have I ever hit you?”