Haunting Adeline (Cat and Mouse Duet Book 1)

by H. D. Carlton

  “Maybe I’m not,” I retort.

  “Maybe you’re in denial.”

  I tighten my lips, refusing to answer.

  He smiles knowingly, and the sight is devastating. While I’m busy having a mini heart attack, he pulls me in close, wrapping one arm around my waist while his other hand cups the back of my neck. His minty breath fans across my face, caressing my lips like a light breeze in the spring.

  “What are you feeling right now?” he asks softly.

  My breathing escalates. “Confined.”

  “Trapped?” he volleys back. My mouth tightens because while a part of me wants to say yes, the truth is that I don’t.

  I feel… safe.

  Protected.

  Treasured.

  “One day, you will realize that you are not trapped in a prison,” he murmurs roughly. “You are in my church where I am your God, and you are my equal. I’m not a jail, little mouse, I am your sanctuary.”

  My mouth dries. The tip of my tongue darts out, wetting my bottom lip and swiping across his lips. Just a brush, but enough to light a spark. An answering growl arises as I ask, “Does that make me a goddess?”

  He pulls me impossibly closer, his lips now pressed against mine lightly. “Baby, you rule the fucking kingdom, and I will gladly bow to you.”

  I let him ensnare my lips between his in a vicious kiss before pulling away, my breath left behind. He goes to recapture them and growls when I evade him once more. Keeping my mouth dangerously close, I whisper against his tongue, “Prove it.”

  “Mmm,” he hums, the sound of a beast growling from the depths of darkness. “I do love getting on my knees for you,” he murmurs, nipping at my lips playfully. This time, he’s the one to evade me, instead biting and licking until I’m bristling with need.

  He only teases for a few moments before his mouth is crashing on to mine. The inferno in my body escapes from my throat and ignites our connected lips. Without thought, I arch into him, desperate to feel more of him against me.

  His lips move over mine with raw hunger. He doesn’t just kiss me. He fucks my mouth with his tongue. Traps my lips between his teeth and bites. Explores every inch of my mouth as he devours me.

  And I let him. I let him consume me because I’m beginning to forget what it feels like to be whole without Zade. He’s in every part of me.

  I plunge my hands beneath his hoodie, clawing at his stomach and allowing myself to explore a body I’ve explored far too much.

  A body I haven’t explored nearly enough.

  My fingers drift over his abs, familiarizing myself with the hard divots while he takes over my mouth once more. My nipples scrape against his chest, and I can’t stop the moan that releases from my throat. The sound swirls in our mouths, and he rewards me with a harsh nip to my bottom lip, dragging the sensitive flesh between his teeth before letting it go with a pop.

  He rears back and looks down at me, his eyes slowly taking in my naked form. The wet strands of my hair, now darkened to a mocha brown, are snaked all across my chest and the seat beneath me. Tendrils curl across my breasts and around my nipples, a sight his eyes snag on and can’t seem to look away from.

  “Your turn,” I whisper. His eyes drift back to mine and hold. He doesn’t look away, even as he lifts up and slides the hoodie over his head, exposing his bare torso.

  I suck in a sharp breath, the tattoos covering his corded muscles and the various scars are a sight to fucking behold.

  I want to know the story behind those scars. And wanting to know anything past how hard he’s going to make me come is terrifying.

  But I’ve always loved that feeling. I’ve always craved more of it.

  After some maneuvering, he kicks off his boots and socks and manages to wrangle his wet jeans down his legs. It’s a moment that would usually feel awkward, but with Zade, it only dries my mouth as he exposes his glorious body to me, inch by inch.

  Chests pumping in tandem, we look each other over, our eyes thirsty as he settles back between my legs—this time, with nothing between us.

  His mismatched eyes pin me against the seat. I couldn’t move if I wanted to.

  And that’s the problem. I don’t want to.

  I love the way his fiery orbs trace over my body, like a paintbrush tracing the curves of a woman on a canvas. The wetness pooled between my legs is becoming too much—too heavy.

  Too painful.

  The quick fuck against the tree only took the edge off while simultaneously ramping up our need to toxic levels.

  “I’m waiting for you to bow,” I taunt in a husky whisper.

  His eyes dilate and his nostrils flare. My words hang in the air like the oxygen has been sucked out of the room. A tense pause, and he snaps.

  He grabs my biceps and yanks me up. Turning me towards the gap between the driver and passenger seat, he directs, “Bend over between the seats.”

  I do as he says, keeping my knees on the backseat bench while I fit my body in the small gap between the two seats, planting my hands on either side for balance.

  Zade leans forward, grabbing the seatbelt on the passenger side and looping it around my body before clicking it in the driver’s side buckle.

  “What are you…” He shushes me, repeating the process with the driver’s side seatbelt. When he’s finished, I’m completely strapped in place, unable to move. It does allow me enough leeway to turn my head and look back at Zade.

  Like a king on a throne, he sits on the bench behind me, arranging himself between my legs so my ass is directly in his face. Butterflies hatch in my stomach at the sight of Zade sitting behind me, his legs splayed wide and his hard cock jutting up past his belly button. From this angle, I have no idea how it ever fit inside me.

  He grins at me. “I’m too big for this car, baby, so this is the closest I can get to bowing right now. But I’ll be sure to get on my knees for you later.”

  And just like in the House of Mirrors, he lifts my ass up until my knees are no longer grounded, the seatbelts digging into my sensitive flesh, and feasts on my pussy like a starved man.

  Like I’m his last meal, just as he asked me to be not too long ago.

  My eyes roll as his tongue laps up my cunt, circling my clit and spearing into my opening. It’s too much—too good. I force myself to find something to focus on, to draw out the pleasure. My gaze locks on the fogged windows, the trails of rain marring the clouds. I try to concentrate on the millions of splashes against the glass. Or how the rain is falling so hard, it rivals the husky moans falling from my lips.

  But I lose focus, and it all fades to black as his teeth join in, sucking and biting before easing the sting with his tongue.

  “Fucking nirvana,” he murmurs before suctioning my clit into his mouth. I cry out, pleasure consuming me whole. And he’s right. The way Zade eats pussy is nirvana.

  It doesn’t take long before his tongue lashes at my clit in just the right way that an orgasm explodes out of me before I can process it.

  My screams echo in the confined space as he swallows everything I have to give him. And then he’s unbuckling both seatbelts and jerking me backward until I’m on my back, and he’s crowding over me again.

  Our bodies clash, and with fluidity, he lifts my body against his. My legs encircle his waist while my hands seek balance from his broad shoulders.

  Our eyes stay locked, even as my pulsing core presses against the rigid length jutting between my legs. He snarls, his lip curling ferociously at the feel of my heat enveloping him.

  My eyelids droop, and with an ease I never knew I possessed, I grind my hips against him, spreading my juices across his cock.

  His hand shoots up, curling into my wet hair and pulling tightly. My head cranes backwards from the pressure, but my eyes don’t leave his near-feral face. His teeth are bared, and the blackness starts to consume his one white eye. Darkness bleeding into purity—tainting it.

  Just like he’s done to me.

  Without warning, he pulls h
is hips back and pushes all the way inside, nearly tearing me apart from the force. My mouth drops from the stretch. Fucking me against the tree and then making me come again just now still couldn’t loosen me enough to fit him inside of me comfortably.

  “Remember this moment,” he growls deeply, withdrawing to the tip before pushing deeper inside of me. “Because the next time I fuck you, you will be deeply in love with me, Adeline. I’m your stalker and a murderer, and you will love me anyways.”

  And then he pulls back once more before he sinks himself to the hilt, hitting the spot inside me that has my eyes threatening to cross.

  “That’s not true,” I pant. When his eyes flare, I continue, “Did you think this was the only time you would fuck me tonight?”

  He growls, his lips pausing a hair’s breadth away.

  “What did I say, little mouse? The next time I fuck you, you will be in love with me.”

  The car rocks from the force of his next thrust, and the scream that rings out from my mouth is both embarrassingly loud and a sound I have never made before. I thought porn stars only made those noises—completely fabricated and practiced screams. But when he continues to drive into me with the force of a bull, those screams continue to fall from my throat, growing louder and hoarser each time.

  The rain falls mercilessly, the loud pings from the raindrops only accentuating the sound of skin slapping and the wet noises Zade is drawing from my pussy.

  My nails score across his chest, and if he’s so sure that I will fall in love with him by the time this is over, then I can be sure that I’ve added new scars to his collection.

  The answering growl is feral and vicious. And all it does is heighten the pleasure radiating from where our bodies connect.

  His arm circles around my waist, and in one swift motion, he lifts me up and twists us, so he is sitting on the seat again while I straddle his lap.

  When he grabs my waist and yanks me down on his cock, my eyes pop open wide. This new angle has him far deeper than before—a lot deeper than I thought my body was capable of taking.

  “Zade!” I gasp, my nails now digging into his shoulders.

  “Ride me, baby. I want to feel your pussy grip every inch of my cock.”

  “Fuck, I can’t,” I groan, my body still working to adjust to the sheer size of this man.

  “You have five seconds before I rearrange your organs,” he threatens. It does the job, kicking my ass into high gear and immediately rising up and sliding back down slowly.

  After a few different readjustments, I finally find an angle that allows me to completely seat myself on Zade without feeling him come up my throat. With this new angle, he hits that perfect spot he was abusing moments before.

  My teeth chatter, my nails digging deeper as my movements quicken.

  Zade draws me in, bringing my body flush with his. One arm curls around my waist while the other hand tears through my wet hair, yanking my head to the side and giving him access to devour my neck.

  I cry out, my hips moving frantically and erratically as his teeth bite the sensitive skin below my ear. My nipples scrape against his chest, sending delicious shivers straight to my pussy.

  “That’s it, baby,” he croons into my ear. “Your sweet little pussy is gripping my cock so fucking tight.”

  The arm that was curled around my waist is now wedging between our bodies until his thumb reaches my clit. My head kicks back as I let out a feral cry of my own. My eyes are rolling, and I can hardly breathe past the orgasm curling in my stomach.

  It’s too much. Too powerful. My movements grow choppy and uneven as my core tightens unbearably.

  “Zade,” I grind out through clenched teeth, sweat forming on my forehead. I don’t know what I’m asking for, but I think I know what I need.

  The salvation he so steadily promised me.

  The hand in my hair grips tighter until strands are ripping from my scalp. His fiery eyes catch mine, holding me hostage as I climb higher and higher—to a cliff far beyond Parsons Manor’s. The one and only cliff I wouldn't mind jumping off of, even if I never get back up again.

  “Let me feel you fall in love,” he whispers.

  I can no longer hold on. My vision goes dark, the pleasure blinding and dynamic as the orgasm rips through me, tearing everything in my body to shreds. My fight, my willpower, and my goddamn heart.

  I scream so loudly, my throat grows hoarse.

  “Fuck, Addie!” Zade shouts, and my vision clears enough to watch his own head kick back, the veins in his arms bulging and traveling all the way up to his neck. He bares his teeth, a roar that can only come from the depths of Hell vibrating throughout the car.

  His cock becomes impossibly thicker before he grabs ahold of me with both arms, forcing me to still as he spills inside of me.

  “Fuck, Addie, fuck,” he grinds out through clenched teeth, each word punctuated by a thrust of his hips. My pussy milks him dry, wringing out every last drop until I’m impossibly full of him. His seed nearly bursts from me when he pulls out, the thick semen streaming down my legs like the raindrops on the windows.

  Our heavy breathing and the pounding of my heart is the only thing left to listen to.

  The rain has subsided to a light trickle, as if to mock me. Because when it was pouring, I was calm and sure of my resolve while the world around me was howling and raging. I wanted him—craved him—but I was certain I would never love him. And now that the rain has calmed, my resolve has shattered, and I’m left with a screaming heart and a silenced world.

  Chapter 35

  The Shadow

  S he’s nervous. Fidgety. Whereas before, she could hardly look at me out of fear and hatred, and now it’s because she remembers how many different positions I fucked her in last night.

  My dick legitimately hurts. I don’t think I’ve ever fucked so much in one night, but I’d keep going if it wouldn’t literally send me to my knees if I got hard right now.

  I bowed for Addie several times last night, worshipping her pussy just like I promised. But this time, I’d be bowing from pain and praying for my dick not to fall off.

  Addie and I are leaning against the railing on her balcony. It’s an unusually warm day as we near winter, so we both decided to enjoy it.

  She sips her coffee, her hair tangled and frizzy from last night and blowing gently in the breeze. I think my hands were in her hair so often, the strands had dried while wrapped around my fingers.

  We stayed up until dawn with either my cock, fingers, or tongue filling up one of her holes at all times. We only managed a couple of hours of sleep before my phone started ringing.

  Another video was leaked last night, and my headspace is too fucked up to work the tension out of Addie’s muscles.

  Dan had said they believed they apprehended the person leaking the videos, but they were obviously wrong. Whoever they are, they’re incredibly fucking brave, and I’m very curious how the hell they’re doing it with the Society watching.

  I was at Savior’s yesterday, which means the video could’ve been from the same night I attended. The very same goblets used in the videos were used that night… and now I’m sure they were filled with an innocent child’s blood.

  While I was drinking overpriced whiskey, shooting the shit with a man I have grown to loathe, a kid was dying, his blood draining into chalices for deranged men to drink.

  Buzzing energy forms beneath the surface and it takes effort to keep my bones from jumping out of my skin.

  I need to get away from Addie.

  Because if she gives me attitude or her usual hatred, I don’t think my response will be what she deserves.

  Sensing my growing anger, she sets the coffee cup down on a little table with a dead plant on it.

  I point at it. “Baby, if you can’t keep a plant alive, how are you going to keep our babies alive?”

  She smacks my chest. “Calm down, Zade. No baby talk, I don’t even like you like that.”

  I grin, but her express
ion turns contemplative, a tiny frown tipping the corners of her lips down as a crease forms between her brow.

  “Do you ever wonder about Gigi and her stalker and find it strange? Maybe even far-fetched?”

  When I tilt my head, signaling my confusion, she licks her lips and starts fiddling with the belt on her purple robe.

  “You already know my great-grandmother had a stalker. One that she fell in love with. And now so do I. Living in the same house and…”

  “Falling in love?” I finish for her, keeping my face blank so she’s sure I’m not teasing.

  She glances at me and gives a slight lift of her shoulders, but she doesn’t deny it. Cop out, but I let it go.

  “It just seems crazy and… I don’t know, impossible, I guess.”

  I lean down on the railing and tilt my head up until I catch her eyes. Once they snag onto mine, they’re anchored. The breeze ruffles her hair again, the cinnamon strands dancing in the wind.

  “Do you think you’re a reincarnation of Gigi, Addie? And that I’m a reincarnation of Ronaldo? We'll never really know, will we? It’s highly unlikely but not impossible. But I can’t say I don’t like the idea of it.”

  A little snarl takes over her face. “You just like the idea of stalking me for several lifetimes.”

  This time I do smile, and the dilation of her eyes has my cock growing stiff.

  Fuck, stop it. It hurts.

  But when her tongue darts out, wetting her lips, I no longer give a fuck about the pain.

  My hand snaps out, grabbing the back of her head and bringing her in close. She gasps, her pink lips parting, and in this moment, all I want to do is slip my cock past them and watch them wrap around me. I’d walk on glass if it meant getting to fuck Addie’s mouth again.

  She struggles, but I hold her steady, her hands planted on the railing to support her weight. Her purple robe is draped open, but not enough to expose the bite marks I left last night on her tits.

  “You’re right. I do love the sound of watching you for lifetimes.” I drop my voice low, as deep as I want to shove my cock inside her. “I also love the possibility that I have fallen in love with you in each life. Fucked that sweet pussy of yours and made you fall in love with me as much as I am with you. What did I tell you, little mouse? That you couldn’t escape me. If it’s real, then I’ve chased you across time and space, and you’ve never been able to get away.”