by JA Huss
Could my experience have happened in my head last night, and nowhere else? Am I nothing more than the residual effects of my life that came before Thomas?
I decide to change the subject. “Why was I at the hospital?”
“To kill me,” he says.
“But you already said I can’t kill you. Wouldn’t these people know that?”
“I’m sure they figured they had a way past my protection. My power. Perhaps Yasmine’s drug wasn’t in their plans.”
“But if she’s on their side—”
He points his finger at me. “Maybe she’s not. Maybe we have two enemies, Sadie? Ever think of that? Maybe what Yasmine did was not part of their plan. And that drug she gave me unleashed the power of my mind. A power I’ve held tightly in control since I walked out of that burning Prodigy building fifteen years ago? Maybe,” he says, “what Yasmine did went against what they were doing.”
A flashing red alert races through my mind. Abort! Abort! Abort! I put my hands to my head, trying to make it go away.
“You remember something?” Thomas asks, a gentle hand on my shoulder.
“Yes,” I whisper. “Something flashing across my eyes. The word ‘abort’ in red letters.”
“See,” he says, like I just confirmed his theory. “Prodigy sent you, but they didn’t expect Yasmine to unleash me. Maybe you can kill me, Sadie. Or could, I should say. Maybe before Yasmine released my mind from the grip of the drugs I’ve used to hold it prisoner, you had that power. But it’s gone now. I assure you. It’s gone now. I am the most powerful weapon to ever come out of a Prodigy School.”
Until me, I think.
And I have no idea where that came from.
But like everything else popping into my head today—I know it to be true.
“We’d make a good team,” he says, grabbing the arm of my office chair and pulling me closer to him. “Think about it. They wouldn’t send you if you weren’t powerful. Mentalist is the most powerful weapon they can produce from the kids. But illusionist is pretty powerful too. We’re perfect, Sadie. We’re practically meant for each other.”
His hand is back on my cheek. Softly stroking me as he looks down into my eyes. When I don’t stop him, he leans in. His soft lips brush against mine, just like in the nightmare last night.
I kiss him back this time too. I wait for his wandering hand to slip between my legs and make me feel the pressure of his fingers against my sex.
But he just pulls back. Smiling. “See,” he says in a soft, low voice. “See how perfect we are?”
I bite my lip and inhale deeply.
“We can change things, Sadie. We can make them pay for turning us into little science projects. For stealing our childhoods away. Taking our innocence. Us,” he whispers as his mouth covers mine once again. “We are the enemy they’ve been waiting for.”
I give in. Hell, who am I kidding? I practically melt against him. I want more. I want him to touch me again. I want him to take what he wants and not ask for permission. I want him to control me the way they did. I want my submission to set me free.
“I need it,” I whisper.
“What?” he answers back. Kissing me one more time. “What do you need?”
But I can’t say it out loud. I can’t admit what I really want. So I say, “A friend.”
“I’ll be your friend, Sadie. Just trust me. We’ll be good together, I promise.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN - THOMAS
My face is still right up next to hers. I can hear her heart beating. Feel her chest rising and falling as she considers my offer.
“I don’t even know you,” she finally says.
“What more do you need?” I ask. And I’m serious. “We’re products, Sadie. We were created. Molded into what they wanted us to be. We’ve been through the same things. Were brought up by the same people.”
“You don’t know that,” she says. “We came from two totally different places. You have no idea how I grew up.”
“Neither do you,” I retort. It’s kind of a low blow, but that doesn’t make it untrue.
“Right,” she says, placing a hand on my chair so she can push away and create some distance. “But I will soon. You said so. I’ll remember and I have a feeling that there’s a very good reason they sent me to confront you.”
“Confront me?” I laugh. “That’s a nice way to put it. They sent you on a suicide mission.”
“I don’t care about that right now.”
“You should.”
“Like I said, I’ll remember eventually. It would be stupid for me to make that kind of promise to you before I know all the facts. You’re not a good guy, Thomas. And before you say the same thing right back to me, I’m not the one trying to manipulate the entire town. And I’m not the one hiding things. I don’t remember who and what I am. But you know exactly who and what you are. And you won’t tell me. There’s something… wrong with you, I think. Something big.”
“Like what?” I laugh.
“I don’t know,” she says, standing up from her chair. “I don’t know. But I think I’m going to leave now.”
“No,” I say, getting to my feet so fast, my chair goes sliding across the floor.
“You don’t own me, Mr. Brooks.” But she’s not moving towards the door. She wants a reason to stay and so far I haven’t given her one.
“What do you need to know?” I ask. “What can I tell you to make you stay? I think if you just wait it out, Sadie, if you just give yourself a chance to stabilize, you’ll see that I’m right. They want you dead. I want you alive.”
“You want to use me just like they do.”
“No,” I say, frustrated. “That’s not what I want. I want a partner in this.”
“In your world domination plans? No, thank you!”
We stare at each other for a few seconds. I take her in. She hasn’t changed yet. And she hasn’t showered. She’s a mess. There’s still a smudge on her arm from the destruction I caused at the hospital yesterday. There’s a rip in her stolen shirt proclaiming her name to be Phil. She has those stupid work boots on.
I want to see her. Really see her. And I know she’d feel better if she just cleaned up and took a breath. Got a good night’s sleep.
“I want the truth from you. I want to know why you were in that hospital. Because I think you were there for a very good reason. I think you’re crazy.”
“Look, I want to know all about you too, Sadie. I want that as well. But you’re still wearing that stupid uniform. And you need a shower. How about you clean up, put on something else, and then come back out here and I’ll make us lunch. After lunch, if you still want to leave, I’ll take you wherever you want to go.”
She hesitates. She’s close to a yes. I know this because her eyes dart to the bathroom door on the other side of the room. But something is holding her back.
“Sadie,” I say, walking towards her. “Come on. You can’t just walk out of here on your own. We’re in the forest. You have no car. Just take a breath, for fuck’s sake. Relax.”
“I want to know why you were there,” she insists.
“Fine,” I say, putting my hands up. “Fine. You clean up, we’ll have lunch, and we’ll talk. Fair?”
I smile at her indecision. It’s not exactly fake. I really do think she’d rather leave. But something is holding her here. Maybe it’s me?
I walk over to the bathroom, flick the light on, and run the water for the shower. “Come on,” I say, beckoning her with a finger. “You’ve been here for two days almost. What’s thirty more minutes?”
She looks longingly at the steam rising up around me. Her hair is dark, her skin is probably olive when she’s feeling good, but right now, it’s a little gray. And there are the beginnings of dark circles under her eyes. She really does need rest. She’s pretty now, but cleaning up and wearing something that actually fits would go a long way towards making her beautiful.
“I’ll get your clothes,” I say, walking back over to th
e kitchen where her bags are.
When I turn around, she’s inside the bathroom. Crisis averted.
But it won’t be enough. I can’t tell her more about me until I know more about her. So what else could I do to put all those flashing red flags running through her mind to rest?
Well… there’s always the oldest trick in the book.
I follow her into the bathroom with her bags, set them down in the corner, and grab two towels from the shelf and place them on the vanity.
She stares at me. Says, “Thank you.” Stares some more.
I reach behind my neck and drag my t-shirt over my head. Drop the shirt to the floor.
She’s staring at me. “What are you doing?”
“I need a shower too. And we only have so much water.”
She starts shaking her head, but I walk over to her and start unbuttoning that stupid work shirt.
Her chest is rising and falling rapidly again. Just like it was when I kissed her.
“Stop me if you don’t want it, Sadie. I’m not gonna force you.”
Her eyes dart up to mine. “You did last night.”
“That was a fucking nightmare.” I sneer. “That wasn’t me. You need to get your head around reality.”
“It felt real.”
I finish unbuttoning her shirt and open it up, revealing a tight sports bra. God, I bet her tits are spectacular once I take that awful binding off. Two soft flicks of my fingers make the shirt slide down her arms. It drops to the floor at our feet.
I wait to see if she’ll stop me, but she just stares up into my eyes with something that might be a mixture of fear and longing.
I grab the edge of the thick stretchy fabric of her sports bra, but her hands clamp down on my wrists before I can pull it up and expose her tits.
“Wait,” she says in a weak voice.
“Why?” I ask.
“I don’t know if I want to do this,” she says, almost breathless.
“You do,” I say. “There are as many ways to say no as there are to say yes, Sadie. If you didn’t want this, you’d have stopped it before it started. I won’t fuck you if you don’t want it. But I’d like to look at you, at least.”
She’s silent again, so I take that as permission and finish what I started. The bra comes over her head. I absently throw it aside as I stare at her body. “Now the pants,” I say, going for her button.
She lets me this time. No argument. They’re barely being held up by that button and the moment it’s released, they fall over the curve of her hips and join the shirt on the floor.
I grin at her body. “You’re very pretty.”
She says nothing so I kick off my boots, release the button on my jeans, and step out of them. I’m not hard, but she stares at my cock. I can almost feel her want. And then she blushes. Color rushes back into her cheeks in an instant.
I place my hand on her flushed face and say, “I like that reaction.”
She turns away from me and steps into the running water.
I won’t fuck her.
I’ll try not to fuck her.
Who am I kidding? I’m totally gonna fuck her.
I step in beside her, letting her have the water first. She closes her eyes and wets her hair, letting the water stream down her face. The heat takes the rest of her gray pallor away, flushing her cheeks with pink, and she looks a hundred times better immediately.
When she’s wet, she steps out of the shower stream and I take her place.
I cannot stop the grin as she watches me. I’m a nice specimen of a man. No one can deny that. My body is hard and lean. My shoulders broad and strong.
She doesn’t even try to stop her stare.
“We would make a great couple, Sadie.”
“Couple,” she says with a frown. “I thought you said team?”
“Same thing,” I reply, picking up the soap and washing my arms. She misses nothing as I drag the bar up and down my muscles, leaving behind a froth of bubbles. “I’d rather be washing you, but…” I shrug. “I said I wasn’t gonna fuck you if you don’t want me to, and if I got my hands on those breasts of yours, I don’t know if I could stop myself.”
I think she wants me. Pretty bad. But she’s not giving in that easy. And I’m not going to take that decision away from her. I want her to work for it, anyway. I might even want her to beg. Beg me to fuck her. To squeeze those tits. To push my cock deep inside her pussy until she screams my name. I want her to open her legs for me of her own volition. I want her to place her hands on the top of my head and guide my mouth to her clit. I want her to say, Lick me, Thomas.
“You’re hard,” she says.
“I’m thinking about you,” I say, reaching for my growing cock. I fist it, squeeze it hard as I move my palm up and down my shaft. Masturbating in front of her.
Ten minutes ago, this was not even in the realm of possible outcomes. But she likes to submit, I realize. She will let me lead her along. She wants me to fuck her and she wants me to make her say yes.
But I won’t. I want her to give in.
“You can touch yourself,” I say. “I’d love to watch that.”
Her mouth parts in surprise. Her nipples bunch up before my eyes and I realize she’s probably cold. “You want the water?” I ask.
She nods. Stays silent.
That’s her default setting, I realize. Silent.
I move out of the water and let her take my place. I lean back and watch her as she reaches for shampoo. I am mesmerized as she lathers up her hair. My hand is still on my cock. My breath is coming quicker. Louder.
“Touch yourself,” I say. “And not your hair.”
She bites her lip and shakes her head no.
“I’ll come without you. I can come right now.”
“Go ahead,” she says, her words barely audible over the sound of the water. “I’m not playing this game with you.”
“I’m not playing a game. I’m just enjoying the view. You are as well. But you’re just a bundle of inhibitions and reasons to say no. Which makes no sense because we both know you want to say yes.”
She turns her back to me and rinses the shampoo from her hair.
I stare at her ass. The hourglass shape of her body. Who knew underneath Phil’s work shirt she had a body like this?
It’s definitely a nice surprise, but not the reason I’ve decided to keep this girl for myself.
When she turns around again, she has the conditioner. She massages it into her long locks. Eyes on my eyes. Not my dick, which is where they should be. But slow progress is still progress.
She rinses that too. I lean back against the cold tile wall. Pressing my back against it. Tilting my head and letting my eyelids fall to half-mast as I continue to masturbate.
When she turns around and drags the soap over her breasts, I pump harder. Her nipples are all bunched up into peaks. I want to suck them. I want to twist them between my fingertips. My hand on my cock makes a slapping sound in the echo chamber of the shower stall. I begin to grunt a little. She can’t help herself now. She stares openly at my erotic display.
Her soapy hand creeps down her abdomen. I almost die waiting for it to slip between her legs. And she makes me wait for it too. Teases me as she lathers the lower part of her belly. Coming so close to that little sweet spot between her legs, I have to close my eyes for a moment.
When I open them, I stare at her face. She’s staring back at me. Her hand is very busy between her legs. Her mouth slightly open. Her breathing rapid and coming faster and faster with each passing second.
“I want to touch you,” I say. “I want to bend you over in front of me and fuck your pussy from behind.”
“Then do it,” she says.
I grab her so quickly she gasps in surprise. One second is all it takes for me to place a hand on her back and push her forward. She bends to my will, reaching down to place her hands on the tiled floor of the shower. Her pussy is peeking at me. Practically winking. Practically begging me to stick my f
at cock inside her.
I start with my fingers. I trace the outline of her pussy. She moans, rises up a little, then places her palms flat against the wall to keep her steady.
“I’m gonna fuck you, Sadie Scott. Right now.”
She looks over her shoulder at me. Her eyes are drooping, like she wants it.
But I want her to beg. “Do you want me to do that?”
“Mmm,” she says. But it’s not enough for me.
“Then tell me you want it. I like to talk, if you haven’t noticed. It turns me on to talk dirty to you. But I like it back just as much. Tell me what to do, Sadie.”
I expect her to blush. She’s young. Maybe too young to have much sexual experience. But she doesn’t even hesitate. “I’m bent over, Thomas Brooks. My pussy is staring you in the face. Fuck it.”
I laugh so loud, it echoes off the ceiling of the shower stall. I grab her arms, bending them until her hands are crossed at the small of her back. Then I ease forward, my cock poking her entrance. “Do you want it?” I ask, smiling.
“I’m going to rescind my offer if you—”
I ram into her. She gasps, standing up, which allows me to push even deeper inside her. I keep her arms behind her back and push her forward until she has to press her cheek against the hard tile wall. She leans her head into my neck. An invitation to kiss her, if ever there was one. I lick the water streaming down her neck and then pull her skin into my mouth with my teeth. She hisses in a breath, holds it until I let go and then lets it rush out in a moan.
I let go of her hands, reaching around to fondle her breasts. “I’d make sure it was as good for you as it is for me right now, Miss Scott. But I’m too fucking horny to care. So come right now or I’ll leave you hanging.”
“You wouldn’t dare.”
I pull out and come as she finishes that sentence. My cock spews out semen in a long arc of white that pulses, over and over again, spilling all over her back.
“You fucking dick!”
I back away and lean against the wall, grinning like a dumbass. “Your turn,” I say. “Next time I tell you to do something, you better do it. I’ll always take the dare.”