Obsessive Cravings (Wicked Cravings Book 1)

Chapter 5

The week went by slowly, but it gave me time to watch Riley. She was predictable, which was something I hadn’t expected. It surprised me that a sister of Mason Brinks would be that way. If she’d been my sister, I would have trained her to stay unpredictable. But she wasn’t my sister. She was my prey.

I followed her, always staying a few steps behind, far enough for her not to notice me, but close enough to smell the perfume she wore and hear the click of her heels as she walked. There was something about the way she flipped her hair when she wore it down that left my dick hard and had me yearning to thread my fingers through it. I wasn’t certain she was the type who liked it pulled, and even if she was, I wasn’t certain I’d want to. There was something about Riley that caused a different reaction in me than I usually had to women. It wasn’t a need to dominate her, although it was only a matter of time before I would own her. This was a need just to touch her. A craving to feel her body and to hear her cries. I wiped my hand down my face, irritated that I was going soft when this wasn’t about bringing her pleasure. It was about making her suffer for my pleasure. It didn’t matter if she didn’t like her hair pulled, she’d learn to like it.

After Sherry purchased the furniture Riley had brought with her, I went through it for any small touches of her to keep before I sent it on to be donated. There’d been only a few tokens, an earring lodged in the corner of a drawer, a bent bookmark, and an old tube of strawberry lip gloss. I twirled the tube in my hand, wondering what it tasted like on her lips. She had plump lips that looked perfect for kissing or taking my cock. She didn’t strike me as the kind of girl who enjoyed being on her knees either, but that would change as well. Because if I was going to destroy her brother, I wanted to tell him how good those lips felt while I fucked his sister’s mouth.

I heard the click of her heels in the hall and sat up in my seat. I’d left the office early, needing to be here before she came home. The decorator I’d hired had done exactly what he’d needed to perfect her apartment, and I was looking forward to seeing her expression when she walked in. Anticipation spilled through me as I watched through the camera I’d had installed in her wall and inconspicuously hidden next to a picture. The apartment next door was empty as I’d evicted the tenant the moment I had my building manager offer Riley the studio. It was mine now. My way to watch her every move, to gain insight into every aspect of her life.

She walked in and I sat closer to the camera, seeing her stunned expression and hearing her gasp. I imagined what that gasp would sound like when my cock was sinking into her and shook the thought away. There was no reason for me to be so excited about her reaction, like it mattered to me if she liked what I’d given her. But I was and when I saw the shake in her hands, the fear that filled her eyes as she scanned the room, the disappointment was heavy. She didn’t like it. I tried to shake off the letdown, to remember that this was part of the game, but the sensation didn’t fade.

When she found my note, my nerves grew. Nothing made me nervous. I was a man to be feared. I knew no fear, but in that moment, my heart pounded as I held my breath. Relief came over her expression and the tension in her shoulders released. The reaction made me curious as to why she’d had the initial response. She was afraid of something, and I wondered if that something had to do with what she was running from.

I needed to find out, but nothing I’d found so far gave me the answers. She flopped into the chair at the small table and cried. My spirit dropped, my mouth going dry as I swallowed back the defeat that was mounting in my chest. This wasn’t the way she was supposed to have reacted, and I felt crushed at having made her cry.

I stood, running my hand through my hair and cursing. Why did I care if she cried? I was here to hurt her. To lift her up and drop her so she shattered. Maybe I’d expected her to appreciate my gesture of kindness, but this reaction should have made me happy. She was in tears. That’s what this was about. Breaking her. Her tears should have left me elated. But they didn’t, and that had me confounded.

I exited the apartment, storming off and trying to fathom why Riley Brinks was twisting my emotions when I’d only just begun my game.

My nights were usually long.Over the years I’d played, burying the loneliness in women or alcohol, but as I aged, my tastes changed, and I found that most women didn’t have what I wanted, and only high-end liquor quenched my thirst. I’d never been a partier, knowing it put me at risk, and in time, I closed myself off to only satisfying my hungers on rare occasions, never getting close enough to any woman to make one a habit.

Riley was a woman I wanted, one who was getting to me with each subtle move she made and every step further in my game she took. I shouldn’t have been getting closer to her. I should have walked away because she was becoming a habit, a need, an obsession I couldn’t force from my mind.

I spent that Friday evening in my home office, staring at the camera on my phone and watching her sleep. The fairy lights over her bed left a soft glow that lingered on her body as she tossed and turned. I’d fallen asleep to the sight, waking the next morning to find my phone still in my hand, my head on my desk.

Stretching the stiffness from my shoulders and straightening my back, I turned the camera off and showered. She’d still been asleep when I rose, the blankets thrown aside so that I had a fantastic view of her tiny black panties curving over her ass, and her bare back where her tank top had pushed up as she slept. I wanted to touch her so desperately that my cock ached thinking about it. Toweling my hair dry, I debated going to the apartment so I could watch her further. The camera on my phone worked when I couldn’t be there and I could have set a bigger one up in my house rather than the apartment, but I liked the idea of being so close to her when I watched. Knowing she was right next door added a thrill to my game.

It was Saturday, though, and I was hoping her schedule was less predictable on a weekend. If it was, there was a risk to stepping foot in her building. Plus, the floor wasn’t empty. She had Ava living across the hall. I could have evicted her like I had the other tenant, but Ava was a favor. She was my henchman’s niece and Den had worked for me since the beginning. I let her stay there for an insignificant rent that she wouldn’t find anywhere else. Since she worked a late shift, she wasn’t a threat to my plans, but I still didn’t want to chance being seen anywhere near Riley’s apartment.

I gazed at my phone, that desire to look at Riley screaming uncontrollably. Unable to resist, I turned the camera on, seeing her at the table with Ava.

“Fuck,” I muttered. Ava didn’t know me, nor did she know my connection to her uncle and that I had anything to do with the building or her rent. But I didn’t like how they were chatting away as if they were best friends. A streak of jealousy slithered through me, and I shook it off. It was ridiculous to think Riley wouldn’t interact with other people. But I wanted that interaction to be mine. To have her smile and laugh reserved for me.

Slamming the phone down, I ran my hands through my hair. What had gotten into me? This was out of hand, and I needed to step away before I lost control. Grabbing my phone, I closed out of the camera and tucked it in my pocket. I finished getting ready and made my way out of the house, determined to get my mind from Riley and back to the controlled, calculated man I had always been.

I drove through town, heading to the jewelers on the shadier end. This was an area I rarely frequented, keeping my more questionable dealings on the low and letting Den run them. But I needed a reprieve from my obsession with Riley. The further I drove from her, the calmer I became, although the urge to stop and look at my camera constantly nudged at me. I ignored it. Before I’d closed out of the camera, I’d heard them talking about shopping, so I suspected Riley wouldn’t even be there.

At least she was doing something sporadic, something that didn’t involve work or her apartment. I had yet to see her do more than walk through the city and surrounding neighborhoods. Sometimes I’d follow her, staying far enough behind that she didn’t notice me, and observing the way she took things in as if everything was fresh and new. She looked at every detail, from an icicle to a dog print in fresh snow, and I loved watching the wonder in her eyes, the sweet way she smiled at strangers she passed on the street or stooped to pet a dog walking by.

Even with how cold the weather had turned toward the end of the week, she still wandered out on her lunch break, her head tipped toward the snowflakes as they fell in her dark hair.

I turned into the back lot, my guys pulling in behind me just as I exited the car. In my younger days, I would have let them drive me everywhere, but now I drove myself, a statement of how secure I was in my position of power. Rarely did I let them drive me now. Giving them a nod, I made my way to the rear of the jewelry shop.

“Boss,” Den said, greeting me immediately. “You checking up on me?”

“I have to keep you on your toes, Den.” I rolled my neck as I walked down the stairs, nodding to Frank as he moved aside.

“If I didn’t know better, I’d say you’re bored,” Den observed from behind me.

I stopped and turned slowly to him. Any other man would have stepped away in fear, but Den had been by my side since the beginning and nothing frightened him, not even me. He stared me down, arms crossed over his broad chest.

“But I know better, although I have to say, Greyson, I haven’t seen you this rattled in a long time.”

I sneered, seeing Frank step back from my periphery.

“Nothing rattles me, Den. You should know that.”

“I do, which is why you’re going to tell me what the fuck is going on.”

I glanced at Frank and turned my back on Den, walking into the shop. Most of my investments were in real estate but I divested some of my money in side projects, including the bars in the city and a few underground gambling facilities. Frank ran the money from the gambling tables through the jewelry store, which was a front. Cash lined the tables in bundles, a few of the guys bundling it before it would go to the next stop.

I headed into the small office in the back and slammed the door once Den was through. Grabbing him by the collar, I threw him against the wall, the fake wood paneling shaking with the impact.

“Never call me out in front of the men again, Den.”

He smirked, and I let go of his collar, flexing my arms and feeling the muscles press against my button-down dress shirt.

“Fuck, you are stressed. Is it the girl?”

“She’s not a girl,” I hissed, hating the sound.

“The woman, then?” he corrected with a laugh.

“Fuck off.”

“Shit, I haven’t seen you this affected by a woman in…damn, never.”

I glared at him, not caring to talk about the obsessive cravings I was having for Riley Brinks.

“You said you were playing with her, boss. Not anything more. Ruin her and send her back to Brinks in a body bag.”

The thought nearly destroyed me, and I gripped my fists. His eyes flickered downward, noting my tension.

“Fuck. Don’t tell me you’re falling for her, Greyson. That’s bad.”

“I’m not falling for her,” I said, running my hands through my hair.

“She’s the enemy’s sister. The perfect target. Or are you forgetting your own words when you gave her even more incentive to move here?”

“I’m not forgetting. There are just…complications.”

“Like what? How you decorated her apartment? Gave her that nice window office after kicking her colleague to another office? Destroy and return. That’s the goal. Taking down Brinks so he never thinks about fucking with you again.”

“I know that.”

“Do you?”

Rolling my neck, I clenched my jaw, smoothing my hand down my shirt and ensuring it no longer showed the wrinkled evidence of my loss of control. “Of course I do. Stop badgering me like you’re in charge. I’m the one in charge. This is my show, not yours.”

“Good. I told you when we started out in this business, I don’t want to be in charge. I’m along for the ride.” He moved aside so I could leave the office but put his hand on the door as I reached for the doorknob. “I’ve known you a long time, boss. This woman has you out of sorts.”

“Maybe.”

“Maybe? I don’t think so. Is this the one to break you?” He gave me a coy grin, his brown eyes full of mischief.

“Wipe that damned smirk off your face before I punch it off. And get the fuck out of my way.”

He moved and let me leave, his laugh trailing me. If anyone knew me well enough to know Riley was breaking me, it would be him. I cursed myself for letting him see my weakness, although he was the only one I trusted enough to let in.

My phone buzzed, and I pulled it out to read the text as I walked back through the shop.

I think she will break you, and I’m going to be here to enjoy the show.

Fucking prick, I texted him in return, biting back my chuckle and covering it with my sternest look.

As I got in my car, I scolded myself for not staying home and hiding my lack of control. Unable to resist, I turned the camera on, hating the disappointment that filled my chest upon discovering that Riley wasn’t there. And questioning why that ache in my chest was growing more constant.