Psycho (The Line Walkers #2)

9. Chapter 9 – Maddox

Chapter 9 – Maddox

M y little Storm was asleep on my shoulder, and I couldn’t find the gumption to move. The building could be on fire around us, and I’d be hesitant to move away from her touch. The cute little snores escaping her made me chuckle, and the way she burrowed deeper into my sleeve anytime I dared to move even the slightest bit made me… burn.

It felt like every inch of my skin was being electrified by her desire to be closer to me. Even if she was asleep while she was doing it, I couldn’t help how it made me feel.

We were still on her couch, having spent the entire day watching movies, and I even cooked her dinner. Turns out she’d been living off the junk food and avoiding the healthy stuff without my supervision.

Which was going to end now.

If I wasn’t around to cook her dinner, I’d have it delivered. Liv was growing a human, for fuck’s sake; she needed to eat some protein.

My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I pulled it out, already knowing what it was and dreading it.

I’m here. Go time.

Dane once again insisted on joining me for night two of my hunting and I would have told him to never mind and that I wasn’t leaving the couch until Olivia woke up and kicked me out, but I had scheduled three separate hits for the evening. And I didn’t want to fall that far behind schedule by skipping it.

Be down in a few.

I tucked my phone away and as gently as I could, I slid out from under Olivia’s body, slowly lowering her down onto the couch and on a pillow. Squatting down in front of the couch, I pulled her blanket up over her shoulders and her eyelids fluttered open and she looked around.

“Did I fall asleep? Again?” She blushed a little and tried to sit up.

“Shh,” I pushed her back down and adjusted her blanket again, “It’s okay. I was just going. Go back to sleep.”

“Going.” She repeated and then bit her bottom lip as she brought her hands up under her face. “Hunting?”

“Yes.” I pushed a lock of hair back over her ear, unable to resist touching her, and she stared up at me with her turbulent eyes.

“You don’t have to do that for me.”

“Yes, I do.” I countered, resting my elbows on my knees so I wouldn’t keep touching her. “But don’t think it’s something I don’t want to do. Because I do. I want to rid this earth of those men. It will be a better place without them. It’s who I am.”

“You say that like I should cower from you because of it.” She challenged and sat up, propping her head on her hand. “I don’t, by the way.” Her eyes roamed over my face as she paused, “I’m not scared of you. You’re too kind to me to let your darkness toward others affect me.”

I smiled, and I watched her reaction to it as she nibbled on her bottom lip and stared at mine. “You should be scared of me, Storm.” I reached forward and used my thumb to pull her lip free of her teeth, tracing my fingertip over it. “Because my kindness to you is so fucking foreign to me, I don’t know if it can last.”

She snapped her teeth together, nipping the end of my thumb, and grinned at me. “I’m not the kind of girl to run from fear.”

“Maybe so.” I growled, pulling my hand from her face and standing up, towering over her. She leaned back against the back of the couch so she could look up at me. “But you should be, because I’m darker than anyone you’ve ever met before. I just hide it from you.”

“Not very well,” She huffed, “You delivered me fingers.”

“Careful,” I warned, “Or it will be eyeballs in the morning.”

She fake gagged and then snuggled back into her pillow. “Who’s on the list tonight?”

“Ramsey Tuft, Quintin West, and Isaac Renfield.”

Her eyebrows rose, “Three in one night?”

I shrugged, “It could be five or six if Dane didn’t slow me down with his theatrics.”

She snorted and smiled as I turned and walked toward her door. “Hey, Maddox.” Something about hearing my name in her sweet honey voice made me burn for her. I looked back at her, and she rolled over onto her stomach, resting her chin on her hands as she went on, “Be careful, okay?”

“Yeah, okay.” I replied, overwhelmed by what her concern made me feel.

“I mean it.” She stared at me as I clicked off the lights and opened her door. “I’d be pretty bummed if you didn’t make it back in the morning.”

I grinned and shook my head, leaving her apartment completely.

Yeah, Storm, I’d be pretty bummed if I didn’t get back to you, too.

“ S o,” Dane huffed as he threw the body on the floor next to the other two. “What souvenirs are you keeping for Livy this time?”

I rolled my eyes as I finished carving my knife through the chest wall of Isaac Renfield. Gurgles escaped through his mouth as I punctured his lung, “Damnit, you made me miss.”

Dane chuckled and kicked the head of Ramsey Tuft, where he lay lifeless already. “Not me, I was fucking perfection tonight.”

I rolled my eyes and worked through the rib cage and got what I came for. As I pulled it free, I grinned.

“Hearts.” Dane shrugged, “A little over kill if you ask me, but whatever she’s into.”

I put the heart into a plastic bag and added it with the other one I already pulled from Quintin’s chest before Dane joined me. “She threw up from fingers, what makes you think I’d give her bloody hearts?”

“Well, if they’re not for her, who are they for?” He crossed his arms, “Are you a vampire all of a sudden?”

“They’re for Damon.” I wiped Isaac’s blood off my knife and put it away.

“Ooh, I like it.” He grinned, kneeling down to carve the heart out of his kill. “Did you get any info out of Liv today about that?”

“Yeah,” I replied, gathering my supplies up. “Cliff-note version, Damon used blackmail to get her involved with the scheme. Stealing money from these fucks got him in hot water and he blamed Liv. He then tried to trade her to the highest bidder to get himself out of it. That’s why he kidnapped her and kept her alive instead of just taking her out like we thought he would.”

“And then we took his get out of jail free card.” Dane surmised as he pulled the heart free of the chest. “Effectively screwing her.”

“Hence this list.”

“Remove the threats, ensure her safety.” He shrugged, dropping it into a bag. “I like it.”

“I don’t.” I mused, “However, it’s her only chance at a real life again.”

“Well, not her only chance.” He said, wiping his knife off and pocketing it. “She has you, after all. And me.”

“Hmm.” I hummed, trying to avoid whatever he was getting at, but he wasn’t having it.

“She does have you, doesn’t she?” He stood up and walked around the bodies, “Or are you going to pretend you’re not obsessively interested in her?”

“I’d kill you if she asked me to.” I shrugged, “If that says anything.”

He tipped his head back and chuckled, “Says just about everything I need to know.”

“Good, then shut up and help me drag these bodies out onto the front porch.”

He paused mid-laugh as he looked toward the front door. “The street is five feet from the front door.”

“Exactly.”

“Ooh, Maddox The Whisper Renner isn’t fucking around tonight, ladies and gentlemen. He’s showboating.”

I got out of the shower and scrubbed a towel over my hair and beard as I groaned. I was so fucking tired.

It was almost four and pulling off another three hit night with Dane as company was proving to be exhausting. I’d been at it for almost two weeks already and the list was getting shorter. But so were the opportunities to find the targets.

The plan had worked well enough that the remaining seven hits were in hiding. Which was exactly what I wanted.

Because it meant I had some down time coming up. Time to spend with my Storm. Fuck, I missed her. Every day I spent a few hours with her before working on the list, but it was never long enough.

I had never been friends with a woman before. Aside from a couple that I casually fucked; I didn’t want women around me. They couldn’t handle the whole me, just the parts I could lessen to fit their agenda when my hand wasn’t enough to suffice anymore.

But Liv. God, fucking Olivia Everett drove me wild. I wanted to engross myself in every single part of her. The friend part that shared her snacks when she made me watch her stupid movies. Or the weird part that talked about things like morning sickness, trimesters and cravings. My favorite part, though, was the vulnerable one; the one that laid her head on my shoulder on the couch and relaxed into me like it was the only time she could actually loosen the tense muscles in her shoulders. Like it was the only time the clouds cleared from her green eyes, and she was just calm.

Those were my favorite moments.

My cock hardened again for the hundredth time today and I palmed it through my towel, trying to figure out if I had the energy to jack off again before I passed out. I had done it as soon as I walked back into my apartment after spending the entire afternoon with Liv pressed against my side on the couch before I went to work. I’d been so worked up I came in less than thirty strokes.

My cell phone vibrated across the counter as I stood in the middle of my studio apartment contemplating it and I looked at the screen.

Liv.

Fuck.

“Storm, what’s wrong?” I snapped as I answered. She had never called me before, which meant something was wrong.

“Nothing’s wrong.” Her sleepy voice sighed, “I guess I just wanted to know if you were sleeping through the noise.”

“What noise?” I asked, and then an enormous crack of thunder vibrated outside, shaking the entire building. “Oh.”

She chuckled quietly, “I guess you were, I’m sorry for waking you.”

“You didn’t.” I paced as I talked. “I just got home.”

“Oh.” She whispered and I could almost see her lying in her bed holding her phone in the dark talking to me from across the hall. “I shouldn’t have called.”

“My bed or yours?” I asked in reply, already knowing she was going to back pedal and take back every bit of courage it took her to call me in the first place.

“Your—what?”

“Where are we sleeping for the next few hours?” I explained, “Because you’re alone and scared, and I can sleep through a hurricane, so where do you want me?”

“I—” She hesitated and then cleared her throat. “Yours.”

“Come on over.” I replied and then opened my front door before stepping into a pair of athletic shorts.

I heard the click of her door open through the hallway and hung up as she peeked around the doorway into mine. And even as tired as I was, I tipped my head back and laughed.

The only thing I could see was her toes and above her nose. The rest of her was tightly wrapped up in a blanket burrito so big that I imagined it hid a jar of pickles somewhere. “Do you think I don’t have any blankets?”

She grinned and pulled her mouth out from behind the layers, “I wasn’t willing to risk it.”

“Hmm.” I shut the door behind her and then clicked off the two lights that were on as I followed her over to the bed. At the end, she hesitated and looked over at me.

“What side?”

I raised a brow at her and crawled in on one side, holding the blankets out for her on the other. “I’ll be honest, I usually sleep in the center, so I might end up fighting you for space.”

She snorted and dropped her blankets as she walked around the bed, but I couldn’t form a coherent sentence as I watched her lush body move. She wore a black shirt-style nightgown that, in the grand scheme of things, was pretty modest. But what wasn’t modest was the way it stressed every single curve of her body, making them visible to my depraved eyes.

She wasn’t wearing a bra, and her nipples were hard and proudly present as she skipped around the bed, making them shake and sway and as she crawled up onto the tall mattress. I could tell by the lack of lines showing through the fabric pulled tight over her ass that she was panty-less.

Damnit, I was throbbing hard again, in no time at all.

“Mmh,” She curled into the blankets, pulling them up to her chin again, thankfully hiding her sinful body and my now very hard cock as I turned on my side to face her. If I stayed on my back, the blankets would tent from how hard I was. “This blanket is the same as the one you bought me, isn’t it?”

“Yes.” I replied and cleared my throat as it came out like a puberty-stricken boy, and she giggled lightly. “It is.”

I clicked off the lamp next to the bed and suddenly we were in complete darkness, aside from the occasional strikes of lightning outside.

Silence hung in the air between us until my eyes adjusted to see her face clearly and then she spoke up. “Thank you for letting me crash your night.”

Our faces were only a few inches apart, and I boldly reached forward, finding her bare knee under the blankets, curled up toward her chest and ran my fingers over it reassuringly. “I’m kind of getting addicted to your presence, I think.”

Her eyes rounded slightly and then she bit her lip, “Same.” She whispered. “It seems weird when you’re gone.”

“You’re safe here, Storm. You don’t need to be afraid when I’m gone.”

“I didn’t say I was afraid.” She clarified, swallowing quickly and then gently laid her hand on top of mine where I left it on her leg. “Lonely is more accurate. I think I have Stockholm Syndrome.”

My heart was racing a million miles a minute from just the touch of her hand on mine, and I tried not to ruin it by doing something stupid. Like blowing all over her knee with my aching dick. That would be epically stupid.

“And when I’m not gone?” I probed further, “What are you then?”

“Scared.” She uttered and went on, “Scared that I’m fabricating something inside of my head between us because of your friendliness toward me.”

Suppressing the desire to grip her upper knee tightly, I felt an instant surge of arousal from her words. “I’m not friendly, Storm.” I acknowledged and then ran my thumb back and forth over the soft flesh of her inner knee, enjoying the way her eyelids fluttered briefly before she stared back at me through the dark.

Liv argued, “You’re nice to me. You’re kind and attentive and gentle with me, like no one I’ve ever met before.”

“You make it sound like a bad thing.”

“It is.” She nuzzled her face closer only a fraction of an inch, but my eyes fell directly to her lips. “Maybe if you were rougher and crass, I’d know if you wanted me. But when you’re just nice and gentle, I’m afraid all of my hormones are fooling me.”

“You’re pregnant, Storm.” My hand slid up to her thigh. “I have to be gentle with you.”

“I’m not breakable, Maddox. Even to a man as big as you are.” She closed her eyes. “But I guess that’s the answer I needed to hear after all.”

“What is?” I probed, knowing exactly where she was going.

“You don’t want me, because I’m pregnant with someone else’s kid. I get it, it’s fine.” Her cheeks were red, and even in the darkness, I could feel her embarrassment. But she was wrong.

So. Fucking. Wrong.

I pushed my hand further up her thigh and then pushed them apart as I rolled us until she was on her back, looking up at me with her legs spread and me leaning over her. “I’m gentle with you because you’re pregnant, Storm. I’m kind to you because I actually like you. But don’t think that doesn’t mean I haven’t wanted to throw you down and spread your thighs just like this and rut into your body every single second since I first had you here in my bed.” I dragged my hand down to her hip and brushed my thumb over the smooth mound above her pussy. “But I’m a man who knows nothing about pregnancy and what is safe. Therefore, I haven’t made my wants known.”

“You want me?” She whispered, digging her sharp fingernails into my forearm as I leaned over her.

“Fucking hell Storm, yes, I want you.”

She closed her eyes, and her chest rose and fell with large breaths, straining the confines of her shirt against her massive tits. “I thought I was crazy.” She whimpered. “I’m crazy with need, Maddox.”

“Tell me what you need, Storm. I told you to tell me and I’ll see to it, but you need to use your words.”

“I need you.” She panted, “Fuck, I need you to touch me or something.” Her panic was rising as she kicked at the blankets over her. “I feel like I’m going to combust if I don’t come while you touch me. Or watch at least.”

I grinned and crawled over her leg so I was hovering over her between her thighs and as she kicked the blankets the rest of the way off, I could smell her arousal. “This is safe. For the baby?”

“Yes!” She cried, “It’s safe!”

I leaned down, keeping my body from touching hers at all as I hovered over her lips, “Tell me to kiss you.”

“Kiss me, please.” She pleaded and buried her fingers in my hair, pulling me down until our lips finally fucking touched. Liv’s moan made goosebumps burn across my skin as she eagerly sucked my tongue into her mouth. She was desperate for relief, and I felt bad that she had been keeping it a secret from me. There were a million ways for a man to make a woman come without having sex with her, and I would have eagerly done any of those for her the whole time had I known. “Don’t stop.” She whined when I pulled back to stare at her.

“Shh, Storm.” I kissed my way down her neck and bit her ear as she rocked her spread thighs up and down under me, like she was desperate for contact. “Let me take care of you.”

I sat on my knees and lifted her nightgown up over her body, revealing her lush, full figure to my eyes for the very first time, and I was addicted.

“I’m going crazy here, Madd.” She dragged her nails down my arms as I lifted her nightgown up over her tits and then leaned down against her body, keeping my weight off her. “I need you.”

“I’m right here.” I blew on one of her puckered nipples and she cried for me, arching her back and burying her fingers in my hair. “You want me to suck on your nipples, pretty girl?”

“I’ll die if you don’t.” She gasped, “I’ll literally combust into flames and burn in them if you don’t actually touch me!”

I grinned and watched her face as I flicked my tongue across one of them, making her entire body shiver. “Are you always this needy? Or is it the hormones?”

“I don’t know, just make me come!”

I chuckled and then sucked her nipple deep into my mouth while playing with the other one. She was crying out, clawing at me, and grinding her wet little pussy against my abs as I feasted, and I couldn’t stop. I didn’t want to. There was nothing on earth I wanted more than to make her orgasm.

And within a minute of playing with her breasts alone, she did just that.

“Good girl,” I praised, flicking her nipple and watching her shatter underneath me. “That’s my good girl, Storm. Come for me.”

“Oh, my god.” She went limp beneath me and gasped for her breath as I watched from my position. “I didn’t know it could feel that good.”

I grinned, sucking her nipple again, and she moaned deep in her chest. “Wait until I do it to your clit.”

“Fuck yes.” She rocked her hips against my abs, but as I watched her face, her eyes sank further with each blink and I stayed silent and still as they closed one time, and didn’t open back up. Twenty seconds later, she started snoring.

My cock was as hard as stone, and my balls screamed to be emptied, but my chest; that felt weirdly satisfied as I climbed up the bed and covered her naked body up with my blanket and laid down beside her.

If I never felt the inside of her pussy wrapped around my dick, I’d still be a lucky man if she let me make her come with my mouth like I just did. Because even if I was a psycho, Olivia Everett showed me exactly how much she wanted me, just as I was.

And now I was obsessed with her.

She was mine.

And so was her baby.