Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
BONTE
Ididn’t know an orgasm could linger. Hell, I didn’t know I’d be able to feel one all the way down to my toes. Clearly, I’m not as good at giving them to myself as Eros is.
I may have played it off as though it didn’t really mean much, but in all honestly, Eros has rocked my world. I felt truly seen for the first time in my life. It’s been years since I allowed myself to be that vulnerable with anyone.
The thing is nothing else has happened since then. That was two days ago. I’d almost think it didn’t happen if not for the hickey he left on my neck. Eros marked me, and I’ve caught him staring at it more than once.
Now I’m starting to go crazy. I don’t know if it’s cabin fever or the sexual tension. Eros is acting the same but keeping his hands to himself. I do, however, think he is sharing a bed with me, but he goes to sleep after me and is up before me.
Hell, the man will have run five miles, and I'll barely be opening an eye.
But I can see the outline of where he was on the other side of the bed.
I'd call him out on it, but that doesn't work with Eros.
He'll own right up to it and shrug like it's normal.
It makes it really hard to pick on him and be a brat.
Everything I throw at him he easily catches unbothered.
“How long are we staying here?” I sit up on the couch where I’ve been sprawled out watching movies. I will say it has been nice to be able to shut down. In this cabin, the outside world doesn’t exist.
“Not sure.” I watch as he dices up an onion. He’s far too good with that knife. Even that is hot.
“Gah!” I throw myself back down on the couch. A few seconds later, Eros appears over me.
"Do you want to go home?"
"Obviously!" I snip, then sink my teeth into my bottom lip because I want to take it back.
"Try again, Hellcat."
I glare at him, but he's unfazed. In fact, I'm starting to think he enjoys it when I do it. That maybe he likes getting me all worked up.
“I don’t know, but I can’t stay here forever. I do have a bit of a life. At some point, people will notice I’m missing.”
“I could check in and see what’s going on.”
“Wait, you haven’t checked in since you went and got Binx?”
“I should.” He rubs the top of his head. I’ve noticed he does that when he’s thinking.
“Is there something you're not telling me?” I ask, sitting up. “Is your family still upset with me?” I hadn’t thought of that. He starts to answer, but I cut him off. “I don’t like them either.” I fold my arms over my chest. “Just so you know.”
The Damon thing stung, but Kinsley's betrayal cut deep. I do my best not to think about it, but it’s hard. I thought I had finally found a friend. I had opened myself to the idea. I should have known better.
“It doesn’t matter how they feel about you. That’s irrelevant."
“That’s easy for you to say,” I mutter. Eros lifts up my legs, laying them across his lap as he sits down next to me. “Oh, now you’re touching me again.” Damn it! Why did I say that? Way to play it cool like you don’t care.
“I always want to touch you. You never need to question that.”
“Right.” I can’t stop my eyes from rolling.
Not that I get all the way through it before Eros has me pulled into his lap, straddling him.
“You’re so freaking fast.” I rest my hands on his shoulders.
“Don’t you have a life you have to get back to?
” We can’t hide out here forever. I’m not sure what we are hiding from.
“I’m handling what needs to be handled right now.” His hands slide to cup my ass.
“Back to being a perv.”
“Think that’s how you like me.” Eros gives a small squeeze. He’s not wrong.
“Really, though. Are we hiding?”
“Not really. I honestly—” He pauses. “I’m not sure what the fuck I’m doing. This is all new to me, and I’m not used to all the shit I’m feeling.” Eros’s words aren’t flowery, but in his way, they’re kind of sweet. No one could ever accuse him of not shooting it straight.
“Are you saying I got you feeling shit?”
“Yes.” He says it so easily, putting it right out on the table with no apology.
“It’s hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that I have done this to you.”
“Why would you say that?” His eyes search my face, and I know he’s trying to read me. The man always is. “You’re the most beautiful creature I’ve ever seen.”
“You really mean that, don’t you?” I need to be more careful. This man is far more dangerous to me than I realized.
“Why would I lie about that?”
“I don’t know.” I let out a sigh. “I’m scared of you.”
Eros actually flinches, giving me a rare reaction. “You think I’d hurt you?” This is the first time I have heard him offended.
“Well, first off, I don’t, but if I did, that would actually be the sane thing.” Did he forget he pulled me out of a torture hole? “But no, I mean emotionally.”
“Because you think I’ll be rude or mean? Keep you trapped away?”
“No, dork,” I laugh. “I mean, if we don’t work out and I fall for you. I keep people at arm’s length for a reason.”
Though I’m starting to feel that Eros could understand my past more than anyone. Not fear it as others should that are around me.
“I didn’t say the breakup shit because that’s not happening.”
“Eros, come on. What if you become obsessed with someone else or someone who was before me comes back into the picture?” He cocks his head to the side like I’m speaking another language.
“That’s not how it works. It never happens in my family. We don’t get divorced.”
“Whoa, well, we’re not married.” Did I really have to point that out?
“Soon.” I stare at him. “We will marry, and there was no obsession before, and there won’t be one after. If you’ve felt it before, don’t tell me. I won’t be responsible for my actions if you do.” I know it’s not a threat to me.
“What, you’ll track them down and kill them?” The words are out of my mouth before I can stop them.
“It’s a strong possibility.” I suck in a breath. “I’ve frightened you?”
No, but maybe. Hell, I don’t know, but it’s oddly familiar.
“One time there was this boy.” Eros's eyes narrow. “It’s not that. Calm down, killer.” I pat his chest. “He kept picking on me, and then one day he tried to corner me after school. I guess he’d followed me.
” A dark expression takes over his handsomeness.
I can actually sense his anger, like we’re connected in some weird way.
“Keep going.” His hands move to my hips.
“I wasn’t paying attention, I guess, and when I opened the door, he shoved in behind me. I think he didn’t expect for my dad to be there, and he scared him off,” I tell him.
“As he should.”
“He screamed all the way out of the house. My dad checked me over and then took me out to dinner, and we talked about the other ways Brad had been messing with me. And he told me he’d take care of it.
I knew he would. I just didn’t understand back then what it meant when he told me he’d take care of things.
” I tell Eros the truth about my real dad.
Why lie at this point? It won’t be long until his family figures it out. Plus, there’s something about this man that has me wanting to open up to him. To show him all the sides of me. He deserves to know what he’s getting himself into if this obsession he claims with me is truly real.
When I learned what my dad had done, my mind quickly went through memories of the past and who else I might have complained about to him that had gone missing. Brad hadn’t been the only one.
“Go on. Tell me more about you, Bonte.” Since he found out my real name, he’s been using it. It doesn’t bother me. It feels a little bit like home. It’s been so long since anyone has called me that.
“I caught him. I’d woken up later that night to a scream.
At first I thought I was dreaming because it was the same scream I’d heard earlier that day.
” I lick my dry lips. "I slipped from my room to run to my dad's, but he wasn't in bed.
So I followed the screams when I heard them again.
Out to the backyard, to my dad's shed." My words trail off as the images of that night come flooding back to me. It’s all still so vivid in my mind. The dreams I have keep it that way.
"It's all right. But you're not responsible for other people's actions." I nod, swallowing. People can say things till they are blue in the face. Doesn’t mean you're still not going to feel the same.
“He always kept his shed locked up tight.
That was his man cave area. I'd never even tried to look there before.
Thought it was full of tools, maybe a mower.
Except for that night. It was open but only a small crack, and that was how I heard the whimpering.
" It was so loud. I started to think it was an animal.
"He killed him?" Eros asks.
"Not only him. I learned that night what the shed was for.
My dad had a taste for death." That's the only way I can think to explain it.
He craved it like an addiction. "Brad was strapped down to a table, and it wasn't like a random table.
It was like a hospital grade one with straps.
I knew it wasn't the first time, and I couldn't help the gasp that ripped from me. "
"He saw you."
I nod. "I turned and ran. I don't know what I was thinking. I ran back into the house and to my room and jumped under the covers."
"He didn't hurt you, did he?"
"No." I shake my head. "I didn't know that man in the shed. I'd never seen my dad be violent before that day." It was so strange to have to come to terms with who he was. At least with Eros, he's not hiding anything. I need that from him.
"What happened?"
"Nothing really." I let out a humorless laugh.
"He came into my room and told me everything was okay. To close my eyes and go back to sleep. Then kissed me on my forehead.” I worry my bottom lip between my teeth.
"You might have heard of him. They call him ‘The Collector.’ His real name is Silas.” Eros's brows rise, letting me know he has heard of him.
"He's still on the loose, isn't he?"
"Yes, our house was raided not long later." My dad hadn't been home, but they took me. "There was one agent that was an utter asshole to me, and maybe I deserved it. I never said anything. Not when the missing flyer of Brad went up. Not when I saw the light on in the shed a week later."
"You were a kid. That shit's not on you."
"That's what I tried to tell myself. Then they started to show me the victims. At least the ones they knew were his. He seems to kill for three causes: financial, anyone who pissed him off, and anyone that hurt me in any way. Brad wasn't the first person he killed because of me."
"He killed a couple of agents, didn't he?"
"Even when they didn't know where he was, he still kept tabs on me. They tried to use me as bait." I close my eyes, shaking my head. That hadn't panned out well for anyone, and those were a few of the agents he'd killed. "He kept killing the people around me."
"And that's why they put you in WITSEC."
I nod. "It was safer for everyone that way."
The only person safe from my father is me.