8. Chapter Seven
Chapter Seven
Kairo
I slip inside while she dreams, testing the door and lucky for me, she didn’t dead bolt it tonight, her trust making it easy to invade. Maybe she wanted me to come back. Maybe that’s why she didn’t lock it.
Harbor wants me to fuck her, wants me to take her, and that makes me hard. She wants me to make her feel alive. I ghost over the hardwood, my shoes silent as I breathe in her space and pretend it’s her scent, her body, her love I inhale. A quick check on the feed confirms she’s tucked in bed. Sheets made for one. I linger in the living room, just taking in the way she lives. Acknowledging her short-comings and knowing I’ll be able to live with them.
I live for these quiet moments. The ones where there’s no sound, just us, existing in peace.
Ever since the night at the bar, I couldn’t stop thinking about her excitement, the way her cheeks flushed when she told me what ‘he’ did. I’ve wanted to be inside her ever since, but I’m not quite ready to give up my control.
I feel alive in this place, in her space, the thrill making it hard to keep my pulse in check. One misstep and she’ll wake up to me there, watching her sleep, wanting her more than ever.
I’m good at waiting. Watching. Knowing the right time. I have hours before she wakes up. I’m not leaving until I get what I came for.
Now I’m so close to tearing into her room and touching her. My fingers remember how soft she is. Remember more than that. My imagination is better than hers, and my mind flashes through all the ways I’ll take her, touch her, feel her shake and beg for me.
I’m almost at her door when I hear it. Her breathy moans as the rustling of sheets disrupts the peace. She’s touching herself. She’s going to make herself come with the name of the man she made up in her head, on her perfect lips.
The man that I know to be me. I stirred this crazy, sinful lust inside her and my cock grows hard. I could barge in there, claim her, force her to take me, but I don’t. People say I’m unhinged, I’m crazy, but I’m not.
Not for the right woman. Not for her. I’ll be whatever she wants me to be so long as she accepts the monster that I become when I need to bury myself inside her.
I stay in the shadows of the kitchen, eyes and breath and body fixed on Harbor through the half-open door of her room, kitty corner to where I’m standing. The moon caresses her the way I will. Her body moves under the sheets. She gasps out that name again, and I can’t help but smile. This fucking girl, writing me into her story even when she doesn’t know it. I want to drag her back to the cabin where we’re free. Instead I keep quiet, and watch. Listen. Memorizing every sound, every moan.
The air’s so thick with her pleasure that I can hardly breathe. My lungs strain as her hands move across her skin, across mine , across every place I want to take her. I lean against the counter, let the weight of what I know push me into overdrive. There’s so much she isn’t ready for. My hand moves to my zipper, the sound caught between her sighs and cries and gasps.
She gives me what I came for, a thousand times over. Even though I’m getting myself off, it’s all her. I’m so fucking obsessed with her, my own edging is driving me insane. Every time I’m near her, my resolve crumbles and I want to whisk her away.
Maybe that’s why this works. Maybe that’s why she’s the one. Because of this game. This deep, inner knowledge I have of her, while she stays in the dark about me. Knowing I know everything, and she’s yet to discover who I am…
Harbor is such a Goddamn free spirit, thinks no one’s watching. It turns me on, the thought of her doing this, thinking about me. Her complete lack of concern. I want her carefree and careless, my eyes on her even when she’s alone.
She moans and shifts, one hand moving like it’s tied to my imagination. She’s got nothing on me, this girl, but I’m willing to wait. To make her so needy without her even realizing why, so that when my time comes and I take her for myself, she’s putty in my hands. She will willingly give herself to me because she’s already been primed for the life I want to give her.
Her voice is louder than I’ve ever heard it, her breathing short and fast. The ghost of me hovering just out of view, pushing into her space, making it mine. I let the pressure build until it’s just me and the sounds she can’t keep to herself. My hands are tight around my cock and I bite back every sound she wrings out of me. I let it simmer and boil and fucking sear through my chest until I can’t take any more.
She cries out again, and the world unravels.
My heart slams against my ribs, fists I’ve felt on her body. My throat is raw. It takes everything I have to keep from giving myself away, but I know I can hold on longer than she can. Her back arches and she goes limp, sweat glistening in the dim light, and still I’m not finished.
Her obliviousness gets me harder than I want to admit. My pace never slows. I’m full of heat and pulse and lust. I stay on the edge until her breathing finally goes soft.
I close my eyes and remember her face. Not as good as when she was sleeping, but enough. I imagine her eyes and voice and skin, remember them telling me her story. The cabin’s almost ready for us, which me to call Noah and hurry him the fuck along. I’ve been more patient than I’ve ever been, and Harbor is still mine.
I’m her obsession, even when she doesn’t know it. Especially then. I’m the danger she craves.
The intensity fades into satisfaction as she falls asleep, not knowing how close I am, how hard I am for her. My body coils tight and releases. I’ve never felt this alive. The room spins, then settles as I come onto the counter, soaking her manuscript with it.
There will be no question now. She will know that someone is obsessed. Possessed by the demon that is her.
I move like I’m part of the shadows, leaving everything the way I found it. Everything except my imprint.
Everything is almost in place. Slipping out of her door and locking it behind me, I head down the dingy hall and out into the street before grabbing my phone and calling that do-gooder cousin of mine. He ignores my call, and it goes to voicemail. Fucking prick.
“Better be out of there, Noah. My patience is wearing thin. I’ve been learning to go slow, but fuck man, you’re really testing me here. If you’re not out in two days, I’m coming, and we can all have a happy little family reunion.”
I hang up, pissed that he’s ignoring me and try Slade. He’d been emailing me to attend some business shit for days and I wasn’t replying, but now that I’ve gotten off, and have every intention of taking Harbor to the woods soon, I need to deal with this shit.
“What the fuck, Kairo? Where have you been.” His angry voice shouts down the line. “I can’t keep these fucking vultures off our backs on my own!”
I roll my eyes. Sometimes he has such a flair for the dramatics. Those vultures were my uncles investors. Noah’s dad. Who died and left some of his more… underhanded business dealings to me. In turn, I hired my friends. The most profitable of the businesses is the energy sector. We find and curate raw material to turn them into ‘energy efficient’ batteries.
So, we took it and ran with it, implementing new strategies for mining cobalt. Not all of them legal, but what the fuck does it matter if we get paid? Slade runs security, Knox deals with the paperwork and Creed does any and all of our construction, surveillance, etc. Whatever we need, essentially. Our wildcard. We can do it all. The dream team.
About a week ago, we got a call that someone was watching our dealings in Africa, and they wanted to make life rather difficult for us. To push us out of the business and claim market share. We harvest our cobalt in the mines overseas, and we’d hit the jackpot. Put down a claim before our competitors did.
And then I caught wind that the CEO of Enerinc, think his name was Julian, is over there, causing issues for my employees. I sent Slade to track his movements and deal with it. Even a week of no work put us behind our quarterly projections, and I don’t fucking appreciate my bottom line being impacted. Our choice became pay more, or fall behind.
Slade did what Slade does and took care of the problem. Our employees returned to work, and everything went back to normal. I’d missed most of the board meetings about it, but from what I gather, it was causing waves with our board because the Energinc CEO’s untimely disappearance was linked to Slade.
Something about photos, blah, blah, blah. Shit no one cares about at the end of the day.
Creed’s been scrubbing the internet of all traces of him ever being in Africa, but now Slade is left to deal with the fallout since I couldn’t be fucked to bother.
“Whatever, Slade. It’s not a big deal. Just tell them what they want to hear.” I walk down the street, heading towards the bar.
“I can’t, Kairo! They want to see you! Mr. Cross left the business to YOU, not me! You need to come and fucking deal with this!” Slade is pissed. Never seen him this hyped up, actually. “I don’t fucking want to deal with the board, or the investors. I have other shit I need to do.”
It was killing my buzz.
“Calm your tits. I’ll be there tomorrow evening. Just keep stringing them along until then. And don’t delete anything that makes it look like we’re panicking. Just manipulate whatever they have that Creed couldn’t scrub. Maybe you were there on vacation. Actually, I want Creed on the ground there. He’s better at lying than you.”
“I fucking hate you sometimes, Kairo.” Dramatic was one thing, but this is something else. He only ever got like this when something… or someone has his attention. “I just got back from Africa and now I’m dealing with this shit. It’s not my issue. Book me a flight back out next week. There’s something else I need to deal with over there.”
Ah, so it was a someone . I don’t care enough to ask for details. A woman would be good for him. Maybe level him out a bit. Make him easier to control. “Fine. I’ll book your flight, if you get the investors off my back. Get Knox to help you lie if you have to. He’s good at that.”
“Fuck you, Kairo.”
“Nah, I got a warm pussy waiting to do that. Once you deal with the board, you can go get yours.” There’s silence on the other end and know he’s heard me. Knox had better have not bitched out on me as well, because this is the last thing I need to deal with, especially when I’m so close to getting what I want.
I hang up and shove my phone in my pocket just as I hit the bar. It’s packed, but I see a few girls I’d gotten to know. Always here on a Friday night. Fake blonde, fake tits, fake lips. Nothing wrong with it. They’re all sexy enough, but they’re not my girl.
I saunter up to the bar to grab a drink, and one of them is bold enough to stand up and greet me with a kiss on the cheek. “Where have you been? We thought you’d ditched town or something.”
I smile, but it’s not like the ones I gave Harbor. “Had some business to take care of. Glad to see some familiar faces.”
“Want to take care of some more business right now?” She has her hand on my leg, and I can’t help but think how much better it would be if she was Harbor.
“Nah. I’m good.” I remove her hand, but she brings it back, puts it closer to my fully soft cock. She grins, batting her eyelashes and I roll my eyes. “Get the fuck off me.”
She huffs, and steps back like she was slapped. “Well excuse me! Fuck you!”
I laugh as her and her gaggle of friends leave, offended I didn’t want to take them up on their offer, but I didn’t give a fuck. Ever since I laid eyes on my girl, nobody compares.
Just gotta deal with this shit tomorrow, make Noah evacuate the cabin and then she’s mine.