Chapter 32
Alana
It smelled like… woodchips? And grass, maybe. I wondered if I was still at the park. Those scents would fit.
When I woke up, I immediately remembered what had happened. I definitely should have been more freaked out, but I figured that if Erebus wanted me dead for my outburst, he would have killed me. There might have been worse things than death, yet I still didn’t feel as unnerved as I should have.
Maybe I was broken. Like, well and truly broken, fucked in the head, loony toons. Maybe I got into drugs after Jake died and I was actually having the worst trip of my life. It would be a really long trip, but time probably felt different when you were high as balls.
With a groan, I rolled onto my back. There were lights set into a ceiling, so we weren’t outside. The floor was smooth and solid; not concrete. Maybe marble.
My first, very unwelcome thought was that concrete was porous, so it sucked in terms of blood spillage. A floor like this would clean up easily and it could be scrubbed nicely with bleach. No little spaces for bodily fluid to get trapped and give away your secret serial killer status.
That was enough of that.
I sat up straight and was surprised that I didn’t feel woozy. Waking up from being choked half to death wasn’t as bad as I’d expected.
There was a creak like a door opening, then heavy footsteps. I scrambled backward and ran into something. With a pained cry, I turned around. Was that a hospital bed? Oh, he was definitely a serial killer.
“Erebus?” I called.
He reached the bottom of the stairs, mask on and probably ready to kill. In hindsight, I shouldn’t have mouthed off to him. I got too comfortable. This was a punishment.
My eyes burned as I wrapped my arms around my knees. “Are you going to kill me?”
“Is that a joke?”
“It’d be a really bad joke.”
“I agree.”
“Why’d you bring me to your villain’s lair? This is kidnapping, you know.”
He chuckled darkly, then strode toward me. I crab walked backward, maneuvering around the bed so that I could reach the wall. It was dumb because it left me with nowhere to go. He crouched in front of me and gently grabbed my chin.
“Kidnapping, Alana? You belong to me. Besides, I just had to do something here and I didn’t want to leave you alone.”
“Cool. So, take me home.”
“I brought you to my home and you don’t even want to look around? I thought you’d have questions. Maybe you can uncover all of my secrets.”
My eyes shifted from one side of the room to the other. There was a wall next to the staircase that looked a little different than the others. I scanned every inch of it and I could’ve sworn I saw the tiniest of grooves. Was it a secret door? That’d be impressive, but I couldn’t imagine what horrors he’d need to hide behind it.
He followed my gaze. “So observant,” he mused, running his fingers over my cheek. “Yet so blind to the things right in front of you.”
“I want to go home.”
“Okay. First, though, you still owe me that ‘thank you.’”
Grinding my teeth together, I angled myself away from his touch. “You haven’t done anything worthy of it.”
“God, you’re stubborn.”
“Where are you from? Ireland?”
“Sure.”
He stood but didn’t back up. As he stared down at me, my mouth went dry. Even though I couldn’t see his face, I knew something was going through his head that I wouldn’t like.
I dropped my gaze and saw the clear outline of his dick inside his jeans. He was hard. Was it just from being near me? My breaths picked up and my mouth went from dry to salivating.
His head cocked before he unbuttoned his pants. I tried to scoot back more, but I was already against the wall. When I dove to the side, he grabbed me by the hair and yanked me back, making me cry out at the sting in my scalp.
“Stop fighting me,” he said softly. His tone didn’t match the grip he had on my hair.
With his other hand, he pushed two fingers into my mouth. Because this was a godless existence, I sucked on them. He groaned, the sound so deep and throaty that it made me clench my thighs together.
“That’s it.” He unzipped his pants and pulled his dick free. I’d almost forgotten how big it was. “Can you be a good girl for me today?”
“What if I say no?”
“I can strap you to that bed and use you as I please.”
That shouldn’t have made me ache. With a small shake of my head, I reached for his dick. He sucked in a breath when I stroked the smooth skin, all the way to the base and back up. Stepping forward, he pressed the head against my lips. I met his eyes- or rather, the X’s where they should’ve been- and opened my mouth. He wasted no time thrusting to the back of my throat, making me gag violently.
He pulled back and moved at a gentler pace after that. I kept my hand on him, stroking him back and forth along with my mouth. Leaning forward, he braced one hand against the wall and threaded his fingers through my hair with the other. It wasn’t rough like before. It was loving and tender in a way that made me want to give him pleasure, to please him.
Every sound he made drove me on. He didn’t hold back his moans or sharp inhales. Each of them made me feel a strange sense of pride because I was drawing them from him. I’d never been so invested in this before. The only one I’d ever given oral to was Jake and it was nothing like this. It was a task, something to get done so that he’d be happy, but the way I wanted to make Erebus feel was different. It was more.
Sick or not, I was getting off on it. Wetness pooled between my legs and the ache in my core became a need, demanding and nearly painful.
As if he could sense what I felt, he said, “Touch yourself.”
With one hand, I scrambled to undo my jeans. I rose further up on my knees and shimmied them down enough for me to slip my fingers between my legs. They were enveloped by heat and quickly became slick with my arousal. I moved my hips, grinding against my fingers, but it didn’t feel like enough. Even when I slipped them inside of me, I wasn’t satisfied.
Pulling back, I took a gasping breath. “Please.”
“Please what?”
“I need more.”
“What are you asking for?”
I dropped my gaze, furrowing my brow as I tried to figure that exact thing out. Lust made my mind hazy and all I could think about was that need. But what did I want?
“You,” I replied simply. It was the only thing that sounded right.
He stood there for a few moments, just looking down at me. I didn’t know if he’d been breathing that heavily before or not. Suddenly, he grabbed my throat and pulled me to my feet. Instinctively, I grabbed his wrist, but I didn’t have to fight him because he released me, only to pick me up and carry me to the bed.
He sat down and settled me in his lap. I maneuvered the rest of the way out of my jeans, then moved my hips so that I could grind on his shaft. The slickness made me slide against him smoothly and we both groaned.
“Don’t forget this moment,” he said breathily. “You begged for my cock, Alana. There’s no going back as soon as you sit on it.”
I stared at the glowing X’s. My legs trembled with the effort to hold myself up when all I wanted to do was take him as deep as he could go. But now I was scared.
He ran a hand through my hair. “What’s going on up here?”
“I want to see you,” I whispered, reaching out to run my fingers over the mask. “Without all this.”
“Why?”
“You’re making these declarations, expecting me to go along with them when I don’t even know who you are.”
He cupped the sides of my neck with both hands. “It’s not important right now.”
“It is because as stupid as it is, I don’t think that I hate you. I might fucking like you, which is completely insane. I know that, but my body doesn’t seem to care. And if you have a horrifying face under all of that, maybe I’ll come to my senses and hate you again.”
The laugh that left him made my stomach somersault. It felt real, more real than I let myself believe Erebus was most of the time. He was fake, the shadow that crept along the outskirts of my actual life. Something about the way he laughed just now made me lean closer. I might have slipped a little further off the edge of my sanity.
Regardless of all the fucked up things he’d done to me, he’d protected me from Mike. He seemed to have my best interests at heart, even though his methods were monstrous at times. Who was he and what was his end goal?
“So,” he said, still sounding amused. “If I’m ugly, you’ll hate me, but if I’m hot, you won’t.”
“I don’t know. I’m grasping at straws here.”
“Stop grasping and ride my cock.”
“But…”
He gripped my hips and guided me down. My lips parted when his head slipped inside of me. It stung while also making me want more.
Flattening my palms against his chest, I eased myself further onto him. I stared down at his dick as it disappeared inside of me. Once I’d taken him to the base, he sat up and wrapped his arms around my waist. I hated that he was wearing the mask and hood, but I knew it wouldn’t do any good to say it again, so I just buried my face in his shoulder and lifted off of him. When I sunk down again, he tightened his grip on me.
“Nobody has ever felt the way you do,” he said.
The softness of his voice made me feel the same way as his laugh had. I pushed past it, trying to focus on what was in front of me.
“Let me see your face.”
I shook my head. “Let me see yours.”
He groaned when I began to move faster. “And what would happen then?”
There was no right answer to that, so I didn’t say anything. He met my descent with an upward thrust, forcing a cry from my lips. He did it again, reaching so deep that I felt like I’d break. His fingers dug into my hips before he flipped me onto my back. I wanted to protest, but he fucked me so hard and fast that I couldn’t form words if I tried.
“Erebus.”
He didn’t acknowledge me. Wrapping his arms around my legs, he pulled me closer so that my ass was nestled against his thighs and my ankles were over his shoulders. Every thrust made me dig my nails deeper into his legs as I held on for dear life.
I wanted to go back to what we were doing before, the sweet and loving touches, but he’d switched on me. There was a desperation to his movements that frightened me while also making me compliant. I wanted him to get what he needed, even if it ended up shattering me.
His hand moved between my legs and he used his thumb to circle my clit. My pussy clenched around him with the beginning of my orgasm. His rough movements somehow became more powerful and I was caught off guard by how hard I came. Dropping his head back, he bared his throat to me as he stilled, his dick twitching as he filled me with his cum. Something peaked out of the top of his sweatshirt, a hint of ink, barely enough to even notice.
His chin dipped as he rode out the last of the orgasm. Whatever I thought I’d seen faded away with the exhaustion that overcame me. My pussy ached and it was still quivering around his semi-hard shaft. He pulled back and I felt liquid pour out of me. After swiping his fingers through it, he brought it to my mouth. I was too tired to protest, so I just parted my lips and let him drag our cum over my tongue.
My eyes fell shut and I knew it wouldn’t be long before I was out cold. Maybe it should’ve scared me to fall asleep in this place- with him- but it didn’t. I felt safe, sheltered, protected.
“Thank you,” I murmured.
Lips pressed against my temple, then my mouth. “I love you, Alana. Always.”
Maybe I dreamed that part. I must have because there was no Irish lilt to the words. The way he said my name didn’t sound like Erebus at all.
Was it Jake? Sleep-addled delusions. That was all.