Chapter 7
ISABELLA
I’m sitting on the couch when I see Slade walk in.
His hair is wet from his shower and he’s wearing a white T-shirt and black shorts. He looks so fresh and clean.
I didn’t even know he was home.
I have my laptop in front of me, trying to figure out how to start writing this new chapter, which is supposed to have another torture scene.
I would have gone in my room but I wanted some background noise so I put the TV on.
“Are you writing?”
“Yea, another torture chapter. Kind of having trouble with it.”
“Let me see what you got,” he says as he sits down next to me, his thigh brushing my bare one.
I’m wearing cotton shorts and a tank top. Feeling his bare skin touching mine makes goosebumps appear on my skin.
I hand him my laptop and pull the blanket over my lap to cover my legs. I watch him, the light from my computer reflecting on his face.
I heard him come home a few days ago but right when I called out to him he shut his bedroom door. I usually get home after him and he has just been staying in his room, probably showering and doing god knows what else in there.
His room is the one place in the house I haven’t been to and I’m so curious about what’s in there or what it looks like.
I’m sure it’s clean because like he said, he likes everything spotless.
I glance down at his biceps and see the way they flex and unflex, his muscles straining through his shirt.
I still cannot understand how perfect he is.
“This is pretty good but I would add a few more things,” he tells me while giving me my laptop back.
“Like what?” I ask.
“You should show more of what’s going on in his mind to prepare for the torture. Who is the person he’s killing?” he asks, resting his hands over his strong thighs.
“It’s a pedophile.”
He nods. “Okay, what did he do to the girl?”
I think for a minute, still not really sure. “He took her from school first.”
“Okay, so what you wanna incorporate, for the torture part of the chapter, destroying his hands first since he obviously used his hands to take her right?” He raises an eyebrow at me and I nod.
“Alright so maybe a mallet to destroy his hands or a knife to cut his hands open to the point where you can see his bone.”
I chuckle softly. “Wow, you are not holding back, are you?”
Slade shrugs. “I mean I read criminal psychology books, so I guess it fucks with my mind a bit.”
“Why do you read them?”
“Because I find them interesting. I like learning about new things as well.”
I write the first part of the chapter as Slade watches me silently. I can’t help but feel nervous under his gaze.
It’s like he’s trying to capture every word I type, and I just hope that it makes sense by the time I’m done. I always check my writing after I finish a section.
Slade shifts while I’m writing and part of the blanket falls from my thigh. I watch his reflection in my computer screen. He glances down. I turn my head slightly to see what he’s looking at and his gaze is on my thigh.
I stop typing and try to relax.
It’s not anything serious. It’s just when he stares at me, I get nervous and suddenly I forget what I’m even supposed to be doing in that moment.
Slade looks up and his eyes catch mine. They go down to my lips, making me lick them. His pupils darken and he looks like he’s going to ravish me and make me scream his name.
My body feels hot and the spot between my legs is sensitive. “Where have you been the past two days?”
“Don’t worry about it.”
I furrow my eyebrows. “You can’t just pop in and not expect me to wonder what you’re doing.”
“You don’t even know me, Isabella. We’ve had what? Five conversations?” He raises an eyebrow. “There’s a reason I don’t come here.”
“And what is it?” I tilt my head, wondering what he could mean.
His eyes go to my lips again before locking with mine. “I’m trying to hold myself back, but if you keep tempting me, Isabella, I’ll take that as my sign to release the tight leash I have on myself and fucking take you.”
My eyes go to his lips this time and he groans faintly.
He sighs and then looks at my computer. “Show me what you have.”
I’m still trying to calm my racing heart as I give him my computer.
Now my core is pulsing and all I want is for him to take off that leash and grab me like he is telling himself not to.
I want him, he wants me.
The tension is there.
We’re just both denying it and holding back as best as we can.
Slade reads what I wrote and types a few more things before he nods and hands me my computer back. “I’m going to sleep. What you have is good so keep working on it.”
He gets up from the couch and walks towards his room.
I let out a breath I’ve been holding and try to calm down, replaying every word he said and every look he gave me.