Chapter 14 - Malcolm
Malcolm
Survival, evasion, resistance, and escape: how to avoid enemy capture, and what to do if it happens.
During my training, the first instruction I received before I was dropped into the wilderness with barely any gear and then got hunted down was to stay alert, stay alive, and don’t get caught.
June was on my mind all day, constant replays of the night before keeping me on edge with sexual frustration. I don’t know how I got any work done. All I thought about was how I couldn’t wait for another chance to taste her pussy.
It was a hard fight tonight keeping my hands to myself as we spent time together. I tried to escape to bed, but there she was, staring up at me with admiration in her pretty brown eyes, a beautiful smile on her lips as she called me her hero.
Our kiss set me on this path, and when she returned it, there was no turning back. I waited long enough to make sure she was asleep, then I leapt through the window of opportunity without looking.
More like I lapped without looking to see if she was fully asleep. I didn’t stay alert and I got caught giving my best friend’s daughter an even filthier bedtime kiss than the one before.
Fuck. This is bad.
So horned up, I hadn’t prepared for this possibility at all. What do I do? What do I say? Her shock is waning, betrayal setting in. She scrambles away from me, yanking the sheet over her body to cover herself, distrust written all over her face.
“How could you do that to me, Malcolm?” she demands.
My days on the hero pedestal are over, and I lost the privilege of the affectionate Mal too. Even though, now more than ever, I deserve the nickname since I’m bad.
It reminds me of how my mom would refer to me by my full name when I pissed her off as a kid. Malcolm Frederick Bowen. Just as it did back then, shame tightens in my chest.
I stand. My erection pressed against my boxers worsens this tense situation. I consider covering it but there’s no point trying to preserve my decency after my indecent act.
June darts her gaze lower, her lips parting as a scandalized look replaces her distrust. She tightens her grip on the sheet.
Resistance should be the goal now that I’ve been caught. Don’t give out any vital information. Then escape. But I can’t just turn around and leave, and I have to do damage control. I have to tell her the truth.
“Because I want you. I’ve wanted you since the day you showed up at your parents’ house.”
Her eyes widen, her mouth still open. Then she closes it and scowls.
“That didn’t give you the right to take what you want without my consent!” she spits. “What you did was wrong. What you want is very wrong!”
“I told myself the same things. I just…” I scrub my hand through my hair. “…I couldn’t help myself. I’m sorry.”
Truthfully, I’m not sorry about what I did. Why would I be when I got to enjoy her? I only feel bad that she thinks less of me now.
“You couldn’t help yourself? That’s your excuse?” She scoffs. “I trusted you to keep me safe from someone who wanted to take advantage of me, and you turned around and did it yourself!”
And it wasn’t the first time either.
If I admit that, she’ll be on the phone with the police within seconds, and I wouldn’t blame her. Hell, it’s possible she’ll do it once this conversation is over.
Heavy, suffocating silence fills the room as I struggle to think of what to say to fix this mess I made. A faint click outside June’s room grabs my attention. It sounded like a door being unlocked.
On high alert, I turn away from June and stride to her bedroom door as quietly as possible.
“What—” June starts to say. I cut her off by raising my hand while I strain to listen.
Another gentle click, like a door being carefully shut.
Light, measured footsteps moving closer.
Someone’s in the apartment.
I press my finger to my lips, then hide behind the door. June’s confused expression tightens with fear. I hold perfectly still, cold fury in my gut as I wait for the fucker to make his appearance.
He eases the door open and steps inside. The hood of his dark blue sweatshirt and his black balaclava hides his face.
The calm silence is abruptly ruined by sound and movement. June cries out and scrambles off the bed. I come up behind the asshole and hook my arm around his neck in a chokehold.
Predictably, he tries to yank on my arm but I’m a snare trap. The more he struggles to get free, the more I tighten my hold, pressing against the sides of his neck. Less than ten seconds. That’s all it’ll take to put him to sleep.
“Get off me!” he chokes out as he thrashes against me, his voice muffled by his mask.
Extreme desperation must have kicked in. He summons enough strength to shove me backward. A hard edge jabs me in the back, and I’m vaguely aware it’s June’s dresser as the sudden pain makes me loosen my hold.
The bastard squirms free and flees the room. I chase after him while June has her phone pressed to her ear, frantically alerting the person on the other end that an intruder is in her apartment.
Don’t let him get away!
But he’s fast. He’s already halfway down the hall when I burst out of the apartment, his feet a dark blur in his black pants and boots as he books it toward the rear exit.
My anger climbs at the distance between us, and that I’m likely not going to catch him. When I exit the building, it’s just in time to see him take a flying leap over the retaining wall. He rapidly disappears down the quiet street.
“Fuck!”
My heavy breathing whistles through my nostrils, my hands balled tight with the desperate need to hit something. Preferably that motherfucker who just slipped out of my grasp.
I rub the tender spot in my back where the dresser jabbed me. My only consolation is that fucker is definitely going to feel that jump when the adrenaline wears off. It’s at least a ten-foot drop from that wall.
I look up at the inky expanse above as I exhale, the streetlights and the building’s exterior lighting obscuring the stars.
Fucking fuck. I was supposed to catch him, knock him around a little, then hand him over gift-wrapped to the police. June would be able to rest easy going forward.
Well, maybe not. After what she caught me doing to her tonight, she’ll probably sleep with one eye open as long as I’m around.
That’s if she’ll even let me back inside the apartment.
* * *
I head to the building’s main entrance door, wondering if I’m doomed to sleep outside in just my t-shirt and underwear.
A short moment later, I’m relieved when June comes into view. She stops in front of the door and we stare at each other through the glass until she speaks first.
“What happened?”
“He jumped over the wall and got away.” I pause, indicating the door. “Are you going to let me in?”
She folds her arms. “If you were me, would you let yourself in?”
“If I say yes, you’ll say I’m lying. If I say no, I’ll be the dumbass who has to sleep in his truck bed.”
“Maybe you should sleep in your truck bed. And I hope that it rains or there’s a freak hail storm.”
While her vindictiveness is amusing, there’s a determined glint in her eyes that convinces me she’s going to abandon me in the lobby. I’m surprised when she unlocks the door and pulls it open.
She turns and marches down the hallway to the apartment. I trail behind her, forcing myself to keep my gaze high and stop staring at her perfect ass in her shorts.
Christ. I can’t believe I’m still lusting after her on the heels of being caught with my hand—no, my fingers—in the cookie jar. I’m a grown man with discipline. Not some fucking horny teenager with zero impulse control.
But now that things are calmer, I’m more aware of her scent lingering on my face. Breathing puts me in danger of another erection.
The police show up shortly after, along with a detective this time. The detective questions us separately. I half-expect June to tell him about what went down before the intruder showed up, and beg him to arrest me too. I’m relieved she doesn’t.
It’s almost three in the morning when the police finally leaves. Palpable silence fills the apartment until June breaks it.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to live here.” She rises from the loveseat, an uncomfortable look on her face as she avoids my gaze. “You need to leave tomorrow.”
I shake my head. “I’m not going anywhere. Not with that guy still on the loose. You’re not safe here by yourself.”
“I’m not safe with you either.”
She has a point, but her words irritate me anyway. I don’t like that she believes she’s as unsafe with me as she is with the stranger who’s been breaking into her home.
While the intruder and I share an obsession with her, and have pursued her in unethical ways, only one of us truly cares about her. Only one of us walked through fire for her and would do it again without a second thought.
“I’ve never hurt you, June. And I never will. You don’t need to be afraid of me.”
She gives me an incredulous look.
“Are you serious? You touched me while I was sleeping!”
“But I didn’t hurt you. I gave you pleasure. The way you were moaning for me, you got plenty of it too. A little longer and I would’ve made you come, but you woke up.”
She opens and closes her mouth, a soft flush rising to her cheeks.
“That—that doesn’t matter. You shouldn’t have—”
“For all your protesting, you conveniently forget that when I kissed you earlier tonight, you kissed me back. You shouldn’t have done that.” I move closer, lowering my voice. “You were moaning when I had you up against the wall too. You wanted me to fuck you right then, didn’t you?”
“No.”
The word is immediate and she drops her gaze, her body language revealing. I smile in triumph. All this time, I thought my feelings for June were one-sided. I was wrong.
“Sweetheart, we both know that’s a lie.”
I reach for her and pull her to me. I ignore the voice telling me not to do it as I lean down and brush my lips over hers. Unlike earlier, she resists, twisting her face away while pushing against my chest.
“Mal, we shouldn’t… not again... it’s wrong.”
I press a kiss to her neck. “Who says it’s wrong?”
“Everyone!” she gasps, trembling.
“Then everyone can fuck off.”
I suck the spot where her pulse is ticking faster. She lets out a sound that’s part whimper, part moan, arching her neck despite her balled fists digging into my chest. Fuck. It’s sexy as hell. Holding her soft body in my arms turns me on too.
She squirms, still trying to escape. I walk her backward and press her against the wall beside her bookshelf. My hand at her throat, I don’t give her another chance to resist or escape me when I kiss her again.
I’m burning for her, my need for her climbing when I slip my tongue between her lips and she opens them for me. I groan as our kiss deepens and she trembles against me, swirling her tongue with mine.
The purpose of this kiss was to show June that she wants me the same way I want her, but I’m losing the original plot. All I want to do now is consume her. Taste every fucking inch of her. Make her come when she’s wide awake so she knows it’s me giving her pleasure.
I slip my hands under her thighs and lift her, then turn and head for her bedroom.