34. Chapter 34 – Peyton
Chapter 34 – Peyton
M y hand itched to pull the phone out of my purse as I walked up the steps to my apartment so I could look in on Dane.
Lincoln.
Fuck , whatever his name was.
But I refrained, because who knew what I’d see when I opened the cameras to stalk him. It seemed like his favorite activity was jacking off for me.
Me.
For me. To me. About me.
All of it.
He did it multiple times a day. And I was obsessed . My mouth literally salivated when he’d strip down and wrap his big hand around his cock to stroke it for me. But my favorite part of all was what he said when he did it.
Damn, his mouth was filthy.
And endearing.
Who knew a man could be both at the same time?
But Dane could.
Or Lincoln.
Fuck!
So instead of spying on him again for the millionth time this week, I refrained while I walked through my front door and even longer as I stripped out of my clothes and crawled into bed. I didn’t even bother with a shower.
Because I’d work up a sweat playing with myself while he jacked off at some point in the next few hours, I just knew it.
I was a sucker for that man.
My monster.
He didn’t need a name; I knew him inside and out. When I first opened the package, the idea of stalking him and spying on his every move had unnerved me. I didn’t understand why he’d want me to do that for him.
But it took only 2 days of watching him to understand his motive.
I finally knew him.
The real him. From watching him in his unguarded movements around the house and through his day without him putting on his mask or pretending to be anything else. Every now and then, he’d look at a camera I was watching him through, like he was trying to tell if I was there or not, but from what I could tell, he was clueless.
Which added to the appeal of it.
I was a ghost, afforded privileges that no one else in the world had. I had free access to my monster, and it almost felt as good as being there with him in person. Almost.
Not sure how much longer I’d be able to hold back from driving back to Hartington and begging him to let me back in, I promised myself that I’d lurk for tonight .
Hidden behind the screen of technology for just a little while longer. I thought he’d groveled for me long enough.
Even though it was late, thanks to yet again, another long shift at the hotel, I wasn’t surprised to find my monster still awake. I was, however, surprised to find him standing at the back door to the main house, looking out over the pool deck in silent thought.
“What are you doing, Monster?” I whispered to myself as I watched him. He stood there for a few minutes longer before silently opening the door and walking across the illuminated pool deck. At first, I cringed as he walked across the stone patio with his bare feet. The surface must have been heated because, despite there being a foot or more of snow on the grass, not a single flake was on the stone.
Brr. It was December in Boston, I’m sure it was still fucking cold.
He walked past the hot tub, eyeing it briefly like he was remembering the first night we met when he caught me coming on the jet, because that was the only thing I could think of every time I saw it.
But what had me sitting up in bed clinging to the screen like a lifeline was when he walked into the guest house and shut the door behind him.
I quickly changed views to the cameras he hid in the residence when I stayed there and found him walking through the dark space, straight into the bedroom. He pulled his shirt off over the back of his head and then crawled into the bed between the blankets. Grabbing the pillows that I had slept on, he brought one to his chest and buried his face into it, taking a deep breath as he burrowed deeper into the bedding.
“Come back to me, baby.” He sighed, laying on his side and staring at the wall. The night vision feature on the camera made his eyes glow, giving them an unhuman like hue. “Please, baby.”
He was sleeping in my bed because he missed me .
Before I could even think twice, I clicked the grayed-out icon on the bottom of the screen, turning it red as the microphone feature came to life.
“Dane.” I whispered, suddenly shy and second guessing my actions. I was revealing myself to him for the first time in months. But as he shot up in bed and stared directly at the camera in the corner with a look of pure shock on his face, I knew it had to be done. “I’m here.”
“Puppet.” He growled, kicking the blankets off and standing on the bed to get closer to the camera, and I’m guessing the speaker playing my voice. “Puppet!” He yelled when I hesitated.
“I’m here.” I repeated, as I sank back down into my own bed fighting the urge to pass out in anticipation of what he’d do now that I had crossed that divide between us.
“My god,” He whispered and sank to his knees in the center of my bed. His mouth opened and closed as he blinked at the camera like he suddenly was at a loss for words, before blurting out, “I love you.”
I smiled to myself and sighed at his declaration. Out of everything he could have said in that moment, his proclamation of love was most important to him. “Why are you in my bed?”
His lips turned up briefly in a devastating grin, and he scrubbed a hand over his face. “Because it’s the only place left that smells like you. It’s the only place I feel sane.”“I know the feeling.” I admitted.
“Have you been stalking me, Puppet?” He asked, still staring up at the camera.
I could hear the smile in my voice, “Nearly every second I can.”
“Let me see you.” He demanded, pulling his phone out of his pocket in a hurry, “Link to my phone.”
I hesitated, knowing once I did it, I’d be his again. Forever.
There would be no walking away for me after making that move. But it was what I wanted more than anything. So I changed cameras to his phone, overwhelmed by just how devastatingly sexy he was up close, and then clicked the camera icon to open my camera.
The relief in his body language took my breath away as his shoulders sagged and his eyes roved over the entire screen like he was trying to take in every last one of my features.
I was lying on my side with my phone held tight in my hands so he could see only my face as he laid back down on the bed and turned onto his side, mirroring me. It almost felt like we were laying in bed like two normal people, side by side instead of in the weird technological limbo we were always in.
“There she is.” He whispered with the ghost of a smile on his face. He looked so tired compared to what he looked like as my boss before everything fell to pieces. “Hi.”
“Hi.” I whispered back, fighting back the tears that always burned in the back of my eyes as I stared at his perfect face on my secret phone .
“Don’t cry, Puppet.” He sighed, “I’m sorry Peyton, you’ll never understand how fucking sorry I am.”
I shook my head and closed my eyes as the tears escaped, rolling down my temple into my pillow. “I know you are. It makes sense to me why you lied and chose to keep your true identity a secret.” I took a shuddering breath and opened my eyes again, “I don’t blame you for that anymore.”
Confusion furrowed his dark eyebrows together as he asked, “Then why are you crying?”
“Because I miss you.” I admitted, as fresh tears fell. “I miss both sides of you.”
He swallowed, staring back at me so intently. “Come home to me, baby. Just come back and we can start fresh.”
“How?” I wondered, “I have a job and responsibilities here,” I shook my head. “I can’t just quit.”
“Why?”
“Because there are no alternative options for a hotel manager near Hartington Estate, that’s why. And I have bills and—”
He growled and clenched his teeth together, silencing me with effortless power. “I’m a fucking billionaire, Puppet. Do you think I can’t take care of you?” He scowled deeper, “Or that I’d let you out of my sight again to go work for someone else?”
“I don’t understand.”
“I’m going to take care of you, every second moving forward, Peyton. You don’t need to work. You don’t need to worry about anything ever again.” I started to protest simply because no one had ever taken care of me before since I was a child, but he shook his head and silenced me. “I told you the very first time I slid inside of your body that I perfected myself for your wants and needs. Let me be your everything, because you’re mine.”
I mulled his words over in my head and couldn’t voice a single reason I shouldn’t give in and take everything he was offering me. Until the one reason reared its ugly head in the back of my conscience.
“Tell me about Tyson.” I said in response. “I need to know the truth.”
He watched me silently for a moment and then nodded. “He raped you, Peyton.” His words were so steady and strong it was like they held my frantically beating heart in place as I processed them. “He deserved far worse than I gave him.”
“You blinded him, didn’t you?” I questioned.
“He shared that video with his friends. He also watched it almost daily. So I took what was most precious to him.” As my heart stopped beating completely, he let out a sigh. “He’ll never see you again. He’ll never get to watch your pain and get pleasure from it, ever again.”
“Thank you.” I whispered, meaning it fully. “Thank you. ”
He didn’t respond immediately, as if he wasn’t prepared for the gratitude I expressed for such a heinous act. “You’re welcome.”
I swallowed and took a deep breath, feeling lighter with the truth coming out between us, so there were no more secrets. “I hate Florida.” Admitting it made me sad, because it made me long for him again that much more.
“Come home to me then.” He demanded passionately. “Come back.”
“I don’t even know what to call you.” I reminded him. “I don’t know how to just pick up my life and trust in someone else to carry it for me.”
He held my stare and took a deep breath, “Then I guess we keep doing this.” He nodded at the phone. “I guess we get to know each other the right way. Once you feel comfortable enough to trust me again, I’ll diligently gather every shattered fragment of your heart. The ones that are sharp, fragmented, and disintegrating, I’ll pick them all up every single day that you’re struggling to keep them all together. And only then will you know you’re safe. And loved. And mine.”
Tears fell again, but not in sadness this time, instead they fell for hope. Hope was more terrifying than anything else. But I still wanted to trust in it.
“Okay.” I smiled through the tears and nodded to him. “My name is Peyton Everett.” I wiped at my cheeks and braved on. “I’m a little dark and twisted on the inside, but I don’t know how to embrace it on the outside.”
He grinned wolfishly at me and then perfected his face like he was all business, “Peyton. My name is Lincoln Dane Bryce. And I’m a whole lot of dark and twisted on the inside and out. And I’ll teach you how to love all of that darkness inside of you.”