Chapter 3
The Monster
I don’t enjoy punishing my girl, especially when I can see the fear in her eyes when I tell her what I’m going to do with her. But watching her give into me and trust me all over again was worth it. I can feel guilty about what I did later, but right now, I’m going to enjoy being this close to her.
What I hated even more than punishing her was watching that boy put his hands all over her. I could tell she wasn’t into it, but was determined to do it anyway. She was doing it to prove that she’s over me, but we both know she isn’t. She wants to be, but I won’t let that happen.
While she watched me licking my blood and her arousal off the handle of the knife, her eyes drooped. When I picked her up and carried her to bed, she didn’t fight me. I had to fight myself from climbing into that bed and holding her in my arms all night. She fits so perfectly against me, it should be a crime for us to be apart.
Now, she’s laying in her bed, tucked into her covers as I stroke her hair, lulling her to sleep.
“You didn’t come for me,” she cries, and it’s not until then that I realize her cheeks are damp from the tears streaming down her face.
“I came, baby. As fast as I could,” I remind her. I wish it could have been faster, but I came for her the night I woke up.
“No, no, no,” she cries, getting louder as she talks. “I won’t come into the basement again, I swear!”
She’s not talking to me. She’s dreaming, remembering me as the monster she used to have nightmares about.
I left her alone for too long. I thought this time would be good for her, so she could come to terms with what happened to her while she was with Guerra. Instead, she made me the monster again.
“Shhh, little one. You’re safe. I won’t hurt you,” I promise her. I’ll never hurt her again.
For half the night, I stay there, running my fingers through her hair and watching her sleep. After my promise not to hurt her, she calmed down and drifted into a peaceful sleep. Her light snores fill the room as my body stiffens from kneeling next to her bed for too long. As much as I would love to climb into this bed and wake up with her tomorrow, I can’t. We’re basically starting from square one, and I’ll have to tread carefully.
“Good night, little one. This time, I will see you soon,” I tell her as I stand up, stretching out my sore muscles. I place a gentle kiss on her forehead as she stirs, reacting to me leaving without even being conscious of it. Maybe I won’t have to work as hard as the first time around.
“To be honest, I thought I would be in a much better mood after tonight. But, as it turns out, I’m not happy. Not even a little. You see, when you went behind my back and kidnapped my girl, you did some irreparable damage. She doesn’t even see me as a person anymore,” I rant.
I get out my frustrations from the evening, glad to be talking to someone that won’t interrupt me. Well, he can’t interrupt me, because then he would have to endure more pain. Listening to me complain about my love life is definitely the least painful torture I’ve put him through.
“I think I can win her back, though. I definitely won’t be as easy on her this time, because I want to remind her how strong she is.”
Alex releases a sob he’s been trying to hold in, reminding me I’m talking to a prisoner and not a therapist. “Oh, well, one good thing came out of tonight,” I tell him.
I smile wickedly, hoping to freak him out as much as possible. He deserves it.
“Last chance. Where is he?”
Silence. Though, from the shaking of his entire body, I can tell he knows how serious I am about this being his last chance.
Stalking closer to him, I wait for him to speak up, but he only releases another sob.
With an annoyed sigh, I pull the knife out of my pocket and stick it through his neck. His eyes widen as he realizes what happens, and then he’s gurgling his own blood as he struggles to get a breath.
“If I’m going to win my girl back, I don’t have time to stay home and torture you every night,” I tell him, sounding sad as I say it. Torturing him really has brought me joy, but I was growing tired of it. I only kept him around because I couldn’t get to Ainsley.
The light dies in Alex’s eyes as he stops struggling for air. Blood drips from his mouth, and he goes limp. He’s finally dead. I pull the knife out of his throat, now coated in his blood, my blood, and Ainsley’s orgasm.
I pick up my phone and make a call to my new head of security. A fancy title for what he does, but it fits for legal purposes. “I killed him. When you get a chance, dispose of the body.”
I hang up, not waiting for a response. Over the last three months, we’ve worked closely together, and I’ve trusted him with the most precious thing in the world to me. I don’t need him to tell me he’ll clean up my mess, because I know he will.
As I walk up the stairs into my house, I open up my phone to send Ainsley a good morning message. No more days will go by without us talking, and if she thinks she can ignore me, she’ll have to learn another lesson.
Me: Good morning, little one. I left you a little present on your nightstand. Hope you enjoy.
I smirk, imagining her exact reaction when she opens the present. I bought it forever ago, intending to give it to her one day, but then our happy little bubble popped and everything changed.
Instead of just imagining it, I pull up the camera feed to check if she’s awake. As she pops up on the screen, she’s setting her phone down on the nightstand and looking around. She must have left the sound on for her phone, because she looks like she just woke up. It wouldn’t be the first time one of my messages woke her up.
When she finds the present, she opens it up with some hesitation, acting like there’s going to be a spider inside or something. And when she sees what’s inside, she shuts it and throws it across the room, acting like there really is a spider inside.
I laugh to myself as I close out of the camera app. That definitely wasn’t the reaction I was hoping for, but it was exactly the reaction I expected.
Last time, it only took me three weeks until she accepted me and came into my bed on her own. I didn’t push or rush her; she came on her own.
This time, I’m going to push. And this time, I’m not holding back from using all of my talents to make her fall for me all over again. If I have to take her to bed every single night until she’s done seeing me as the monster, then I’ll be there every night with a new present.
My phone vibrates on the table as I walk away to get some breakfast, pulling me right back in.
Ainsley: That wasn’t funny, and I don’t want it. Take it back.
I laugh, a full belly chuckle. The first one I’ve had in a very long time. Of course, she would be the one to bring it out of me.
Me: Remember when we met last semester? At that Halloween shop? When I left that shop, I went straight to buy that. I’ve held onto it ever since, knowing it would belong to you one day.
It’s true. I hadn’t planned on buying it so soon, but after seeing her reaction to me that day, I was too excited not to go buy it.
This time, I set my phone down and actually walk away from it, needing to get some food to fuel myself for the day ahead. I should be bothered that it’s already morning, but I’ve lost so much sleep searching for the men that hurt Ainsley over the past few months that I don’t even realize I haven’t slept until it’s been a few days. And even then, I only sleep for a few hours at a time.
When I return to the table with my toasted bagel and cream cheese spread on top of each half, I sit down and look at my phone. She ignored my message. Pulling up the camera feed to see if she’s still in bed, I find her staring at the corner of the room she threw my present in, sulking to start her day.
I click through my phone until I hit dial for her number, and then pull up the camera to see what she’ll do.
By the surprise on both of our faces, neither of us thought she would answer my call. She stares at the screen for a second after hitting answer, probably trying to decide if she should talk to me or just hang up.
“I don’t want it,” she tells me again when she talks to me, choosing to skip the greeting.
“That’s not why I called,” I tell her. “I have two choices for you. I can take you out for a nice dinner tonight so we can talk, or I can just sneak into your room and make you come again.”
Even through the camera, I can see the blush rising on her cheeks.
“I love seeing you blush, Ainsley,” I practically purr at her. She jerks her head around, looking for the camera with no luck.
“I choose neither,” she answers. “I don’t want to see you again, don’t you get it?”
She puts the phone on speaker and drops it on her bed so she can curl her knees up to her chest and rest her forehead on them.
“You don’t want to see me because you’ve convinced yourself I’m the monster waiting to scare you in that basement,” I tell her. “But you realized how wrong you were about me the first time, so now I just need to remind you why you fell in love with me in the first place.”
“You are a monster,” she spits at me, her head still held against her knees so I can’t see her face. “You promised you’d keep me safe, but they took me from you anyway. They took me and threw me into hell, and you didn’t come until it was almost too late.”
I deserve that. I deserve every word she’s throwing at me, because I’ve already told myself all of this. She was hurt because I pushed her into this life, which makes everything that happened to her my fault. I know it would be best if I let her go, but I’m a selfish man.
“Get it all out, baby. Yell, cry, do whatever you need to do to me so you can feel better. You can even beat me up when you see me tonight. But just know, whatever you do, I’ve already done to myself a million times. I’ve lived with the guilt of what happened since you were taken, and I’ve beaten myself up every single day. Throw your accusatory words at me, but you can’t make me feel worse than I already do.”
She lifts her head up so her chin is resting on her knees, and I can see the tears streaming down her face. It makes me feel even worse for telling her all of that.
“You will see me tonight, Ainsley. You can beat me up, I can lie in bed with you while you sleep and take your nightmares away, or you can just cry in my arms. It’s your choice, but I’m not going anywhere. If I didn’t make it clear enough last night, you belong to me.”
More silence as she takes in what I just told her. I wish she would say something, but I’m also glad she’s not telling me to stay away from her.
Suddenly, an idea must pop into her head because she perks up and grabs the phone.
“It’s Spring break. Even if you’re determined to be with me, I can leave. Take a vacation somewhere and get away from you and your cameras. Maybe even find a guy on a beach somewhere and have drunk sex with him.”
It’s almost insulting how she’s acting like she doesn’t even know me. Does she really think I would let her go that far away and not follow her?
“As intriguing as sex on the beach is, you’ll be having it with me, not some other guy. If you would like me to take you to the beach, all you need to do is ask, little one.”
She jerks around, looking for the camera again with a sneer on her face.
“I want nothing from you,” she growls at me, putting as much venom in her words as she can.
“I’ll see you tonight, Ainsley.”
I hang up the phone and watch as she throws hers face down on the nightstand before disappearing from my view.
Well, I can certainly give her a break from school, if that’s what she wants. She already hates me, and it worked the first time. Why not this time, too?