Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 79781 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79781 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Who the fuck are you, behind that wall?
I lay out the picnic blanket under a particularly shady tree and sit down, bringing out my lunch.
Roman goes and sits on a nearby bench, folding his arms and watching me.
“You know, you can just come sit with me,” I call over to him. “We both know you’re following me at this point.”
“I don’t want to sit with you. I want to sit near you, and observe.”
I pull out my little container of strawberries and pop one in my mouth.
“I saw you last night,” I tell him.
“Excuse me?”
“It was cute when you were following me on the quad at midnight with that clove cigarette,” I continue. “Didn’t know you smoke. Almost went up and asked you for one—”
Roman stands up and finally walks over to my picnic blanket, his expression turning to stone. “What?”
“Quit blushing, Roman.”
“No. I haven’t smoked a cigarette in over a year, Tate. Who did you see following you on the quad?”
The smile falls from my face. “It was you. I thought it was you, at least?”
“Midnight last night, I was in the front room of Onyx House, definitely not smoking on the quad. I knew I should have stayed out to watch you. What were you doing outside?”
I narrow my eyes at him. “I’m not allowed to leave my cage of a dorm, now?”
“Why were you out?”
“Because I was bored and I wanted to fuck with you,” I tell him, irritation rising in my voice. “I was going to go for a walk around the quad, then come up behind you and scare you. But by the time I finished the lap, you were gone. Or… whoever it was, was gone.”
He shakes his head. “Not good.”
I bite my lower lip, thinking. “Wait. I guess that means that could have been the guy who left the stone with the note.”
He sits down on the picnic blanket, and the dark blue of his eyes lands on me like fire. “Tell me what you found.”
“Shit. I woke up this morning and there was a… gift at my door. A heavy black rock with a red bow on it. The rock had some symbol carved on it.”
Roman sits up tall, and I can’t help but drag my gaze over his body.
He’s pissed off at me.
Clearly.
But when he’s like this, he also looks fucking hot, and his stature becomes even more imposing.
“You have a dedicated stalker leaving things at your door and you don’t come to tell me about it? You don’t call your brother?”
I swallow. “There was also a note with it.”
When I tell him what the note said, he looks angrier than I’ve ever seen him.
“You didn’t call me,” he says.
“I honestly forgot about it, until right now—”
“I cannot wake up one morning to find out you have been killed,” he says suddenly, his voice forceful, with a stronger accent than usual.
It’s incredibly intimidating.
The way he says it makes it sound like something like that may have happened to him before.
Did someone in his life get killed?
Is that why he has this intense edge that only sometimes rears its head?
Why do you have the ability to suddenly transform into someone this fucking scary?
5
Roman
The fool.
“You will come to Onyx House tonight,” I tell Tate, running my hands through my hair as I look up at the leaves gently blowing in the breeze.
“Give me a break.”
“You will do what I say, Tate. I need to keep you close until I find who left you the present.”
A heavy weight settles in my chest.
I’m the real fool.
I’ve been sitting here thinking that nothing threatening has happened to Tate, when in reality, I just hadn’t been doing my job well enough.
His gaze pierces mine. “How close, Roman? You going to tie me to your bed?”
“Don’t fucking say that to me,” I roar at him.
My voice is too loud.
A few girls walking down a nearby path look over at us, but I ignore it, staring straight into Tate’s wide eyes.
I want to reach over and clutch his throat.
I could cut off his air for a moment, show him my control, and stop him from saying these intensely distracting things to me that confuse my cock when there are serious things to deal with.
You don’t know what I can do with good bondage, boy.
He still has no clue about my family.
The things I’ve endured.
I give him a cold stare, imagining every knot I could fasten around his strong arms to restrain him; to show him exactly how good I am at getting people to do what they’re told.
I could have him begging me.
Pleading and desperate, within minutes.
Fuck him so hard he screams, make a mess of him with my cum, and leave him tied up and begging for release I wouldn’t give, and fuck, I really am losing it, because I want to see him like that. Tied up, just for me.