Arianna
We were still standing a breath away from each other when I try to clear my head. I needed space from him because I couldn't think straight. His voice, his eyes, his body heat, everything about him made me feel things I shouldn't about a man who stalked me for years and forced his way into my life without me being aware.
He was murderer too! Can't forget that fact.
Lightly pushing him away with my hands on his chest, I clear my throat," We should slow down. I need to think and I can't do that if you don't give me a choice to do what I want."
He still crowds me, like a big shadow, eyes like gold warm sunshine, watching something, waiting.
Pulling his hands away from my body, he puts them back to the desk, still not letting me go," I will give you anything you want. Just name it and it's yours," he murmurs seriously.
I lean back and look at him for a second," Anything? Even I say freedom from you?"
In the corner of my left eye, I see his right hand forming into a fist, his jaw clenching but his eyes hold me in place no matter how much I want to run away from him and not to feel these dangerous feelings growing inside of me.
"Anything but that. Freedom isn't in my heart's power anymore. You've belonged to me since the first time I saw you, there's no way you will walk away from me now," he growls, clearly upset about the thought of me not being in his life.
I sigh. This was harder than I expected to be.
"Do I need to convince you so you stay with me or you will be mine willingly? I don't like the fact that you don't see how well we belong to each other."
"You're so obsessed with me," I state the fact with feverish heat in my eyes, not believing how much this powerful handsome man wants me for just me.
His lips curl into a wicked smile," Be glad, sweetheart. I would kill for you again if you ask me to," his words drawl against my throat when he sees the opportunity to graze his lips against my fluttering pulse," I will conquer the world just for you. All you need to do is accept it and be mine."
Trying to suppress the moan from his crazy promises and offerings, the touch of his lips are burning my soul, afraid that my heart will follow with my betraying body along with it.
"Wait," I gasp when he bites my neck, sucking on the flesh feverishly, obviously, trying to give me a hickey.
"Yes, baby?" His hand pulls my shirt upwards behind my back before those dangerous fingers finds a way beneath my clothing, his hot hand trailing against my skin. It felt like he is distracting me.
"T-tell me the first time you killed someone," I blurted out, my words tumbling over letters when that hand on my back stilled and so his kisses against my neck.
Tightening his hold on me, his eyes blazed down at me," Why the sudden curiosity?"
"Well...like you said, I need to accept you so you need to tell me more about yourself. What drove you to keep...killing people," I didn't how to rephrase the question so I don't anger him so I waited for his reaction.
His expression gave me nothing that showed his emotions what he was feeling but I sensed the tension in the room when he pulled away from me completely. The sudden distance made me more nervous than before.
Still looking at me, he reached in the drawer and took a lighter along with a box of cigarettes. Taking one out, he slipped it between his teeth, the joint in the middle of those sinful lips which were on my skin a minute ago making him look like a gangster.
When lighter lit up, I grabbed the cigarette from his lips before I can help myself," I told you to stop smoking around me. I'm allergic to nicotine and the smoke. It makes me nauseous and if you would have known me well, you should have thought about that."
Drawing a deep breath, he closes the lighter lid and exhales," It helps me concentrate and get myself under control. Sorry, love. I can't think straight when it concerns you. Your question surprised me."
Dropping the cigarette on the desk, I take the lighter and do the same. Taking his hand in mine, I try to calm my racing heart," If you don't want to tell me, I will understand."
Vincent shuts his eyes close like remembering something painful. Straightening his posture, he steps back from me and turns to walk towards the liquor cabinet on my left by the wall which I saw when I first came in the office.
I silently watch him how he takes the bottle of whiskey and a glass for himself and I'm surprised that he isn't offering me some but since I didn't drunk alcohol, it was normal for him to know that detail as well.
When he pours the drink in the glass, he wastes no time to gulp it down his throat and swallowing the bitter taste. The whole action gives me tingles, seeing this man so under control, wearing that uniform.
The whole time his eyes are on me and I don't break eye contact with him even for a second.
"You don't really need to talk about it. I'm sorry that I asked. It's not my place to..." My words die down when his finger falls on my lips. They part from shock and his eyes glaze dangerously when that finger slips between my lips, tasting his salty but sweet flesh. His scent hitting my nose once again.
"Good girl," he whispers and withdraws his finger, taking my saliva with it.
Sucking the same finger inside his mouth, I feel like passing out but then he speaks again," You can ask me anything. You don't need to apologize, ever. It's just I try to forget that day."
"Okay," It's all I can say.
He continues," I was twelve that time. Living with my Ma. Dad passed away from a heart attack when I was five so my Ma was raising her child alone, trying to feed our bellies enough to survive. We were alone for some years and then she met this man. She fell in love with him quickly because he was this Prince Charming, always giving her gifts and all of that. Soon he made us move in with him. For a while, I thought we will be happy, my Ma wouldn't have to be alone anymore, even if we still grieved over my father's loss. I wanted her to be happy too so I accepted him as my step-dad.
She met him when I was nine and for a year or so everything was peaceful. We had a roof over our heads, a warm bed, food always on the table, I could apply to a better school but then eventually our peaceful life came crushing down when he started gambling his debts off, digging himself a bigger hole. The stress, the fear of losing everything he had made him lose himself in drinking and using narcotics. It lead him to start to abuse my Ma whenever she got out of line. Even I got myself in the way a few times because I tried to protect her but that one day he lost it when she received flowers from her coworker to cheer her up since she was feeling down lately.
There was nothing romantic going on but it didn't matter, he was so angry that he beat her up so badly, she wasn't recognizable when I came back home from school, seeing her crying on the floor in the living room. There was blood everywhere, the sight made me almost vomit when I noticed the monster himself drinking while sitting in the sofa, just watching my mom dying after he molested her body and I..." his words stop for the first time and my heart was splitting in two, imagining how horrible it has been for him to witness his mom dying.
Squeezing his hand, he shudders from the contact but more from the memory that plagued his mind ever since.
"I was scared that day. More for my Ma than myself because the man who I thought will be our future family, turned out to be the most horrible person in our lives. All I saw was red when he noticed me in the room. It was like he doesn't even see me properly. I remember his words clearly - 'See what happens when you make me angry? Don't be like your mother. She is nothing but a whore'- and kept drinking like he doesn't care that she is still laying there on the floor, bleeding out.
I didn't even waste a second when I rushed to the kitchen and took the biggest knife we had. He noticed it only when I lunged for him. The only thought was to kill him so he doesn't hurt my Ma anymore. He screamed when the bottle slipped from his hand on the floor, shattered glass shards with the liquid soaking the carpet. That distracted him for a second when I jumped on him and plunged the knife inside his stomach.
The pain didn't allowed him to defend himself when I kept stabbing him until his breathing stopped and his eyes looked empty as he slumped against the sofa, his body completely limp. Only then I felt relieved that he was gone for good."
I see tears forming at the corner of his eyes and my heart aches so hard that it was hard to breathe. No child should have to do something so horrific, just to save his only person in the world. He shouldn't have gone through that kind of life. The pain and suffering, it made him choose to save his mother from worse fate than it would have been if that monster would have been alive and keep ruining their lives.
"What happened after that? Is your mom doing okay?" I hug his waist when he wraps his arms around me, his one hand holding my head in place as he breathes at the top of my hair.
"When I went to my Ma after I killed that bastard, she was not breathing anymore. I called 911 to wait for medics to arrive, hoping they will save her but she was dead. I was in too much shock to even register what is happening. They saw the whole scene, seeing me the only one alive and luckily they didn't arrest me for murder because they saw his fingerprints on my mother's corpse, stating that it was self defense for me to kill the man responsible for my mother's death. They put me into the system and soon after I was adopted in another family.
They were nice but not important to stay with them after I turned eighteen. I started building my own life, going after people who also abused their family members. I couldn't stand the fact that someone is suffering the same fate as my Ma did. It was my fault that she died because I couldn't protect her from him. I don't want that to happen to anyone, especially so important to me."
My eyes were also stinging from tears, realizing that he has lost someone so close to him. It was horrible. It was hard to imagine the horrors which kept him keep going.
His tragic past made me believe that there's more to my stalker than he let everyone know. Maybe I could give him a chance.
I just think the longer he pushes me, the faster I will fall and it was a dangerous thought.