“Hey Bob?” I turned the AC off, my sweat having turned ice cold on my body.
“Yes, Miranda?”
“Do you know who tried to break in the car that day I was in the gym?”
“I didn’t see their face, whoever it was wore glasses and a bandana.”
I pulled the car out of the garage and headed back home to catch a couple more hours of sleep. It didn’t make any sense, but I couldn’t help feel the strange occurrences were related.
Things had gotten too complicated, and it was far past time that I simplified them.
ChapterTwenty-One
THE BEAST
Would she come again? Or would she leave me here? For once the pain of my existence didn’t hinge on the influx of my power.
It stemmed for my insatiable hunger to rest my eyes on Miranda, hear her voice, eek some bit of personal information about her.
What else did she label other than her lunchbox?
What did she do at work all day?
What did her bedroom look like?
Did she like flowers? And if so, what kind?
I’d gotten a glimpse at the real, unguarded woman and she was even more powerful and ravishing than I first supposed. Nothing else mattered but getting another little piece of her into my damned existence.
I spent most of my day pacing the cage, unable to be anywhere else. I’d lived for millennia but this,thisfelt like eternity.
Come to me, come to me, I chanted even as my eyes remained fastened on that elevator, willing it to ding and announce her arrival.
If it took years to will her back, I would do it. I would pace here day and night until I manifested her return.
The high-pitched chime of the elevator nearly sent me to my knees. My heart threatened to burst out of my chest in the few seconds before the doors opened.
Oh gods, oh fuck, why did I feel giddy and anxious and possessed all at once? I paced back and forth along the bars even faster.
When she stepped out of the elevator, I stopped cold. Miranda had donned casual attire again. Tight fitting athletic pants that rose to her mid waist, leaving a few inches of bared flesh between that and her sports bra. She wore her signature leather duster and a pair of boots. Her deep bronze skin gleamed as if she’d been exerting herself physically, and suddenly I was as parched as a dying man. Whatever activity or workout she’d clearly been partaking in only intensified her scent. I inhaled a shuddering breath as I gripped the bars, my cock hardening. Suddenly, I knew with absolute certainty I could rip these metal barriers out of my way to get to her if I needed.
Despite the energized gleam in her eyes, lines of either worry or exhaustion lined them. Normally she seemed serious and duty driven, but today there was some air of sadness surrounding her.
Was this because of yesterday? What about our interchange could have made her…sad?
“What is this?” she asked, looking past me to the round table I had set up again.
I couldn’t tear my eyes away from her even as I answered. “It’s a game. It’s called Candy Land. I thought we could try again.”
“We can’t play games anymore, Xander.” Her voice was flat and empty.
I instantly hated it. I needed to stoke the fire I knew burned bright inside her.
Sass me, fight me, fuck me, just don’t detach.
I smirked, running my hands up and down the bars. “Of course, we can. What else are you going to do with your time off? Not to mention your kid said—”
“Don’t talk about my kid,” she snapped.
