“You’re not stupid,” I say immediately. “I didn’t want you to know.”
She stares at me over the mangled corpse between us. Kaplan’s dead, of course. He was dead a long time ago, but I kept going. If Abi weren’t here, I think I’d still be going, grinding him down into hamburger for thinking he could hurt her.
“R-Rowan,” she whispers, and the truth is, I like it, hearing her say that name.Myname. I shift toward her, moving slow and cautious. I don’t want to frighten her away. When I step over the body, and she doesn’t run, I take that as a sign to keep going.
“Why didn’t you—” She shakes her head, eyes tracking my movements. “Why didn’t you tell me? I thought—I thought I wasn’t good enough for you—for Rowan?—”
My heart twists as I kneel beside her. Her breasts are bare, gleaming in the soft moonlight from the open door at the end of the hallway, but she doesn’t try to cover them up. Not from me.
“You’re perfect for me.” I cup her face with thinking, and her cheek darkens with blood. But she doesn’t pull away. In fact, she does the opposite. She leans into my touch, her eyes still fixed on mine. On my face. “So you’re perfect for Rowan, too.”
Abi takes in a sharp, shuddery breath.
“Rowan was my disguise,” I say, because I feel like she deserves an explanation. “I thought he wasn’t the real me. That’s why I wore my—my killing face. To show who I really am.”
Abi wraps her hand around my wrist. She’s shaking with fear, and I pull her into me, pressing her body against my chest.
“That’s how I wanted you to see me,” I whisper. “The true me. I realize now that Rowan is me, too. But this?—”
Abi kisses me.
It startles me, the forcefulness in how she moves, the sudden warmth of her lips against mine. But my blood is boiling from all the day’s killing, and I return that forcefulness, dragging my fingers up into her hair to hold her in place as I explore her mouth with my tongue.
Then, just as abruptly, Abi jerks away, her eyes blazing. “Where were you tonight?” she spits out. “I thought you abandoned me.”
“I will never fucking abandon you.” I hold her in place, never taking my eyes off her. “I’m so sorry, Abi. I should have been there. I know that. I’m never letting you out of my sight again.”
Then I pull into another kiss, rough and violent, and she moans against my mouth. I kiss along her jaw until I find her pulse point. “I’m so sorry,” I murmur. “I’m so fucking sorry. ”
“How’d you find me?” she gasps.
I nip at her neck, making her moan and roll her hips. “That’s complicated, too,” I say. “And I’ll tell you later. But right now?—”
I pull away and stare down at her, beautiful with her swollen lips and my bloody handprint across her cheek.
“Right now I really want to fuck you,” I say.
I still expect her to scream. To run. To call me a monster, the way my mother did. Instead, she shivers and wraps her hand around the back of my head.
“I want to fuck you, too,” she says breathlessly.
It’s all I need to hear. It’s all I’ve ever wanted to hear. I drag her into me for another long, devouring kiss, and I run my bloody hands over her body to pull away the last tatters of her clothes. She makes a sharp hissing sound as I pull her shirt over her head.
“Careful,” she says. “He stabbed me.”
“Hewhat?” Panic nearly overtakes my lust, but Abi pulls me in close to her.
“I’m fine,” she breathes. “Now fuck me, Rowan.”
And then she pulls me in for a kiss, and I lay her down, gently, onto the floor. I lay her down in Kaplan’s blood.
Abi moans when it touches her skin, and I’m afraid I’m hurting her. But then she gasps, “It feels good,” and I know she’s horrified because I can feel it. But I can also feel how turned on she is, too. “It’s so warm.”
“Good,” I growl, kissing down the valley between her breasts. “Because this is where I want to make you come.”
Abi moans at that. She moans when I pull her nipple into my mouth. Moans when I lick away the blood from the tiny cuts Kaplan made in her skin. As I kiss her, I touch her between her legs, running my fingers through the hot wetness already gathering there and mixing it with the warm, thick blood.
“Rowan,” she gasps, grabbing at my arms. Hearing my name sends shudders through my body, all of them rippling toward my heavy, swollen cock. “It shouldn’t feel this is good.”
