“Do not breathe.”
I freeze.Air locks in my lungs until panic pricks my ribs.The darkness folds around us like a second skin.My heart kicks harder when the floorboards above groan again, slow and deliberate.Something is up there.Something that is not Joey.Something that doesn’t walk like a person.
My breath hitches.Just barely.
Royal moves instantly.His hand clamps over my mouth.Not gentle.Not cruel.Just absolute.
His body presses into mine, pinning me to the wall so tightly I feel the knife in his waistband dig against my hip.His breath hits the shell of my ear, low and furious.
“Quiet,” he whispers.“Or I’ll gag you.”
Heat curls low in my stomach.Shameful.Hungry.Wrong.
I nod against his palm, trembling.
Above us, the creature, or man, scrapes slow circles around the rafters.Royal doesn’t move.His hand stays over my mouth.His lips drift dangerously close to the corner of it.Every shaky breath I take brushes his fingers.
His grip tightens slightly.“If you make one more sound,” he murmurs, voice thin as smoke, “I swear to God, I’ll put you on your knees in the dark until you learn to obey.”
My body lights up like a struck match.
He feels my reaction.
His cock hardens against me.
His thumb sweeps the seam of my mouth.My tongue darts out to taste his skin.
A thump.
The shadow moves.
Royal’s hand slides from my lips to my jaw, holding me still.But he doesn’t kiss me.He draws near enough to make the retreat more painful.
Another scrape.
Heavier this time.
My mouth falls open.“Royal”
THUMP.
It’s as if something lands directly above us.
Royal grabs my hand, fingers digging hard enough to bruise.
“Move.”
We run to the stairs, through the gutted sanctuary, pushing out into the night where the cold feels like knives.The church groans behind us as if it hates letting us go.
We sprint two blocks before he yanks me behind an abandoned gas station.I bend over, gasping, clutching a stitch in my side.
“Did you see anything?”I choke out.
Royal’s breath fogs the air.“No.But something was there.Someone.”
“What the fuck was it?”
He doesn’t answer because he can’t.Because the truth scares him too.
