“I asked you to get a drink with me alone sometime.”
“Aww, a date,” I said, laughing at the thought. “What a dork.”
Zodiac chuckled at my amusement. “You said you didn’t date anyone, and I needed to stop asking.”
“And you respected my decision, which impressed me so much that I fucked you?”
“Do you want to hear this or not?” he asked and patted the couch to lure me closer.
Despite knowing this man was my weakness, I dared to crawl closer. Zodiac smirked at my obedience.
“I said I was interested in you, so you needed to get over your no-dating rule,” Zodiac said in a soft, seductive voice while patting the couch again.
I inched closer, wondering if his confession would end with me tasting his lips or smacking his face.
“Then, what happened?” I whispered.
“You asked me if I read Sutter Cane,” Zodiac said, and my brain itched with a blurry memory from that night. “I explained that Sutter Cane was a character in a movie and not a real author. That’s when you kissed me.”
As a teenager, I went through an anxious period where life overwhelmed me. I couldn’t get myself settled. Normally, I hated horror movies, but I was hanging out with Sabrina, Xandy, and Vanessa around Halloween. They wanted to watch something scary. One of the films that night was “In the Mouth of Madness.” The movie scared the ever-living-shit out of me. I had a panic attack and cried before it was even over.
Afterward, every time I got anxious in real life, I’d remember that terrifying apocalyptic movie. Nothing in my day-to-day existence was nearly as scary as the nightmare fuel of “In the Mouth of Madness.” Somehow, the movie fixed a broken part of me. That’s why I named my son after the bad guy in the movie.
But whenever I asked anyone, “Do you read Sutter Cane?” they had no idea about the 1994 movie.
Except for Zodiac!
I finally knew why I put out at the clubhouse that night. It was the same reason my clothes were about to come off!
ZODIAC
Elle’s presence in my apartment left me both irritated and hard as a rock. I knew why she was here, even if she acted like she wasn’t sure. I didn’t blame her for craving an answer to why she stopped saying no.
But she shouldn’t be in Baton Rouge. Her death would rip apart her family and cripple the Crimson Guard.I’d be fairly fucking upset over it, too.
As Elle crawled closer on the couch and straddled my lap, I lost track of the many reasons I ought to be pissed about her visit. Instead, I smiled at how she watched me.
Such a little thing as an old horror movie had gotten Elle’s engine revving. Her fingers tap-danced their way across my shoulders. She seemed unsure. I liked how she wasn’t a vixen. Everything she showed me was real.
Now, Elle watched me with a curious, lovestruck gaze. “You’re a bad man.”
“That’s true.”
“I don’t want to fall for a bad man.”
“It’s too late for that now.”
“You should say something reassuring.”
“I’m going to make you come hard enough to see stars.”
Elle’s gray eyes lost their glow. I felt her thinking, reconsidering, pulling away. I hated when people teased me with a prize, only to add a bunch of fucking strings to their gift. As a kid, no one offered me shit.Then, once I had power, people started playing their games and tempting me with what they didn’t really want to offer.
“I was embarrassed by my feelings for you,” Elle said as her fingers stroked my cheeks, and her gaze studied my bare chest.
“Why?”
“You’re a gross poonhound. What kind of woman swoons over a man with an eye for nothing more than fucking?”
