I sat in silence, watching his jaw clench as he spoke. “After getting to know you more that night I had to see you. I’d only seen the photo on your website and couldn’t wait any longer. I’d been thinking about you from the moment I heard your voice. So I found your address and watched your apartment. You went to the market, and I followed you. I noticed you were spooked over something. Maybe you sensed me, but I still couldn’t get rid of the uneasy feeling that something else was going on. By then, a part of me had become a bit obsessed.”
“A bit?” I scoffed, a hint of laughter in my voice.
He smirked. “Maybe more than a bit. So after that, I contacted Dad’s guy. I wanted to know everything about you, but more than that, I wanted to make sure you were safe. I’m guessing that’s what tipped Dad off, even though Rick didn’t break confidence and tell him what I was doing. Dad had eyes everywhere, even on his PI.”
Ryan finally looked over to me. “But that’s not all, Raven. I had a friend tap into your security systems. I watched you for weeks after you told me you were assaulted and one of them was still out there. But more so because I was crazy for you. Here’s the shitty part, though.” His demeanor changed from apologetic to determined as he pierced me with his stare. “I would do it again. I don’t regret it for a single fucking minute because all of it led me to being there when he came back.”
“Earlier that day, Rick called me and sent over all the files he had uncovered—the police files, but also files about Dad following you. The police records were all I got through before I saw a man, who turned out to be my piece of shit father, walk into your office on the security feed. I drove as fast as I could to you, to save you from whatever was happening, but you didn’t need saving. It turned out you were the one that saved me.”
Tears were openly streaming down my face. “Ryan, I don’t fault you for any of that. Everything I said in front of him was to protect you.”
“Exactly my point,” he gestured. “You saved me then, but you’ve been saving me from the beginning. You saved me from an isolated future. You saved me from living in his shadow. As long as he existed in the world, I would have hidden myself because I never lived up to what he thought I should be. Most importantly you taught me that I’m capable of love and worthy of it too after never really having it before. I love you, Raven.”
I leaped from the chair and crashed into his lap, straddling his thighs. This kiss was different. This kiss was two souls becoming one as I held his face and he wrapped his arms around me.
When I pulled back, he was crying, too. “And I love you, Ryan. I won’t apologize for what happened or what I did. The fucked-up thing is that I liked it. The monster inside me enjoyed taking them both out of this world. That’s what I’ve fought for years after the attack all those years ago. But you showed me things too. You showed me there’s more to life than work and living for everyone else. I need to live for myself and what I want, too. What I want more than my business, more than success, more than anything is you. I want you.”
He smiled the brightest grin I’d ever seen on his lips as I wiped his tears with my thumbs. “I want you, too. I want towake up to you, make you breakfast, do life with you.” His voice changed to sexy Zander. “I want to make you scream when I bury myself inside you. I want to hear both of my names on your lips as you lose yourself beneath my touch. I want to give you control and make every desire you have come true as you turn me into a whimpering mess at your feet. Every single day, I want that.”
Heat flushed my body at his perfect words. I loved him, and he loved me. He leaned forward and kissed the tip of my nose.
“So your birth name is Leah?” he asked.
I nodded. “I wanted a fresh start after everything happened, and I didn’t want any of my past tied to my future. So I changed my name. You aren’t the only one with more than one moniker even though I left one of mine in the past.”
He smirked. “Eh, Raven fits you better.”
I squealed as he scooped me up into his arms and stood, setting me on my feet. As he led me through the apartment to the bedroom, I couldn’t help but tease him. “You know you did that all wrong, right?”
“Did what wrong?”
I laughed. “Haven’t you learned anything from narrating romance novels? They normally talk first before he kisses her. You kissed me as soon as you got here.”
He pushed me onto the bed, undoing his belt with one hand and tearing it from the loops. “Baby, we’ve never been normal. We’ll make our own fucked-up romance novel.”
Epilogue
Ryan
With the Anubismask fixed in place, I slinked past the glass door of Raven’s business. My boots thudded down the hall to the room at the end, and I slowly turned the knob. The door swung open to reveal a dark, empty office, the only light coming from the glow of the city beyond the windows. Confusion swirled as I stepped inside and looked around. I was right on time, but she wasn’t here. My eyes landed on the spot that had been soaked in my father’s blood six months ago.
Good fucking riddance. In the six months since the motherfucker had been dead, I had worked through things with my mom. All of the hurt hadn’t been erased, but we talked every now and then. Without his controlling hand, Mom was free to show her love for me. Something she hadn’t ever been able to do. It would take time on my end, but I was trying.
My phone buzzed in my pocket and I pulled it out to see a voice message from Raven, a rare occurrence. I was the one who typically sent voice messages because she loved my voice so much. I knew immediately she’d gone rogue from the plan we never got to enact on Halloween. Of course she did. Sheloved surprising me and being in charge when I was the one who was supposed to be in control.
Smirking, I tapped play.
“Hello darling,” her seductive voice came through the speaker. “Small change of plans. Here’s what you’re going to do. You’re going to come find me, and when you do, you can have me. You can have me anyway you like. Oh and baby, here’s some motivation.”
Raven’s moans filled the room, and I could hear the sounds of her fingers in her pussy. Goddamn, this woman is getting me at my own game. I had always been attracted to her voice, but she’d never voice-kinked me like this before.
I was already aroused, but as soon as I heard her sweet moans I was fucking steel. I hurried back to the elevator, smiling at the fact that I paid attention to everything this woman said. I knew exactly where she was.
She’d mentioned a few months ago that she wanted to be fucked in other parts of her building after we thoroughly wore out every surface in her office. I jammed the button for the basement.
When the doors opened to the dim loading dock, it took my eyes a second to adjust to the darkness from the bright elevator. I walked into the large area, surveying for any nook she could be hiding in. Most of the basement was an open concrete floor, but to the right there were dozens of pallets at least twelve feet tall.
I walked through the maze of plastic wrapped towers until I came to the end of the basement. I rounded the corner of the last pallet beside the concrete wall and was greeted with a sight that almost brought me to my knees.
