"No!" his voice booms.
Recoiling, I step back, my stomach lurching like a ship being tossed on a merciless ocean.
Fear and rejection pour through me, making my limbs heavy. "Why did you leave?" I ask again.
Though his features are always just out of focus, I feel him. I feel agony, pain, and…
"You missed me, didn’t you?" I ask, daring to take a step forward again. Is that what I’m feeling from him? Or am I projecting because I’ve desperately missed the only friend I’ve ever known?
Something about his form softens and expands as if to say,Of course I did.
Approaching him, hand outstretched, I wait for him to bellow at me, threaten, or even hurt me. He can do anything he wants as long as he stays here with me.
Because there is no pain as deep or persistent as when he is not with me.
"Don’t," he grumbles, but he doesn’t move away.
My hand slips into the dark ether of his shadows, a reassuring pressure around my skin. I continue until I lay my palm against his face. He is as black as night and my own skin phases in and out between that darkness as I revel in the feel of his solid flesh. His eyes lighten toward white mist.
Last night, what I almost did, makes me want to vomit. How I let that guy touch me, how I tried to provoke my Shadow.
"I’m sorry," I whisper, as a hot tear streams down my cheek.
Tendrils of inky shadow curl around my neck, both my legs and arms, all of him caressing me like hot velvet. Liquid lava builds in my lower body as my inner muscles clench against an ache that echoes how my heart feels.
Empty, hungry to be filled.
But then the tendrils tighten. In a single, brutal motion, I’m ripped from the floor and slammed against the wall. Air rushes from my lungs as they coil tighter, holding me fast—even as his body remains across the room, untouched.
Embers of blood-red fire blaze in his eye sockets as he approaches, closing the distance while his shadows keep me pinned. He likely thinks I’m struggling, but I arch into the restraints, welcoming the contact. Emotions rise, thick in my throat, and my eyes burn with unshed tears. I need this.
I need him surrounding me.
"Youprovokedme," he accuses, every inch the scary monster of every child’s nightmare.
"Yes," I whisper.
He strides forward, as if in slow motion while never getting any closer to me. "You let himtouchyou," he rasps.
I writhe against his tendrils that shift but hold me fast. If only they would slide higher up my thighs, or if one would encircle my stomach, where the growing, aching need is becoming unbearable.
My heart hammers against my ribs as my desire ramps into an unbearable state of yearning for something only he can give me.
"Would you have let him hurt you just to punish me?" Shadow’s eyes blaze.
The pain in his voice is palpable, betrayal and hurt seeping through each syllable. If only he could understand that I was desperate for love—for someone to actually care for me.
"Yes," I confess, my eyes shutting tight against my admission. God, I’m pathetic. No wonder no one could love me. Desperate, idiotic, and selfish as I am.
When I look into his eyes, I see nothing but a lonesome abyss begging to be filled and yet also warning me away at the same time.
His claws press into my stomach, pinning my hips to the wall, eliciting a gasp of pleasure from my lips. More. I need more. More of him. I’mso veryempty.
"Even after all I’ve done for you?" The words leech with betrayal and hurt. When I open my eyes, I meet his misty white ones.
He’s right. He’s absolutely right, and I could never forget his last act before he disappeared.
"You left me."
