“So what’s this then, your little home from home?”
“This is where the fun happens, angel.” He smirks over his shoulder. His tone makes my skin crawl, like it has a double meaning, asinistermeaning. I’m sure his idea of fun is totally different to mine.
We don’t speak the rest of the way up, and it’s not long until we reach the apartment. It must be at least halfway up the building. He turn the key and unlocks the door.
For saying it’s an abandoned building, the electricity still works as he flicks on the light. I step inside and take in the apartment. The windows are boarded up, the glass panes smashed, causing a bitter draft to creep in. I wrap my jacket around myself tighter against the cold, not that it makes much of a difference. The room is totally empty, save for a sofa, a sideboard and an old bookcase that suffers from a bad case of woodworm. What little furniture there is, is covered over in thin plastic sheets layered thick with dust. There’s no evidence that anybody lives here, no trace of life, and it does nothing to quieten my nerves.
Why would he bring me to a place like this?
Because it’s quiet, deserted. There’s no one around for miles, no one to help me if things turn sour.That’swhy.
Despite my confident exterior, nerves coil in the pit of my stomach. My heart that’s already racing amplifies even more making it difficult to breath. It feels like my lungs are constricting, collapsing in on themselves.
“Take a seat,” he gestures to the sofa and I sit, the plastic crinkling under my weight. He drags a chair over from the corner of the room and moves to sit a couple of meters away from me. “I’d offer you a coffee but as you can see, the place is empty.”
“Thanks for the offer, but even if you did, I’d pass, you’d probably date rape me or some shit.”
He feigns being hurt by my statement. “Now, that’s not very nice.”
“Cut the shit, okay? Why am I here?”
He leans forward, forearms braced on his knees with his fingers interlaced. “You’re here because I say so. Because like I said, we have some unfinished business.”
“What is there to discuss? You forced your rancid dick down my throat and I all but bit it off. In hindsight, I should have bit down harder.”
He rises from his chair faster than I can blink, and his palm connects with my face, the burn spreading through my cheek. He grips my chin tightly, snapping my face forward to face him as he towers above me. “You humiliated me, and I don’t take kindly to that.”
“And I don’t take kindly to men touching me without my permission.” I jerk my chin out of his grasp and glare up at him. To my surprise he backs off and returns to his seat.
“You didn’t answer my question. Why am I here?”
“Because you’re the only one that got away from me. The only girl to slip through my fingers, it makes me want you all the more, and Ialwaysget what I want.”
“Well you’re shit out of luck, because I’m not interested,” I say, folding my arms.
“Since the first time I laid eyes on you in that club, I’ve wanted you. That first night, I couldn’t sleep, all I saw was you and I knew Ihadto have you. The thought of having you filled my mind every single day. It was like you were calling to me like some kind of siren, luring me in.”
This guy is crazy.
“Then that night when I brought two of my business associates with me, it all got too much. I had to have you.”
“Look, if you brought me here just to take a trip down memory lane, then I’m out, I’ve got better things to do.” I rise from the sofa and head for the door.
Just as my hand touches the doorknob, I’m halted by a heavy weight against my back, a hand clamped tightly on my waist and warm breath wafting against my ear.
“You’re not going anywhere,” he says in a low voice. He spins me around, so my back is flat against the door. My tough exterior cracks as his hands roam over my body and I try my hardest not to break down in front of him.
Show no weakness, I tell myself. But it’s easier said than done.
His hands trail across my jaw and down to my chest. Over my breasts and lower towards my stomach. My legs tremble and I fight to stay on my feet and keep my legs from buckling.
He leans in, burying his face in the crook of my neck and taking in a deep breath through his nose, smelling me.
“Mmm... You smell so fucking good, angel.”
“And you smell like a rat crawled up your ass and died, so it’s probably best you back up, so I don’t puke all over you.” He doesn’t really smell, and for such a disgusting excuse for a man, he smells quite good, the scent of one-hundred dollar fragrance hitting my nose, none of that cheap drugstore crap.
He growls before releasing me. “Sit down,” he commands as he heads back to his chair.
