Their breathing.
It’s so loud, rushing against my ear and neck and over the side of my cheek. They’re so close to me. Closing my eyes, I breathe in and stop.
That’smyscent.
They’re pushing my juices into my face, forcing me to smell, forcing me to…
Fuck.
I’m turned on.
Breathing heavily, I tense my entire body and lift my chin as much as I can, just trying to catch a simple glimpse of whoever my captor is. They shift. In an instant, leather-clad fingers push between my lips, and all I taste is myself. Readily, I suck, hungry like the wild, disgusting animal that I am.
The laugh is back, sending tendrils of pleasure through my body and pooling right between my legs, right where… I breathe… right where I imagine their fingers again.
“Elizabeth Jane Noble…”
Their voice… it’s so mechanical, so harsh to my ear.
And yet, my name isn’t a curse on their lips. It’s a caress.
“Do you want to play a game with me?”
Chapter 2
February 14 - Hour 0
The trickling sound of the wine as I pour it into the glass reaches my ears. I stare as the dark red liquid fills the glass a quarter of the way and pause.Fuck it.Filling it to the top, I empty half the bottle into the glass and set it on the counter, leaving it there.
Reik isn’t home. Why would he be?
It’s only Valentine’s Day and our tenth anniversary—well, dating anniversary. Not that he’d ever remember.
Sipping the wine, I barely even taste it. I’m not here for the flavor. I’m here to drink and forget. Forget the fact that my husband can’t even bother to be home on our anniversary, forget the fact that I really don’t want to be married to him anymore and I’m so close to pulling the plug on the relationship that I can taste it, and forget the fact that all those sexual fantasies I played out for months have just vanished.
Well, the fantasies haven’t.
But the person I was playing them with has.
Biting my lip, I stare blankly at the kitchen window. The darkness outside feels freeing, not oppressive. You’d think it’d be the other way around.
My phone buzzes on the kitchen counter, startling me out of my reverie. Picking it up, I stare down at the text from my sister wishing me a happy Valentine’s Day. If only she knew. It isn’t happy at all. I respond in kind, as is expected of me, and then flick through my other texts.
The last time Reik texted was the day he left, telling me exactly when he’d be home. In three more days. Sighing heavily, I leave the phone on the counter and wander upstairs into the guest bedroom, the one that has never been slept in, because no one wants to come here. No one ever dares enter this wasteland of a house.
God, what has my life become?
I hate it here.
I just want some excitement.
Slipping my hand into the bottom left drawer of the dresser, I wiggle my fingers as I feel around for the phone I stashed there. My fingertips hit the cold plastic, and I pull it out to turn it on.
Nothing.
No messages. No missed calls.
I sit cross-legged on the floor, scrolling through the old texts that we’d sent, through the demands and the desires. Just who is this person who has managed to steal my every desire and turn it back on me? I want to know so badly, but at the same time, the mystery is what keeps me alive most nights. The way I imagine foreign fingers pounding inside my pussy—I close my eyes andshudder at the fantasy I’ve had for years. For months, with this phone as the only connection we had, I did everything I was ordered and more, and fuck, I loved every second of it.
