Chapter 4

4

Scout

Islide down the bathroom door, completely forgetting that I’m naked as a jaybird until my bare butt hits the cold tile. Absently, I reach up and snag the towel hanging on the back of the door and wrap it around myself for warmth. Because I was hotter than I’ve ever been a mere two minutes ago, but my ardor is rapidly cooling and leaving nothing behind but embarrassment.

“Oh my gosh, Scout,” I mutter, slapping both hands over my face.

There’s a loud pound on the door, but I barely process it. I’m too busy replaying the most intense, most magical moments of my life under the hands and mouth of Cash Jenner. I got completely lost in him, in what he was doing to me. Our connection felt so real. My heart even got involved, pounding like it had found its twin flame. Meanwhile…

He was only touching me to get inside the head of my stalker.

Not because he wanted to.

No. Cash is probably eager to find my stalker as soon as possible, so he can get rid of his best friend’s burdensome little sister. Didn’t he balk at letting me stay when I first arrived with my brother? Yeah, he’s definitely eager to send me packing. I’ll admit, his method of tracking down the person who has been terrorizing me is unusual, but what do I know about unearthing a stalker? His plan made sense when he explained it to me. Or was I just drowning in his magnetism? Distracted by the reverent—slightly rough—way he touched me?

“Scout. I am two seconds from kicking down this door.”

Those words bring me zipping back to the present. “Why?” I sniffle into the back of my wrist. “Do you need to use the bathroom?”

“No, I don’t need to use the bathroom. I need to not have this fucking door between me and you. I need to know why you ran away from me.”

“Oh.” Wincing, I let my head fall back against the door. Why do I always have to be so impulsive? How am I supposed to explain my vanishing act to him? Well, you see, I’ve always had a crush on you, but now that you touched me in a way no one has ever touched me, I think I might be in deep, deep puppy love. Humiliating. Don’t say that. “I’m just, um…well, I’ve never had an experience like that before and I think it caught me off guard.”

A long pause ensues. “Open the door.”

“Can I just have a minute?”

“No.” Is that thud his forehead hitting the door? “You can be caught off guard while I hold you, Scout. I wasn’t thinking. I…”

I turn and look at the door, as if I have x-ray vision. “What?”

“Maybe I was a little caught off guard, too.”

My breath catches in my throat. “Why?”

“I shouldn’t have enjoyed kissing my best friend’s little sister so much.”

“You enjoyed it?” I ask, unable to keep the breathless hope out of my voice.

A snort reaches me through the door. “Scout, you think my dick could get that hard if I wasn’t enjoying myself?”

“I don’t know how dicks work,” I respond defensively.

I can hear him breathing heavily through the door. “I don’t appreciate you being so fucking…endearing when I can’t see you and touch you, Scout. I don’t appreciate being kept from what’s mine. Open the door!” he finishes on a bellow.

Oh, I see, he’s still trying to venture into the mindset of my stalker.

I suppose I should let him.

Cash might have enjoyed kissing me more than he expected, but he still obviously wants to return to his normal life where he doesn’t have to play babysitter. “Okay, I’ll unlock it—”

I’ve only just depressed the button when the door is pushed open with enough strength to scoot me forward on the tile floor. And then I’m being scooped up from beneath my armpits, still naked. I’m sputtering for Cash to let me secure the falling towel, but he doesn’t seem to hear me. No, he’s tossing me up and over his big shoulder and stomping out of the bathroom.

Toward the bedroom.

Cash is taking me to his bedroom?

Is he going to touch me again? What if he thinks we should have sex to help him understand the way my stalker thinks? Should I say yes?

I would love to give my V-card to Cash, but…

I want the moment to be real. Not part of a stalker-catching initiative.

“Um. Cash…”

Before I can speak another word, we enter a pitch-black room and the university’s baseball star throws me down on the bed, coming down on top of me in a split second. Pinning me, his warm, minty breath pelting my lips. “Don’t you ever run away from me again, little girl.” His right hand closes around my throat, squeezing. “Do you understand me? Don’t you dare.”

“I’m sorry,” I whimper, confused by the tingle of excitement between my legs.

Confused by the desire for him to squeeze my throat harder.

Where is this coming from?

“Of course, you’re sorry,” he says on an exhale, some of the tension ebbing from his athletic frame, his open mouth raking over my temple, through my hair. “Perfect girl. My sweet, sexy girl would never do anything to upset me on purpose, would she?”

“No. Never,” I whisper.

“I want to know every fucking thing about you. Every detail I don’t already know.”

In the back of my mind, I know he’s getting into character. He’s becoming my stalker so he can catch him. Help me. Keep me safe. But maybe…just for a little while…I can pretend it is Cash himself who really wants to know everything about me? It would be so easy in this dark, quiet room, where there is no sound except his shallow breathing and mine. We’re in our own private universe and I’m literally stripped bare. I ache to be emotionally naked with this man, too. “What exactly do you want to know?”

He groans, melting into me even more, his fully clothed body heavy on top of my nude one. “What is your biggest fear?”

“Tornadoes.”

I sense his surprise. “Really.”

“My brother made me watch Twister when I was seven and I wouldn’t go outside for six days,” I whisper into the darkness, the intimacy of the moment wrapping me up like a blanket. “I still have nightmares sometimes that I’m going to get swallowed up in one.”

“I would never let that happen.”

I giggle, as much as I can with his body weighing me down. “You’re strong enough to battle Mother Nature?”

“If you were in danger, Scout, I’d be capable of anything.”

“I am in danger. Remember?”

“Right. Yes.” He burrows his face into the slope of my neck and inhales deeply, his thumb running a lap around the hollow of my throat. “What makes you excited? What calms you down? What is your favorite day of the week?”

“In reverse order…Sunday. Some people get the scaries, but not me. I can block out Monday until my alarm goes off. Nothing is expected of anyone on Sunday. You don’t even have to take off your pajamas.”

His chuckle is warm. Affectionate. “Do you have a favorite pair of pajamas?”

“I haven’t even finished answering the other questions yet!” I finish on a gasp when he yanks my knees up around his hips and starts licking my neck. This man has me locked down on the bed, no way to move and he’s…he’s mauling me. Dragging his tongue along my shoulders and up my throat, his right hand leaving my throat to capture both of my wrists, holding them down firmly above my head. “Um…q-questions. Um. What makes me excited? Themes. I love when a party has a theme, like everyone has to dress like a celebrity. I love that. As far as what calms me down…I would say, looking at old pictures. In albums or even on my phone. Reacquainting myself with old, happy memories.”

“Answer the pajama question.”

“You’re so persistent,” I say, shuddering, because he’s sucking the area beneath my ear. Sliding lowing. Sucking more. All the while, my hands are being held captive above my head, my body feeling deliciously conquered. “I wear panties and socks.”

He makes an amused sound but doesn’t stop his ministrations. “That’s it?”

“My feet get cold,” I explain.

“But the rest of you doesn’t?”

“No.”

He hums, his mouth tracing my jawline. “You’ll wear a pair of my socks tonight. I want to know something of mine is keeping your toes warm.” He shifts his hips between my legs and my lungs empty in one long stuttered sound. “Fuck the panties, though. They’ll only end up ripped to shreds on my floor.”

“Are you…are we going to…”

“What do you think, Scout?” He rolls his forehead against mine. “I was fingering you five minutes after your brother walked out the door. Do you think we could have an innocent sleepover together?”

“No,” I breathe, unable to keep my eyes open, the sensation of his thumbs pressing deeply into my inner wrists is somehow so arousing that I feel my sex begin to dampen again. “N-no, I guess not.” Eager for a taste of him, I tilt my face and graze our lips together. “My turn to ask the questions. What scares you, Cash?”

“You finding out I’m a monster,” he says in a rush. “Running away from me in fear.”

Ah. We’re still playing the game. He’s pretending to be my stalker. But I’m ignoring that for now and pretending he’s just Cash, I’m just Scout. And he really cares about me. Really wants me, the way that I want him. “And do you wear pajamas?”

“No. I sleep in the glow of your face on my computer screen. It’s the only thing I want to wear. The image of you projected onto my skin.”

A warm shiver works its way up my spine. “What makes you excited?”

“You.”

“What calms you down?”

“You.”

“What is your favorite day of the week.”

“You—”

Laughter bursts out of me. I’m gasping for oxygen within seconds, because there is already precious little air in my lungs, due to his weight pressing me down. But I only laugh harder when Cash joins me, mirth vibrating his chest, resonating in his throat. Laughing with him in the dark with our bodies pressed together so tightly feels new and exciting and a little forbidden…and I sense the shift inside of me. I’ve only been with him in this apartment a short time, but I’ve gone from crush to puppy love to infatuation. Hero worship of my protector.

Something else is happening, too.

I’m gasping harder and harder for air, because my laughter has depleted me of oxygen and now, he watches me struggle to breathe in rapt fascination. His shaft thickens against my thigh more and more as my lungs begin to burn, his muscled chest starting to rise and fall. Quickly. His breath grows short, too, but not because he can’t breathe, but because he’s excited. I can feel the electricity of him. How it snaps and sizzles.

“C-Cash,” I manage, beginning to kick my legs, attempting and failing to free my wrists from his grip.

“Don’t fight me, you’ll make it worse,” he says thickly, rolling his hips.

I don’t expect what happens next. I don’t expect it at all.

My vision starts to wave like the edges of a flying flag, rippling in the breeze. At the same time, that place Cash rubbed me earlier begins to throb. Tingle. I drag in just enough oxygen to make my vision temporarily normal and moan as he rocks against me, wetness starting to spread between the seam of my sex. My air grows scarce again and Cash kisses me, suctioning his mouth over mine, as if to prevent me from breathing and I whine, thrashing, he allows me a sip of air and humps me, my skin beginning to turn slick with sweat.

What is happening?

Why do I…do I like this?

“Does it make you hot knowing I control whether you live or die?” He sinks his teeth into the side of my neck, the bed springs creaking with the forceful rides of his hips. “If not, someone needs to tell your pussy. It’s hotter than a fucking oven.”

“Cash,” I whisper. “I’m scared.”

“Of what, angel?”

He lessens the pressure on my chest, so I can inhale. Speak. “My body is confusing me.”

Cash searches my face, his features transforming with myriad emotions. Dawning surprise, desire, pride. In me? “You…” He’s panting. “You really don’t want me to stop stealing your air.”

It’s not a question, but I answer it anyway. “No. I don’t want you to stop.” I wet my lips. “That’s why I’m confused.”

“Unbelievable. I…didn’t expect you to feel this way. Jesus.” Eyes on fire, one of his hands leaves my wrists, dropping to his fly. Unzipping it. Taking out his erection and resting it on my stomach where it pulses like a big, heavy snake. “My cock is the answer to everything now, Scout. When you’re scared, it’s because you want me to fuck you. When you run away, you want to be hunted down and violated.” He slaps his shaft against my belly three, four times. “When you giggle under me in the dark with no clothes on and your legs open, you want Daddy to make you a whore.”

In the dark, in this moment while I’m shivering with anticipation and hoping he’ll take my virginity, that explanation is impossible to deny. “I…I think you’re right.”

With a guttural sound, he presses his weight back down onto my chest, robbing my oxygen…and that telltale tingle instantly kicks up a fuss once again between my thighs, my toes curling into the denim covering the backs of his thighs, my lips opening in an O. “When your brother comes back to town,” Cash rasps into my neck, “you’re going to have a swollen mouth and bruises, a new education in those pretty eyes. And he’s going to know he made a huge mistake, little girl. Especially if he tries to take you away from me.” He pins me with more insistence, so much that I can’t even suck in an iota of air. “You don’t have an address or a fucking dorm anymore. You live inside me now.”

My vision is waving again and I’m not even trying to breathe or struggle, I’m just opening my legs wider for him, my nipples in hot, sensitive points, my back arched, my body begging to be a servant to this man. Forever.

I’m being transformed here in the dark in ways I don’t fully understand yet, only that I’m not scared to be possessed this deeply. It’s something I’ve been destined to find all along. It’s why the ideal of a normal relationship never appealed to me.

Isn’t it?”

“You’re my home,” I manage in a whisper.

He breaks off a sound, planting kisses on my face. “Scout. My Scout—”

An alarm goes off somewhere in the apartment, a tri-tone jingle, causing Cash to stiffen on top of me. “What’s that?” I ask, breathlessly.

“Fuck.” He slams a fist into the headboard. “That’s my phone. It’s my final warning to get ready for the game. It starts in an hour. I should already be there warming up.” His forehead finds mine and he rolls it side to side. “Fucking you is the only reason I’d miss a game, Scout, but…” He brushes a hand over my hair while looking into my eyes. “I think you need a little time to get used to what we just discovered. Don’t you?”

Yes.Tears prick the backs of my eyelids and I nod.

“Then time is what you get,” he says, kissing me thoroughly, a rumble sounding in his throat. “Speaking of time, of course, I lose it with you. I could lose decades without noticing.”

My heart lifts and flutters.

But…

Wait.

Is he being sincere? Or is he getting into the head of my stalker?

I have no idea what’s real anymore. I only know what I want to be real.

If Cash’s affection and feelings are only make-believe…what have I just revealed to him about me? That I like being smothered and choked and called names that should make me recoil? What demons has he dragged out of me with his playacting?

“I guess you should hurry up and go, then,” I whisper, trying not to sound conflicted.

Crestfallen.

“You’re coming with me, angel.” He picks me up and carries me out of the room, back into the dining room where he settles me on the table, dressing me with single-minded intensity. “You come everywhere with me now.”