Chapter 23

23

Voss

Atext pops up on my screen, lighting up the dark room as I lay beside Nola. It’s only six in the evening, but with the curtains drawn, it feels like the dead of night.

The text is from the company I hired to install cameras on Nola’s property, letting me know the project is complete. Every room now has a small, concealed camera that feeds to the app on my phone.

Had Nola gone home three hours ago, she’d have caught them doing the work, and I’d have had to explain shit I wasn’t ready to explain yet. To test it, I click on the app, scrolling through the different cameras, until I land on Nola’s bedroom. I specifically requested that the camera be added to the Southeast corner of the room, so that I might see anyone passing in the hallway, while keeping a close eye on Nola as she sleeps. I smile, staring down at the empty bed and exit the app.

Beside me, Nola snoozes away, sprawled out and clearly exhausted.

After a half hour of blue balls, my body has finally settled down. I wasn’t lying when I said today was about her or that I fully intended to savor every minute. All of this is about her, ultimately. The distraction. The cameras. All with her in mind.

It’s not that I’m willing to give at the expense of my own pleasure, because if the conditions were right, I’d have used her body as voraciously as she used mine. I don’t like condoms, though, which is why I’ve historically paid top dollar for clean girls, and I like a bit more fight with my fucking.

Problem is, the role-playing has gotten dull and boring. I’ve grown tired of girls with rape fantasies, for hire. I want the real deal and I want it with Nola. I could see it in her eyes with the wine stopper, that devilish glint telling me she isn’t all sweetness and innocence when it comes to sex.

No, there’s something darker living and breathing inside of her, too. Past all that hesitation and inhibition lies what she secretly desires, but will never admit aloud. I see it, though.

She hides it well, but men like me sniff that shit out like dogs on a blood trail.

The woman craves depravity as much as she craves the assurance that no one will ever discover her true nature. For a sadist who’s watched her for hours, it’s obvious, and her denial is somewhat amusing. Fact is though, Nola would never go for the kind of degrading shit that gets me off. The wine stopper was a good test, but even that took some coaxing, and unfortunately, three hours isn’t enough time to erase the lies she’s trained herself to believe.

Yet, if she did decide to indulge in some of my darker fantasies, we’d make one hell of a match. The kind that’d burst into flames and set fire to everything around it, because the woman wears sensuality like gasoline perfume.

For the first time in a long time, sex didn’t bore the shit out of me. In truth, watching her come, hearing her climax, was everything I’ve dreamed it would be, but my body craves more from her. It knows what she’s capable of, and won’t settle for some premature eruption when it could have sweat, claws, and the rush of adrenaline that’d leave me dizzy for her afterward. The kind that’d have me addicted and obsessed. Weak for her.

So maybe it’s better I don’t indulge. Not yet, anyway.

I run my finger over her cheek, staring down at her angelic face. I’ve never allowed a woman to sleep in the same bed after sex. Always felt pointless before, particularly as I pay them by the day. But I have to admit, I like being next to her. I like taking care of her, and I particularly like watching her sleep, but it has to come to an end.

Leaning forward, I bury my face in her neck and kiss her there. “Hey, it’s after six.”

She stretches and yawns against me, and I wrap my arm around her stomach, drawing her into me. “I’m going to call Jonah. See if he’ll keep Oli overnight.” Rolling over, she hikes her leg over mine and nuzzles against my chest like a little bird.

A little bird I want to cage and keep for myself.

“I mean, you paid for the room, it’d be a waste to leave after three hours.”

I snort at that, giving her ass a squeeze. “Make your call, then meet me in the shower.”

“Okay.”

Hooking a finger beneath her chin, I tip her head back and kiss her, before sliding out of the bed.

As I head toward the bathroom, I hear the appreciative sound she makes before engaging her brother on the other end of the call.

“Jonah? Hey, any chance you can take Oliver overnight? Something … came up.”

I close out the rest of the conversation and flip on the shower. The three hours was an excuse, originally, to kill time. Keep her occupied. Get some much-needed action after a week of playing monk. But I didn’t bank on enjoying myself. Sex has always been something of a transaction for me. An exchange of goods. Two weeks ago, Nola was nothing but a warm hole where I might bury my cock at some point, if I got bored, but now she’s so much more than that. More than I expected, and I can’t quite wrap my head around it.

I never thought past having her. My fantasies were confined to the two of us in bed. Constantly. But never the life around it.

And her life includes variables that I can’t add to the equation.

Like a kid.

When this job is over, I’m going back to New York. I’ll be swiping criminals up off the streets and torturing them into talking. Not exactly something I’d care to share for Career Day at school.

Nola’s young. No doubt, she’ll want more kids. She’ll want a life and freedom. Things I’ll never be able to promise her in my line of work. There’s a reason The Gallows is comprised of single and divorced men. Families are a liability, a weakness that can totally fuck up a job.

But I can’t let her go now. I’ve had a taste, and as much as I hoped that would be enough, I already know it’s not. She’s mouthwatering, like a forbidden fruit I’ve never had before, but with a pinch of depravity, she’d taste even better.

Steam rolls over the top of the shower, and the door clicks as Nola enters. Arms wrapped around her mid-section, she baffles me. That she would hide a body so perfect, with all her curves and fleshy parts, is beyond me, and as she approaches, I tear her arms away from her, taking a moment to drink her in.

My dick lurches with the visual of her arms strung up over her head, lifting those voluptuous tits where I can suck on them, while she fights to get away.

“When you enter a room, you walk in like you own everything in it. Understand?”

“You’re in here. Does that mean I own you, too?”

I don’t answer that, because no woman has ever owned me. But Nola? She might just be the exception.

I pull her into the shower stall with me, impatient and more forceful than I intend. That’s what she does to me. Every minute I spend with her is precious, like the clock is constantly against me.