I blink away my sleepiness and strain my ears. I heard something. A voice. It was loud enough that it woke me up. If my heart weren’t thundering in my chest, I’d be able to hear better.

“Who’s there?” I call out again as I ease my gun out from between the mattress and box spring. I scoot back against the headboard and squint in the darkness. My gaze travels over to the window.

Someone opened the curtain.

I’m not going crazy.

Before going to bed, I remember shutting it. I felt exposed, as if Vaughn were watching from across the street. I’d felt the need to hide from him if he was.

Cold awareness trickles through me.

I’m naked.

I’m fucking naked.

Terror climbs its way up my throat along with a scream that I barely stifle. Someone undressed me. Those other times, even though I convinced myself otherwise, weren’t me. A reality that I’d chosen to ignore because I couldn’t mentally deal with it being truth. I’d been too terrified to admit it so I pushed it into the back of my mind.

I swallow as I reach for the lamp. My skin on my chest is tight. As though something sticky has dried on my flesh. A tear races down my cheek and drips off my jaw. I flip on the lamp and my thoughts are confirmed when I look down at my bare breasts.

Cum.

I have someone’s cum dried up on my breasts.

Vaughn is toying with me.

“V-Vaughn?” I whimper.

Discreetly, I reach for my phone and quickly dial Gray. Please answer. Please fucking answer.

Buzzzzz.

Buzzzzz.

Buzzzzz.

I’m frozen when I realize the sounds are coming from under my bed. It’s as though I’m the star of a horror movie. Tearfully, I swipe my tears away when he doesn’t answer. I drop my phone onto the bed and lean over the edge to look. The tip of a black dress shoe peeks out.

No.

No.

Fucking no!

I leap from the bed as far as I can and train the barrel of the gun at the shadow between the floor and the bedframe.

“Get out,” I hiss. “Get out!”

A grunt—a familiar grunt—resounds from underneath the bed. Terror causes my entire body to shake. I’m naked and scared to fucking death but I don’t dare take my gun from the monster under the bed.

“GET OUT!”

A man’s hand slides out from the shadows, strong and powerful. I nearly shoot it on the spot. Now my phone is trapped on the other side of this hand. Stupid! More tears streak out, but I hastily blink them away so I can focus. Slowly, a man slides his very naked body out from beneath my bed. His toned and tattooed chest shimmers with what looks like his spent orgasm. Disgust rises in my throat. The moment I actually see who’s emerging from my bed, I am overcome with betrayal.

“How could you?” I hiss, the gun in my hand wobbling wildly. “You fucking sicko!”

“Violet,” he murmurs as he slowly slides the rest of the way out and stands up. His impressive cock hangs limp and dripping between his powerful thighs. Hours ago, this man was inside me. Owning and loving my body. I trusted him.

“It was you. All of this was you,” I sob.

“Put the gun down, baby,” he whispers.

“I AM NOT YOUR BABY!”

He winces at my tone and starts for me. “Listen to me.”

“Stay back or I’ll shoot your cock off,” I threaten through my tears. As if it reacts to being spoken to, his dick hardens and bobs.

“I love you,” he tells me as if this solves fucking everything.

“You’re a stalker!” I screech. My heart is confused because the look of crushing devastation on his face weighs heavily on me. But my mind is telling me to unload the entire magazine into his psychotic chest.

“Violet.” His blue eyes are tender as he regards me. “I can’t stay away from you. I’m addicted to you.”

“This is insanity, Gray. This is illegal!”

He runs his fingers through his hair and his jaw clenches. I hate how brutally handsome he is. I hate everything about him. This is worse than Vaughn somehow. Vaughn destroyed me straight to my face. Gray has done it behind my back.

A crippling sob ripples through me blurring the world around me. It’s a terrible mistake because I lose sight of him. By the time my eyes clear, he’s on me. His strength overpowers mine, and together we struggle with the weapon. He manages to tackle me to the floor. When my head hits the floor with a thud, the room spins. The gun is torn from my grip.

“Listen to me,” he urges, his voice soft but commanding. I scream and struggle, but he pins my wrists above my head. My entire body convulses in fear. His body is heavy against mine, his erection thick and hard between us. Terror bubbles up inside of me, and I’m transported to so many nights with Vaughn. But instead of hurting me, he kisses my neck. Over and over again. It’s almost worse than Vaughn’s abuse because I like Gray’s kisses. Each one is like a painful stabbing reminder of what we could have had.

“I hate you,” I sob. “I hate you.”

He works his body between my parted thighs. His breath is hot against the shell of my ear. “Liar.”

His single word makes my heart clench. “You ruined everything.”

A whimper escapes me when his cock rubs against my clit. He suckles the flesh just below my ear. Despite my fears and being unable to move my hands, my body betrays me. I’m wet and desperate for his touch.

This is his storm.

I was never meant to escape it.

I’m his to obliterate and destroy.

He’s doing it gently with kisses and love.

“I hate you,” I try again, but my body is wiggling with need. “The moment I escape, I’ll run far away from you.”

He lifts and regards me with a fierce glare as he tortures me with teasing thrusts against my clit. “I’ll follow you to the ends of the earth, Violet. Don’t you see? I’ve committed my heart to you and nothing, fucking nothing, will stand in my way.”

Why do I attract psychos?

Furthermore, why do I love them back?

“Please…” I don’t even know what I’m begging for at this point. In the shadows of my mind, I know. My sanity refuses to admit it. “Please…”

“Please stay?” he questions, his cock sliding away from my clit and toward my opening. He doesn’t enter me, just rubs against me.

“I hate you.”

“I love you.”

His teasing and proclamations of love have me so confused. My heart is thundering right out of my chest. It wants to run away with him and never look back. My mind is at war, though. I can’t wrap my head around what he’s done. It’s twisted. Fucking insane.

“Let me make love to you,” he breathes against my lips. I’ve lost feeling in my hands where he grips me tight. The thought of him pushing inside me has a low moan rumbling in my throat. Everything throbs for him despite the anger exploding through me. “Say the words and you’re mine again. It’s been all about you from the moment I laid eyes on you. I can’t get you out of my head. The only thing that’ll stop me from loving you—from fucking consuming you—is a bullet to my skull. Is that what you want?”

I whimper and hiss out, “Yes.”

“Liar,” he growls, his cock barely pressing into me. “You want my cock to stretch you open. You hate that you can’t hate me. You hate that you want me to fuck you. You love that I’m obsessed with you. You want my children and my last name. Fucking admit it, Violet.”

“I can’t,” I choke out. “I can’t admit it.”

“You’re beautiful even when you’re in denial.”

I shiver and plead once more. “Please.”

“This?” he questions. The tip of his cock slides further into me.

I can’t breathe. He’s too much. He’s overwhelming. “Y-Yes.”

A scream rips from me because before I’ve barely spit out the word, he drives into me with enough force to rip me in two. Gray is an F-5 tornado destroying me with every touch. And yet I can’t step out of his path. I allow him to consume me.

“I love you,” he tells me over and over again as if it’s a prayer.

All I can do is ride out the storm. My orgasm teases and taunts me. Reminds me that if I give in, he’ll give me everything.

He’s not like Vaughn, he’s worse. My ruthless attempts to convince myself aren’t working because, deep down, I know. He’s not worse. He doesn’t hurt me.

Gray just clouds around me in his intoxicating haze until I’m drunk off his heady scent and whispered vows. I’m so lost in him that I don’t realize he’s released my hands until my fingers claw at his hair. This time, when his lips brush against mine, he follows it with a demanding kiss. So much emotion and power comes with the kiss that I fall victim to it. I want his overpowering attention and affection. I want his gentle love but rough lovemaking. I want him to stalk me to the ends of the earth.

This means I’m sick too.

“Come for me, baby,” he breathes against my mouth as his fingers slip between our slick-from-sweat bodies. The moment he touches my clit, I lose all sense of time and reason. My world tilts off its axis as pleasure crashes through me. I come so hard, my bones feel as though they’re rattling inside me. “Oh, fuck,” he groans as his release spills from him. “My God you’re perfect.”

I close my eyes as his seed pours into me and my body goes limp. I’m exhausted from the tears and the emotions that were exploding through me. The adrenaline that was spiking through me has slowly drained away from me like his cum that leaks from my body.

“Let me take care of you,” he coos as he slides out of me.

I no longer have any fight left in me. He’s a stalker. The man has crept into my home, jacked off all over me, probably touched me while I slept, gone through my things, and lied to me.

And yet I still somehow feel safe with him.

It makes absolutely no sense.

“I don’t know what to think,” I murmur as he carries me to bed.

He kisses my forehead. “I know. So don’t think. Just let me take care of you, like I always will.”

I curl up into a ball once he sets me on the bed. He leaves and several moments later he comes back. Dutifully, he shoves the gun back under the mattress and plugs my phone back in. Then, he uses a wet cloth to clean my stomach and between my legs. Once the light is turned off, he slides into the bed behind me. I shiver until he envelops me with his warmth. My skyrocketing heart slows to a crawl, as my eyelids grow heavy.

I’m tired, and truth be told, I like him wrapped around me.

I know what’s right and wrong, yet here I am, choosing wrong because it feels right.

“I love you, Violet,” he murmurs against my hair.

I shiver again. “I love you too.” Because it’s true. Fucked up, but so very true.