Locke

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Clicking on the television, I crossed my legs on the bed and placed Frito in my lap. I was getting used to this, used to being there and not having to endure the sharp stabbing fear that someone was out there waiting to snatch me.

I felt a sense of relief as that constant state of panic faded away and I was able to relax. I was untouchable in his home, safe and protected. I was happy.

I didn't want to go back out into the real world, where everything was unpredictable and tomorrow wasn't a promise.

All of this, everything around me, it was so much better than my life outside these walls.

Scratching Frito's head, I flipped through the stations. “You know, Frito, I think this is what we needed. Don't you?” Lifting his head up as I talked, his chest rumbled with a deep purr.

Cole didn't lock the door anymore, he didn't have to. I didn't plan on going anywhere, not anytime soon. He believed me, he listened to the gut feelings I had about someone out there watching me, and he didn't laugh in my face or tell me I was crazy.

That belief meant the world to me. No one else ever listened, not like him. But it went deeper than that, Cole knew I was right. All the details were there, I was exactly what that sick fucker was looking for.

Did I have any reason to rush out of this place? Not a chance in hell.

“Hi there, how's your day been?” Cole stepped into the doorway and leaned against the frame, tucking his hands into his ribs.

“Not too bad, relaxing actually.” Frito perked up his head and jumped to his feet. Climbing off the bed, he circled Cole, rubbing against his legs. “I think he likes you, that's a good thing.”

Bending down, he scratched the top of his head. “You know you don't have to stay cooped up in this room. Why don't you roam around, spread your wings, enjoy the rest of the house.” Fanning his arm like a model showcasing a brand new car, he gave me a big toothy grin.

Giggling, I nodded. “I know, but I like it in here.” Spreading my body across the bed, I coddled the blankets. “It's cozy.”

Looking down, Cole smiled and stepped over my cat. Reaching into his back pocket, he walked towards me. “Here,” he said, holding his hand out. “These belong to you, I'm sorry I took them.”

Pinching the pictures between my fingertips, I plucked them free. Coddling them in my palm, I let my eyes fall from his to embrace the faces of my sister and mother. “Thank you.”

“Don't thank me, it was wrong for me to take them from you.” Stroking his jaw, his neck stretched up as he tilted his head towards the ceiling. “I don't know why I took them to begin with. I guess it was selfishness, me looking for a way to keep you here maybe. I don't really know.”

“It's okay, you gave them back, that's all I care about.” Cole wouldn't look at me, he kept peering off at anything and everything that wasn't me. “Are you alright? What's wrong?”

Sighing, he took a step in and dropped to his haunches. “There's something I need to tell you.”

“Let me guess, is it that secret you hinted at before?”

Nodding, he fiddled with his hands, touching and picking at the surface. “I don't know how to tell you this, I wanted to tell you since the beginning, I just didn't know how.”

“Cole, please don't do this.” Reaching for his hands, I cupped them in mine, holding them still.

“No, I have to. You need to know this, Locke. If I don't tell you now, then I don't know if I ever—”

Shooting forward, I kissed him. I stopped him from talking, I refused to let him taint what we had. I didn't want to know what ever the hell he thought he had to say. I wanted him just as he was.

I had already watched him change from sweet, to deceiving, and back into the man I had met. There was no more room for change.

He wanted to protect me from the shadows that followed me everyday. That was all I needed to know, that was all I cared about. Whatever happened before, whoever he thought he was at one point in his life, none of that mattered to me.

I felt grateful that he was able to give me happiness and make me smile and laugh. I was reborn again from a depressive mass into the woman I wanted to be. To feel again, to live again, to be free of the hell that surrounded me every damn day.

That was what I felt when I looked at him, I didn't need anything else.

Not seeing my mother was the only thing that bothered me, but she never acknowledged I was even there to begin with.

A part of me felt like maybe it was better this way. Maybe if I was gone, she could finally heal. She didn't need anymore reminders of the world she lost. She didn't need to keep reliving that day over and over as if it never ended.

Without me there as a constant reminder, healing might be a possibility.

My hope for her coming back as the mother I knew and loved had vanished. All I could do was hold onto the idea that it was still possible for her to come back as someone new. A new woman, in a new world, where children never existed and her life was just beginning.

Cole's lips buzzed over mine as he spoke. “Locke, you need to hear this.”

“Shut up.” Breathing heavy, I tore at his shirt, trying to pull it over his head. “I don't care.”

Our tongues coiled around each other, licking and tasting. He was trying to break free, but I wouldn't let him. I kept kissing him, refusing to back away, refusing to let him utter one more word.

His strong hands worked their way into my hair, wrapping the strands tightly around clenched fists. Yanking my head back, I gasped as he bit my neck, nipping every inch of exposed flesh.

My nipples poked through my shirt, grazing his chest as he pushed his body against mine. We were all breath and soft moans, gentle growls and rough kisses. Words meant nothing when he had the power to evoke the person inside me that I had always wished I was.

I wanted to get lost in him. He had the strength and control to ease my fears and make my heart beat with life. He was everything I ever needed, he was all I needed.

“You think you can control this,” he whispered against my throat, digging his teeth in hard. “But you can't. You have to learn, you have to know the truth.”

Moaning, my eyes snapped shut with each bite. Curling my legs around his waist, I locked my feet around my ankles. “The truth is now, the truth is this. That's all I want, you're all I want.”

His shirt came off as I tugged it hard, throwing it to the floor like it was garbage. Raking my nails down his back, I ground my hips up into the thick bulge pushing against my inner thigh. I wanted him inside me, I wanted him to show me how much I meant to him, I wanted him to know that together nothing else mattered.

Not the past, not the future, not hidden secrets and lost memories. Nothing.

Our bodies rocked and rubbed, grinding hard. Holding on tight to his hips, I let my hands break free to work at his zipper. His cock jumped as I reached inside and wrapped my hand around his thick shaft.

“Fuck, I love when you touch me.” Cole's eyes rolled back in his head as his chest lurched to take in a big gulp of air.

Everything about him made me want more, it made my skin crawl with pinpricks and the heat of a thousand fires. The thick ink decorating his arms, the firm muscles that built his chest and back, the way his eyes sparkled with need and desire without any light to cast the glow.

All of it.

His lips found my collarbone, forcing a chill up my spine. On reflex my head fell back, lids sealing shut. “Mm.” Rolling my head on my shoulders, his face nuzzled into the nook between my neck and shoulder. “I can't get enough, you make me so wet.”

“I want you to drip, I want you to beg and plead for me to fuck you.”

Stroking his cock, I drew my thumb over the ridge on his crown, smearing the thin layer of pre-come over the tip. My legs spread wide, pussy exposed and grasping at air, aching for him to be inside.

Holding him against my entrance, I rocked my ass forward, pushing just the tip in. A throaty growl escaped his lips as his head fell forward onto my chest.

Every muscle in his body tensed up as his hands fell to the mattress. With white knuckles he gripped the bed, doing his best to not split me open just yet. “You're in charge this time, you take the lead.”

Dropping my fingers to his balls, I jiggled them in my palms. They were tight and firm, drawing up with just my touch. A light shiver scaled his body as I slowly guided him deeper inside.

My pussy was drenched, coating my inner thighs in  liquid velvet, eager to devour every inch he had to offer. Slowly I bucked my hips up, forcing him in deeper and deeper until his balls hit my ass and the furry base tickled my mound.

“Make love to me, Cole, show me what I mean to you.”

Lowering his lips to mine, he kissed me gently as his eyes steadied on my face. We weren't two people right then, we were one. One heart, one body, one mind.

“I could do—”

Thump!

His weight shifted and he fell full force onto my chest. He had gone silent as his muscles went limp and his voice dropped to nothing more than a gentle gasp.

A warm sensation trickled down my throat as I shook Cole and tried to wake him up. “Cole, are you alright? What's wrong?” Touching my neck, it felt wet and hot. Lifting my fingers to my face, they were covered in red.

Is this blood?

Is he bleeding?

Grabbing his shoulders, I shook him harder. “Cole! Cole!”

Nothing.

I could feel him still breathing as his chest rose and dropped against mine. Each breath was soft and delicate as if he had just fallen asleep.

Using everything I had, I tried to push myself out from underneath him. Then I heard it; a voice, a dark, angry voice.

“It's been a long time, Hanna.”

My heart stopped as my body froze. I stayed still, hoping that I was just imagining the entire thing and was going to wake up any moment.

But this wasn't a dream.

I wasn't waking up.

Dark eyes glistened as his face loomed over Cole's shoulder. His lips twisted in an evil smile as he lifted his foot and kicked Cole to the side.

The air in my chest thickened, turning heavy breaths into labored gasps. I couldn't move, I couldn't speak, I was sealed in place by shock.

Rubbing his hands back and forth, his tongue slipped like a slug over his teeth. “This is going to be fun, I've been waiting too long for this.”

The room around me grew fuzzy, turning deep purple to charcoal gray. The bed became nonexistent, the walls and window wilted, melting away before my eyes.

Hard hands wrapped my throat, yanking me off the bed. Our eyes met, his black and empty, sparkling in sick admiration.

Scratching at his hands, the air became thinner and thinner as I struggled to breathe.

His face began to fade as my muscles lost all feeling, turning into wet spaghetti. Opening my mouth, I tried to force out a scream. But there was nothing. . .

Nothing but black space and soundless cries.