Lake

He was back.

I had only fallen into bed exhausted what felt like a moment ago, though it had to have been longer.

I didn’t know how long and didn’t dare waste time trying to figure it out.

Instead I moved quickly, rinsing with the mouthwash I kept next to the bed, swallowing it because I didn’t want to waste the time it would take to go to the sink, then quickly taking a swallow of water.

Next, off came my comfy T-shirt and boxers, replaced with the silk robe to cover my naked body and nothing else.

I jammed my feet into the six-inch heels that were the only shoes Vlad approved of, and by the time I heard footsteps outside my bedroom door, I was in position, back to the door, on my knees, arms at my side, head down.

I hated that he was back so soon, but at least it saved me the worry and wonder of when he would show up again.

My heart was pounding, my throat burning, this time from the mouthwash.

It had taken me a while to perfect my system, and one time, I hadn’t been prepared for him.

I still had the scar on my hip where his belt buckle had caught skin.

After that, I’d never allowed it to happen again.

I listened as the door opened, waiting for the first blast of his cologne.

He practically bathed in the stuff, though the scent was nice, or at least I had thought so before I met him; he’d never learned the lesson that a little bit went a long way.

But even though the door was open, I didn’t get the expected smell.

Maybe he had showered.

He did that sometimes, presumably so he wouldn’t go back to his wife smelling like the perfume he’d chosen for me.

He’d once presented me with a bottle and told me that it had been his mother’s favorite, one he insisted that every woman he fucked wear. I’d pretended it was a great gift, the sweetest kind of compliment, and made no mention of how incredibly creepy that was, which was undoubtedly to my benefit.

I listened for his heavy footfalls, not hearing them.

He was probably watching.

He liked to do that sometimes, see how long I would stay in position waiting for him.

I hated this game.

Hated myself even more for not being brave enough not to play it.

But that choice had been made long ago, and there was no undoing it.

There was only waiting, hoping, for freedom, death, or more likely, the freedom that would come from death.

So that was what I did now. Waited, my heart pounding.

That was unusual.

Sure, I was afraid of him, so I still had a response, but I thought I had tamed it down.

But tonight, my heart was pounding furiously.

There was something in the air.

I didn’t know what it was, but I felt something, an awareness that was different than the feeling I usually got when Vlad was watching me.

As the seconds ticked by, that awareness became more intense, almost overpowering.

I wanted to look, needed to move, do something to break that tension.

Finally, it got to be too much.

I started to turn, was stopped when a hand closed around my neck, pulled me back against a body that definitely wasn’t Vlad’s.

“Don’t move.”