me all she wants, but she can’t hide her reaction to that sensual promise.
“Fine, Sean. But you’ll have to catch me first,” she taunts before taking off at a run toward the back hallway.
Somehow, she manages to miss all the broken glass on her way.
I’ll still spank her ass for risking it.
And for calling me Sean.
Adeline
The next week passes slowly. I’m not exactly sure why. It probably has something to do with the anxious nerves that keep building with each passing day, the majority of those days spent by myself while Ari deals with what he needs to out of the penthouse.
Every night he spends in my bed, or drags me to his. But in the mornings, I wake up alone, the heat from where he’d barely slept absent from the mattress.
Still, his scent lingers, and when I wake up this morning, I pull his pillow to my side to wrap my arm around it and bury my face against the cool linen that smells like every woman’s fantasy.
Daylight shines brightly in through the window, my stomach twisting instantly because I remember this is my last day in the penthouse.
Tomorrow, I’ll turn myself in to the police, explain I was out of state and didn’t see the news broadcasts, and then laugh it all off with the explanation that I left Grant for another man, and I’ve been happily shacked up with him for the past month.
Which isn’t exactly a lie. Not even the happily part. And that’s been bothering me the most.
Ari hasn’t given me any more information about how he knows me and why he’d been stalking me all these years. He’s too focused on the situation with Grant, the typical teasing humor missing behind his eyes when he comes back after whatever it is he does all day.
By the time he returns, there something dark about him that concerns me. I often wonder if this is what he’s like when planning for a kill, if this is the man he doesn’t want me to know for fear that I’ll run.
Rather than questioning him about it, I let him take me into his arms and work out whatever frustration he’s feeling on my body.
I haven’t slept this well for so many days in a row ever in my life.
He’s the shadow that comforts me.
The demon that claimed me as his own while punishing those who tried to hurt me.
I do admire that aspect of his nature, even for how aggravating it is, but still, I don’t understand why he chose me. I’m not sure I ever will.
With that annoying thought in mind, I get out of bed, get a shower and get dressed. It’s already late afternoon, which surprises me. Normally, I’m up at the crack of dawn, but I’ve been sleeping so well that my circadian rhythm is haywire. But the bags under my eyes are completely gone now, my skin back to its usual porcelain complexion, free of ugly blue and green bruises that faded to yellow before disappearing entirely.
Staring in the mirror, I realize I look young again. My hair is still cut in a style I can’t stand, but it will grow out.
It’s a little shocking to see myself now compared to what I’d looked like before escaping my husband.
The stress of being Grant’s wife had sucked the life out of me, was aging me a year for every month I was married to him.
I have Ari to thank for reminding me who I was before falling victim to a controlling husband. And I guess I owe it to him to do something with the life he’s handed back to me, even if I doubt he’ll be in it.
Not because of me, of course. I want to explore the man who has been nothing but a mystery since the day he stepped into my life. I just get the feeling Ari plans on walking away once he knows I’m safe again.
Just thinking about it hurts. So much so that I refuse to talk to him about it, refuse to so much as broach the topic because I don’t want to spend my last hours in his penthouse knowing that, when I leave here, I’ll be returning to a life I live alone.
I’m sure there will be boyfriends and maybe even another husband someday.
I’ll still be alone because Ari is the only person I’ve ever known who is interested in what I see when I sleep. Every night he asks me what I dream, and