Severed Ties: A Dark Stalker Romance (Tainted Love Book 1)
Severed Ties: Chapter 18

It’s widely known that I don’t like people touching me. Anyone who knows the first thing about me knows not to touch me, and there are very few people who can get away with it without being harmed. Snow and Wynter are like little sisters to me, but they know better than to touch me for long.

And yet having Clara’s arms wrapped around my waist as I speed through the streets of Chicago toward her apartment is the closest to home I’ve ever felt. Even as a child, I wouldn’t call the house I lived in a home, but this, this warmth that holds on to me whenever she’s near, it’s what I imagine having a home feels like.

I thought she was going to fight me a lot more than she did, but after the initial shock of my asking her to get on the back of my bike, she did as she was told and is holding on to me for dear life.

The ride ends all too soon and I’m tempted to keep riding across town to my own apartment, but I fear as soon as she steps foot into my space, I’ll never allow her to leave again. She’s off the back before I can so much as kick the stand down and tears the helmet over her head with wide eyes.

“That thing’s a death trap,” she hisses.

“Depends who you ride with.” I shrug. “You were perfectly safe with me.”

“That’s why you were zipping in and out of traffic like a madman?” she shouts hysterically. I would replace it amusing if she wasn’t doing it in the middle of the street and people weren’t turning their heads. I don’t want anyone to look at her. She’s mine, for my eyes only. And every set of eyes that falls onto my little fawn is at risk of being removed from their head.

“Let’s get inside.” I usher her off the curb and up the steps to her building entrance. Once we’re inside, I wrap my arm around her waist and pull her up the stairs, but by the way she hisses at every step, she’s hurt more than she’s letting on. She made it seem like it wasn’t a big deal. But it’s clear she was lying, and she’s about to learn the consequences of lying to me.

Without waiting for her to hand me the keys, I fish my own out of my pocket and quickly unlock the door and step in while she stands in the doorway with her mouth agape.

“You okay, fawn?” I ask, barely fighting the smirk that tugs at the corners of my lips.

“Why do you have a key to my apartment?” she asks, her voice hesitant as she looks up and down the hallway. She’s looking for an escape route. Too bad for her, one doesn’t exist. Her fate was sealed, signed and delivered the day I saved her from Russo, regardless of whether she knew it at the time.

I shrug. “I took your spare the other week. It was unsafe to have one in the first place.”

“So you thought you’d just take it?” she whisper-shouts.

“It’s not a big deal, fawn. I’m not a threat to you.” Well, not in the way she probably thinks I am. She knows I’m a murderer, she even knows I get my kicks from ending the lives of others, but she doesn’t realize I have no intention of ever hurting her like that. No. What I want from her is much more sinister.

“Not a threat to me?” She throws her arms up and stomps into the apartment, wincing with each step as she slams her feet down on the hardwood.

“No, Clara.” I grab her around the waist and press her against the wall beside the open door. I like it when she’s at my mercy. When she’s helpless against me. It’s just one of the many reasons I should walk my ass out the front door and never look back. But I’m a selfish fuck and I’m going to take whatever the hell I want. “If anyone tried to hurt you, they would replace themselves six feet under before they could take their next breath. I will not tolerate any harm coming to you, and that includes you hurting yourself. You never should have left the security room. You never should have put yourself in that kind of danger. But I can assure you, I will never hurt you in a way you don’t enjoy.”

Her eyes flare with a mix of fear and heat. She may try to deny her attraction to me, but we both know I’m the only one that can give her what she needs. There are few women I’ve come across that can handle my darkness, but Clara? She can take it.

“Strip,” I command and step back to give her a little space to do as I’ve asked. It’s a fight with my dark desires to allow any distance between us, a battle I’ve been losing since the first time I saw her.

Clara’s mouth pops open in surprise, but she quickly snaps it shut. “Are you fucking insane?” She snaps. “I will be doing nothing of the sort.”

“Yes, you will.”

“No, I will not.” She slips away from the wall and walks farther into the apartment. “You can leave.”

“Not until I’ve checked you over, and I can’t do that until you lose the dress.”

“Then you won’t be checking me out, will you?”

I pinch the bridge of my nose and let out a slow breath. She’s testing me today. My patience, my resolve. Is this how all men feel when dealing with their women? I’ve never had a relationship that’s lasted past a night, and they’ve all been preplanned. The women always know what they’re getting out of the arrangement, and no one has been brave enough to challenge it. But Clara’s different. I don’t want one night with her. I want a lifetime.

I trail after her, keeping enough distance between us to allow her to breathe but not enough that she doesn’t know I’m right behind her. I’m at risk of spooking her, and the last thing I need is for her to run from me.

She lets out an exaggerated sigh and turns on me so quickly I almost run right into her. “I don’t know what the fuck you think is going on here, Tommy, but let me be clear about this. You have no say and no right over my life. You and I are nothing to one another. We work on different sides of the business. We have no reason to ever see each other. So please, for the love of God, get the hell out of my apartment and stop acting like you have some weird claim on me.”

I prowl toward her, but she’s frozen in place, her eyes wide as if she can’t believe she just said all that to me. She’s about to replace out the hard way why you should never push a man like me to his limits.

As soon as I’m in her space, I tug her against me until the ridge of my achingly hard cock presses into her lower belly. If she can’t see what’s right in front of her, I guess I’ll have to spell it out for her. “I can tell you what’s going on here, Clara. You are mine. You’ve been mine since the first time I locked eyes on you. I tried to stay away. I tried to allow you to live a normal life, but I couldn’t do it. Fighting my need for you is like fighting my need to breathe. Impossible.”

Her eyes widen, but she makes no attempt to break out of my hold on her. She’s at war with herself. What she should do and what she wants to do are fighting to the death, and she’s just along for the ride.

“Now, you either strip that pretty dress from your body, or I’m going to do it for you, and I can assure you it won’t be coming off in one piece.”

She worries her bottom lip between her teeth, and the sight makes my cock pulsate against her. She may not realize it, but she’s tempting the big bad wolf, and I can’t wait to eat her alive.