Freed (Bad Boy Hitman Romance) (37 page)

He pulled my pussy tight to his face and slammed his tongue deep within me, sending me into a state of pure ecstasy. I forgot I needed to be swallowing him and pulled my mouth from his dick and pressed my forehead to his thigh, trying to settle my body from the series of tremors that overtook me.

“Tanner,” I moaned softly, trying to catch hold of my breath.

I wanted to curl up next to him. I wanted him to gather me into his arms and tell me it was good and he would care for me. I didn’t get those things. Instead he tossed me off him and got up from the bed.

“Not bad, but you spilt some on me.” My brow furrowed as I looked up at him through lust-filled eyes. I didn’t know what to say, but the look of disappointment in his expression was upsetting. “We’ll need to work on that.” Not saying another word, Tanner bent, grabbed his jeans from the floor and exited my room, locking the door behind him.

I looked blankly at the door for a long time, my emotions running cold. Eventually I crawled over to the pillow and laid my head on it, pulling the green army blanket over me and up to my chin.

Bastard. Heartless bastard. Well, fuck him!

Chapter 9

Tanner

I watched her – again – on the computer monitors. Watching her was becoming a bit of a bad habit, keeping me from things I needed to do. I saw the tears, but didn’t feel the satisfaction I ordinarily would have. Mind you, the tears were for an entirely different reason than they normally were from my slaves and that seemed to make a huge difference. That being said, I didn’t feel bad, I just felt nothing.

This is what you wanted
, a voice in the back of my head chimed in.

The voice was right. This was exactly what I wanted. I didn’t want a mindless drone, I wanted a woman who held on to her passion, while being the obedient slave she was expected to be. I was succeeding, and here I was, sitting staring at her, not sure if my experiment was such as good idea after all.

After some time she fell asleep. I was about to get up and head to bed myself when I noticed something in the bathroom of her room. The shaving kit. Fuck. I didn’t want to go back in there with her; if I did, I might do something stupid like not leave and instead stay the night lying with her. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d actually slept with a woman. I’d fucked tons, hundreds. But actually slept? Nope.

But I needed that kit, I needed that razor. If she had hold of that razor she might attempt to kill me, or maybe even herself. I couldn’t believe I’d been so stupid as to leave it behind. It was her fault; she was getting under my skin. The virgin church girl was fucking with my head. I was better than this.

I’d slip in, grab the kit and then get out.

Content with my decision to slip in like a bandit in the night while she slept, I made my way downstairs to her room. Unlocking her door, I slowly opened it, taking care not to make a noise, and entered. I didn’t even glance over at Emily, but went directly to the bathroom to retrieve the kit. With my hand grasping the kit I looked up at the mirror and saw my reflection divided into a dozen different pieces.

Reaching out, I picked at the glass, but none of it had shattered to the point that she’d be able to use it as a weapon against herself or someone else. But still. I couldn’t take chances. I’d have to remove it before going to bed. Sure, she may think suicide was a sin, but once I got her to the point that she didn’t believe in the God shit any longer she might see it as a viable option.

With the kit in hand I made my way out of the bathroom and into the main room. Taking a glance over at Emily, my body froze; she wasn’t in the bed. With a frown creasing my brow I cautiously walked over to the bed, knelt and looked underneath. She wasn’t there either.

Turning, I gave the door a look. I rushed across the bedroom and grabbed the door handle; it turned in my hand. Fuckity-fuck-fuck. I’d forgotten to lock the door when I came in. That fucking bitch was making me sloppy.

FUCK!

But, as I was silently cursing, a rush of adrenaline shot through me. The hunt. The chase. The fight. I didn’t run up the stairs. I took my time, keeping my eyes and ears alert for any type of sound. I heard nothing. As I reached the top of the stairs I immediately went to the front door and swung it open; she wasn’t outside. There had been a light rain earlier and there was a thin coat of water on the front step. There were no footsteps to be seen… She was still in the house.

“Emily, baby! Come out, come out, wherever you are!” I yelled, a wide smile spreading across my lips.

Game on.
 

Emily

What a bad idea to remain in the house. I should have run out the front door. I should have tried to run as fast and as hard as I could and gotten hold of the authorities, but I couldn’t leave Victoria. She was going up for sale in less than a week. I couldn’t leave without her. I was at a serious disadvantage not knowing where we were. We could be in the middle of nowhere. If we were in the middle of the woods somewhere, miles from civilization, they could be gone from here before I even got to someone. Victoria’s fate would be sealed and I’d be partially to blame for being so selfish.

But I also knew my decision to stay meant one thing – I’d have to hurt Tanner to free us both. He’d left me with no choice. However, cowering in the bottom of a bedroom closet as I was doing wasn’t going to get me or Victoria free. I needed to find a weapon.

“Emily, baby! Come out, come out, wherever you are!” His voice echoed throughout the house and sent a chill through me. There was something sinister in his tone that I’d never heard before.

Demons in him, baby girl.

As quietly as I could in the darkened closet, I began to search for some sort of weapon. It was only a matter of time before he found me. He’d rip the house upside down looking for me and I was at a serious disadvantage – he was bigger, faster and this was his house. The only thing I had on my side was the element of surprise. Rummaging, the best I could find was an umbrella – a damned umbrella. I also grabbed a button-down shirt from the hanger, pulled it on and buttoned it up. It was large on me and there was a faint smell of his cologne lingering on it. If we made it outside I wanted to be at least somewhat covered.

He was much lighter on his feet than I’d expected. It wasn’t until he entered the bedroom that I was hiding in that I heard him.

“Come on, Emily, I just want to talk. We can work this out. If you come out, all is forgiven. Don’t make me do something you don’t want me to do.”

I knew what he was getting at. My family and Victoria. But I couldn’t give up. Not when freedom could be mine. I hunkered deep against the back of the closet, covering myself with blankets, my weapon – the umbrella – in my hands. If he opened the closet, I’d jab him with the sharp end and make a run for it. Run to the kitchen, wherever that was, and get a knife. I needed a weapon – a real weapon.

It was a bad plan. A real bad plan, but the only one I had.

“Come on out, Emily, let’s talk about this.” His footsteps were getting closer to the closet. He was going to find me, I had no doubt.

My heart was beating so hard in my chest that it felt like it was going to explode. My breathing, which was next to silent, seemed to sound like trumpets blaring in my ears. Could he hear my breathing? Could he sense me in here?

He was in front of the closet. His hand turned the knob and he pulled it open. “Don’t make me—”

He didn’t have the chance to finish his sentence. I leapt from beneath the blankets, ramming the end of the umbrella into his stomach with as much force as I could muster. He exhaled sharply, stumbling backward several steps. I found myself momentarily frozen as our eyes locked and I saw the rage in his dark depths. “Run, Emily. Fucking run!”

Tanner

I watched her break out of the trance she was in and rush from my bedroom as quickly as she could, the tail of my blue denim shirt flying up behind her, giving me a glimpse of her bare ass. Her ass would be as red as cherries by the time I was through with her, once I caught her.

Chucking the umbrella to the floor, I straightened. I had to give her credit – I certainly hadn’t expected to be ambushed with an umbrella. Though in truth, if I hadn’t wanted to continue our little cat-and-mouse game I would have grabbed her before she got two feet away from me…but I was a sick fuck and thoroughly enjoying this. Maybe it was cruel to let her think she had a chance to get away, but what did I care?

Confident I’d given her enough time to get a little head-start, I went after her. I heard a thump coming from the kitchen. Too fucking easy, Emily. She was really disappointing me. I took my time crossing the house to the kitchen, and as expected she was in there.

As soon as she saw me in the threshold, she grabbed a cleaver that had been mounted on the wall over the counter. “Don’t come any closer. I’ll kill you, I swear it.”

A smile spread across my lips. “Come on, sweetheart. Let’s not fight. Put down the knife.” Aside from my concern that she might trip and accidentally stab herself, I wasn’t concerned about the knife. I could easily disarm her, especially since her hands were trembling; she barely had a grasp on it.

She began waving the knife wildly in front of her. “Don’t call me sweetheart! Or love, or darling or anything like that. My name is Emily. Emily! My name is Emily!”

I advanced on her three steps, spreading my hands out, palms up to show I was unarmed. She took three back, keeping the kitchen island between us.

“I mean it!” Her eyes grew wild as she frantically looked for an escape. Unfortunately for her, the only way out was through a window or past me. Neither option was too appealing to her, I’d imagine.

Fuck, this was fun. Perhaps not for her, but I was having a wonderful time.

“And I believe it,” I assured her. Three more steps forward and she took three more back. “Okay, I admit I was an asshole. Maybe I should have stuck around and cuddled. Is that the issue?”

“Cuddle? Are you kidding? Are you insane?”

I shrugged, clucking my tongue off the roof of my mouth as if I were pondering the question. “Some would say so, yes. I think psychopath would be the correct term, but I suppose I also have a touch of narcissism and maybe a little OCD. They all kinda come as one big old package, really, in most cases.”

Her eyes widened and her mouth made a large O shape as if she couldn’t believe I was openly admitting those things about myself.

“You don’t agree?”

“You’re sick, Tanner. There’s something in you.” She wagged the cleaver at me as I took another step toward her.

“In me?” I tilted my head to the side, eyeing her. “That’s a curious thing to say. What do you mean?”

“My father believes people like you have demons in them. He’s right, isn’t he?” Even as she said the words I could see she didn’t believe them. She wanted to believe it, maybe so she could justify my behaviour, hard to say, but she didn’t believe it – not really.

“Holy shit on a cracker. Are you fucking serious? Have you lost your fucking mind already? Like demons, like I’m possessed? Is that what you’re saying?”

She scowled at me. “Maybe.”

“Really?”

She closed her eyes for a moment and gave her head a shake as she opened them. “I don’t know. I don’t—”

I didn’t even pretend to be stalking her any longer. Instead I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned back against the kitchen counter. “Come on. Let’s get real for a second. You know as well as I do most of what your father preaches is complete bullshit. Heaven and Hell and purgatory and demons and angels. Come on.”

“No, no.” She actually advanced on me, the knife in front of her. “You’re not turning this around. You’re not making a mockery of my beliefs.”

“But are they really your beliefs? Or is it just a lifetime of brainwashing?”

“How dare you talk of brainwashing when you have Victoria in the basement?” She came around the corner of the counter, the knife waving; seemingly in her outrage she’d forgotten she should be scared and running from me. The anger that had flared up in her eyes was fucking sexy, making me want to pull her into my arms and devour every inch of her with my lips and hands. And I had to admit, she looked adorable in my shirt. So adorable I’d have considered having regular old vanilla sex with her.