Total pages in book: 28
Estimated words: 25708 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 129(@200wpm)___ 103(@250wpm)___ 86(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 25708 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 129(@200wpm)___ 103(@250wpm)___ 86(@300wpm)
There is a movement out of the corner of my eye.
I turn my head just in time to see a flash of blonde hair outside, shooting my heart into my mouth, firing every cell in my body into a frenzy. And I’m already off the bed with a yell, fastening myself into my jeans and barreling toward the window, unlatching it and throwing it open. I’m way too big to fit through the window, but in my haste, I forget.
It’s what costs me valuable time.
She’s gone by the time I exit the building through the front door and sprint to the rear, but her footprints are still there, her perfume sitting on the night breeze. I can’t see into the inky black night, but I know she’s there. My soul feels her nearby and it’s everything I can do not to self-destruct. In my frustration over having her and losing her again, I tear off my shirt and beat bruises into my chest, hoping she’s watching. Hoping she’s alarmed.
She should be.
I stumble around the perimeter of the building, trying to find her, but she’s gone.
There is nothing to do but sit and wait for morning and that’s what I do. I sit in the darkness, surrounded by the mist, staring into a void, my head locked in a vise. Eventually I begin to notice movement around me, people going to class, the sky growing lighter and I stand, drifting shirtless and filthy and deranged across campus, my remaining ability to reason telling me to follow my schedule, because if Scout is stalking me, that’s where she will be, right?
Ignoring the horrified stares of fellow students who’ve never felt the deep wound of obsession before, I fall into my seat in class, the professor’s voice muffled as she approaches me, laying a hand on my shoulder. “Mr. Jenner, I think you should go home and clean up, maybe get some sleep?” A long pause. All I can do is breathe in and out. “Maybe we should just call an ambulance. Or the campus nurse…?”
My spine begins in tingle.
I’m speared by awareness, as if I’ve been plugged into a socket. I whirl around in my seat, positive Scout is there. Somewhere among the sea of alarmed faces. Where? “Where?” I shout, lunging to my feet and pitching sideways, due to my loss of equilibrium. My loss of her. “Scout. Where is she?” I start picking my way through the lecture hall—and a hooded figure goes slipping out the opposite side. Urgency tears through my insides and I give chase, bolting from the hall and running down the hallway in the direction of the hooded figure.
She exits the building into the dreary rainstorm—when did that start? And I follow her, my heartbeat deafening in my ears, animal lust digging its claws into my gut. She is running as fast as possible toward the forest and I’m approximately thirty yards from catching her when she disappears into the trees, but I don’t stop. God no. I hurtle myself through the same break in the woods, jumping over logs and dodging branches while following her footsteps.
“Scout!” Her name leaves me, raw and agonized. “Stop this. Stop running Now. Now!”
A ripple of blonde to my right.
I change directions, increasing my pace until my sides are heaving from exertion, but it pays off—because there she is. I reach her, twisting my fist in the back of her jacket and hauling her to a stop. Throwing her face down on the forest floor, before rolling her over and looking down into two very pissed off green eyes.
She slaps me across the face.
I rip her shirt clean down the middle, filling my palms with her pert tits, straddling her hips as she squirms in the mud, rain soaking us both in seconds.
“That’s enough now,” I say hoarsely, stroking her nipples with my thumbs. “Open your fucking legs.”
“No.” Her palm cracks against the side of my face again. “No!”
I reach for the hem of her skirt. “Yes.”
We struggle in the mud, Scout leaning sideways to sink her teeth into my arm, making me shout.
“Did you like how it felt to be stalked?” She hisses up at me. “Wanting me and not knowing how to find me?”
“No, I hated it,” I growl, yanking her skirt all the way to her hips and shoving down her panties. “Don’t you ever do this to me again. Promise.”
“I’ll promise not to disappear again if you promise not to lie to me. Ever!”
I still my actions, zeroing in on her words. “Lie to you. Is that what this is about?”
“Pretending you only wanted me for one reason—to get into the head of my stalker.” To my horror, tears fill her green eyes. “It was so confusing. Our relationship felt like more, but I was so unsure. You made me unsure of myself. Of you.”