Page 12 of Overpowered

“What am I doing?” I whisper, my habit of talking out loud making me jump before I settle against the wall and pull my legs up to my chest.

What the hell am I doing? I’m not the girl who has sex with strangers and I am most certainly not the girl to order a man around and use him for pleasure.

Am I?

“You’re dirty,” I whine, tears leaking from my eyes and falling onto my knees.

None of that was real. It wasn’t right. What the hell was I thinking!

I loved it though. Adored the way he looked at me as if I was necessary for breath and the more he looked at me that way, the more powerful I felt. Can I do that…all the time, I wonder, thinking as hard as I can because I know this is important. I’m alone for a reason. I don’t do well with a lot of people, which is why I was practically comatose at the fair. I barely remember that day because my mind went on autopilot and my body worked independently of my thoughts. I did what I had to do but when I got home, I was a wreck.

You’re supposed to be normal. You’re working on yourself.

“But it wasn’t working,” I whisper, answering myself because I only ever really talk to myself.

I spoke with Zack though, I think, my eyes squeezing shut as sadness fills me. He looked so hurt when I forced him to bring me home but the fact that he did proves something important to me. He did it. He ignored his wants, the obvious pain that letting me go brought, and he did what I needed him to do.

“Go back. Just give him a chance,” I tell myself, already rising from the closet carpet and reaching for the door handle to do just that.

Zack gave me his number. I can call him. He begged me to call him and that’s exactly what I intend to do as I push out of the closet and into the dark hallway, my resolve filling me.

It fills me up, demands I go back and talk to him about whatever the hell this is. I want him.I don’t understand how this happened so fast but I know I can’t just run from it.I couldn’t live. He’s…special. Mine. And maybe he could help me with those calls?

I shudder just thinking about the calls and I decide to stop ignoring them and face something I’ve been running from for years.

That’s what I’m thinking as I reach for my phone and dial his number, the digits memorized because all I did for an hour after I got home was stare at that card.

Zackary Cross. Captain Zackary Cross, retired. Former Navy Seal.

“Angel?” Zack asks, his voice choked while my eyes fill with tears.

“I, I think I miss you,” I say softly, gathering myself and my courage to tell him that I made a mistake, and crazy as this is, I want him.

I don’t get that far. One minute I’m opening my mouth to speak and the next I feel a hard pulse of pain rush through my head. I cry out, shock stunning me, and then another blow lands before darkness covers me.

“Angel! Rebecca? Angel!”