Page 142 of Lured By Shadows

“I’m still angry at you,” I grumbled, my voice muffled against him as I nudged my forehead slightly, though I didn’t make any real effort to move away.

“Even if this is a dream,” I muttered, slurred by exhaustion and whatever lingered in my system, “you in the real world are still being stupid. You think you can fuck other women and get away with it? When you tell me that I’m everything to you and no one else means anything. And then I see that fucking photo of you and that… bitch!”

The silence stretched just long enough for my heart to trip over itself, but then his arms tightened around me, holding me without urgency or hunger. He felt like safety, anchoring me to the world.

“You are mistaken, my Ira,” he said quietly, his voice vibrating low against my ear. “This is not a dream.”

I blinked slowly, my mind too fogged to latch onto the meaning of that. Something warm and aching inside me rebelled at the idea, refused to accept that this could be real, so I didn’t answer him. Instead, my hand drifted beneath his shirt with slow, unfocused curiosity, my palm sliding across the sculpted planes of his chest like I was mapping something sacred.

“Mnn,” I hummed faintly as sleep tugged at me again, my fingers slowing. “So you’re telling me more lies then,” I murmured drowsily. “You can’t fool me… Kiera told me you’re a liar. It’s in your nature.”

His hand slid across my warm cheek. “Are you willing to believe Kiera, who you have only spoken to a handful of times?”

“There was a photo, Culver.” I raked my manicured nails up his stomach, and his body responded, twitching underneath my touch. “You were kissing this blonde bitch’s throat and holding her close. Her hands wrapped around your wrist. And that was only a couple of days ago!”

“Ira,” Culver climbed over me, my body pressing into the mattress, “believe me when I say that I have not touched another woman in eight months. You have been the only one I have gotten close with. Since the moment I met you, I have not even considered anyone else.”

“We’ve only known each other for a couple of weeks.” I furrowed my brows, the edge of my mind hazing, trying to understand. “So what happened to the other seven months?”

His eyes flickered with unease. “You should rest. Your mind is still hazy with drugs.”

“No, you’re not gonna evade this question.” I reached up and grabbed his wrist. “If that’s true, where did the other seven months go?”

“Ira, you are not completely awake. We can discuss this once you are feeling like yourself,” he tried again, but I gripped his wrist tighter.

He didn’t seem to care about that. “Fuck off, Culver. I may have drugs in my system, but that doesn’t mean I can’t put two and two together and figure shit out. I’m sick and tired of you glossing over every question that I ask with your evasions. Tell me the truth, or I’ll walk outta here and never talk to you again.”

He seemed almost amused by the concept. I jerked against him and started to sluggishly pull myself together. “I’m not gonna sit around and—”

“Fine,” he responded, realizing I wasn’t joking. “You do not understand what you are asking for, though.”

“Stop delaying it.” My eyes widened as I stared up at him, my breathing erratic. “What’re you hiding, Culv? What aren’t you telling me?” I nearly screamed it, not caring who heard.

“I have been stalking you for the last seven months.”

His body went rigid above mine, and my drugged mind hazed at the revelation.

“I promised your mother a bright and successful career here, as long as she brought you with her. I orchestrated our meeting so that you would feel the pull toward me. I have watched you religiously for the past eight months. Everything you have done inside your house, your room, when you thought no one was watching. No, I was there. I saw everything, and I enjoyed every moment of it.”

“Now, as you lay underneath me, I cannot picture any other person here. I have wondered how many days it would take for me to tell you the truth, but I grow a coward as the days press on. Eventually, I knew you would find out, so I wanted to be the one to tell you. I just hadn’t thought it would be like this.”

“So Ira, no… I have not floundered with any other women.”

What did he just say?

My mind spun with all that he’d dumped on me, the pieces clicking in a messed-up way that left me reeling. Culver was really a stalker, my stalker, and somehow I’d gone and fallen for him without even knowing it. He’d dragged me right into his world, pulling strings with my own ma to make it happen. Yet here I was, not exploding with rage like I figured I should. I felt more pissed off about the idea of him with some other woman than I did about realizing the whole move to England had never really been my choice at all. My thoughts flickered through hazy flashes: him seeing me stripped down in my room back home, touching myself late at night with the balcony doors cracked open, all the little weird vibes I’d brushed off in America that suddenly made a twisted kind of sense now.

“What?” I didn’t realize I had asked until I heard my voice echo it.

He sighed, his thumb tracing my cheek. “As I mentioned, you should rest. We can speak more when you wake.”

My eyelids were heavy, but my heartbeat was erratic. I wanted more answers. I wanted more time to wrap my head around what the hell Culver Scarbrough had just laid out for me, but my body wasn’t giving me a chance. It felt inevitable, like my eyes were closing without my permission.

I fell into a deep sleep before I could comprehend anything else.

36

After she fell back asleep, I watched her for hours. Her short, rapid breaths held me enraptured, each shallow pant stirring something raw and primal beneath my ribs, but I needed to handle business. I thought being next to her would calm me enough, would keep me from going back and ripping them all to shreds, ending their miserable existence, but it was futile. My rage boiled over the more I watched the drugs move through her veins. Her pulse fluttered beneath her skin, delicate and vulnerable, and I could physically see the vile chemicals working their way through her blood, her flesh, her warmth. Gods, my teeth clenched so tightly they forced my fangs to elongate without permission. Inhaling was the only thing that brought me back to semi-human form, the scent of her clinging to my tongue like a prayer.