Marry Screw Kill(33)

Shit. He’s really ticked off. I’m starting to second-guess my decision to come here, but I feel like a weight has lifted off my chest. He calls, and like a dark cloud trying to hover over me, my mood shifts. He needs to hear the truth.

“I’m okay. I swear. I needed to stop by and I was out—”

“The club is miles away from the cemetery, so don’t even go there with me,” he scolds, like I’m a teen out past curfew, and I can’t help but feel like one. He stops and mumbles to someone under his breath. I’m embarrassed to have him speak like this to me in front of his possible peers. We never fight, but I also haven’t given him cause to be upset before. “Did you take your pills?”

“I took them.” The lie tumbles off my tongue with ease. I’ve been lying to him about them for weeks, despising how they make me feel.

“Promise me you’ll never go without me. You’re not strong enough to handle this alone.” His anger from before has mellowed some and I exhale.

“I’m sorry, James, but I swear, I’m fine. I was talking to Mom and I felt like she was right there.” I fire out my convincing speech so he can’t interrupt.

“We’ll talk about this later.” He dismisses what I shared by shutting me down and my mood deflates even more, if possible.

“Fine.” Stung, I reply fast and sharp.

“I need you to help me.” He doesn’t acknowledge or recognize that I’m upset, his tone reverting back to the normal, everyday James. “I’m just getting out of surgery. We had another heart transplant around noon. A young mother.”

“I hope she’s doing okay.” I lower my head and close my eyes. He’s fighting for a life. This side of James makes me wonder if I’m overreacting to his recent behaviors. It’s his nature to care for others, and maybe he’s trying to protect me. My thoughts keep bouncing from one possibility to another

“I need to stay and monitor her vitals with the team for the next few hours. I’ll likely be very late, so don’t wait up.”

“I’ll see you in the morning.”

After our conversation ends, I decide to head home and find a bottle of wine. I’m relieved he isn’t going to come home tonight. As his fiancée, my feelings spell trouble for us, signaling a decision needs to be made.

Stay or go? But go where?

I drive under the black wrought iron entrance of the cemetery and head in the direction of another set of iron gates. These gates have surrounded me like a prison for four months. Today’s little taste of freedom makes me want more, which is a dangerous desire if I stay with James.





Chapter Fifteen


Sin



I’ve been listening to the orientation speaker drone on and on about what to expect over the next four weeks during The Clinic’s clerkship, but my mind remains back at James’ house where I walked in and found Harlow strapped to a table. Fuck, I don’t even know how to process seeing her lying there before me, succumbing to my uncle’s will.

I’m convinced he had no idea I was there taking in the entire scene. My stomach still churns with the conflict inside me. I was equal parts sickened and turned on from the shocking display.

The more I dwell on watching James f*ck her, the more my body hums with adrenaline. Being stuck in this seat is killing me. I want to get up and walk around, shake off this excess energy, but I’m trapped in this spot for a couple more hours. I glance around the room and see attentive students typing away on their laptops. I borrowed a few sheets of paper and a pen from a guy sitting next to me, since the whole reason I went back to James’ house was to get the laptop I left lying by the coffeemaker.

Damn, if only I’d remembered to grab my computer bag before I left the first time. But I got distracted when Harlow came downstairs and heard what James was saying about her. At least I put my cell phone in my pocket, or I wouldn’t have it now either.

When I turned the garage door handle to go inside the house and get my bag, I heard strange noises and groans. I shut the door quietly behind me, unsure where the sounds were coming from. I walked through the hallway leading to the kitchen area and saw her on the table splayed out like a sacrificial offering.

Her angel-like hair cascaded across the dark wood. A glint of sun found her hair and created a halo effect. The robe she wore covered her from the waist up, leaving the seductive curve of her creamy ass exposed. I couldn’t see James’ hands gripping her hips as he plunged into her, but I guessed he used them to secure her in place. Something had to keep her steady so he was able to continue his onslaught.

I stayed back at the perfect angle so he didn’t see me being a voyeur to their kinky sexcapade. He moaned his pleasure and her name repeatedly. He was so caught up in f*cking her he never sensed my presence.

Lust rushed through me at the sight of Harlow tied up and bound. My body reacted like a normal guy’s would. How could it not? I could even smell her sex in the dark distance. It surrounded me—an intoxicating scent that only fueled my desire to have her as mine.

She sought me out, a silhouette cloaked in dark shadows. Her eyes plunged straight through me and I looked closer. At first pass, I thought they were hooded with arousal, but what I really saw in them slapped me in the face. She was begging me. Asking me for something.

Her lips moved in silence and the words were unmistakable. “Please go.” Then she turned her head and the spell I fell under was broken.