Obsession (9 page)

“She’s young,” a man said in a low voice with a very faint Hispanic accent.

“Yes, she is.”

“And very innocent.”

“I’m aware.”

“She reminds me of someone…”

“Audrey Hepburn.”

“Yeah, that’s it…those big brown eyes and pretty lips. I didn’t know you were attracted to such elegant women. She’s for sure not your usual porn star partner. Why Hannah? Of all the women in this world, all the women you’ve had, what is it about this one that makes her ‘the one’?”

“Those women were toys, nothing more, nothing less. They never meant anything to me besides a body to play with.”

The stranger let out a low whistle. “That’s cold.”

“It’s the truth.”

“But why this girl?”

“Because she’s mine. She’s my destiny.”

“You really think that?”

“I know it, feel it in my balls and my gut.”

“My mother approves of her, by the way.”

The man with the smooth baritone voice snorted. “Of course she does. If Judith didn’t care for Hannah, she’d already be on a plane to Germany with a one-way ticket—or worse.”

“This’s true.”

“What has Judith said about her?”

“Aside from talking about the progress you were making with your experiment, she mentioned that at least you had the brains to pick a good woman. She’s also worried that this life might prove to be too much for Hannah, that the experiment will fail and we’ll have to…deal with the consequences.”

“There will never, ever be any consequences to deal with. I’ll take care of her every need, give her everything she could want, and I’ll slit the throat of anyone stupid enough to even look at her wrong.”

“Crazy fucker,” the other man muttered before he was silent for a long moment. “Think it’s gonna work?”

“Yes.”

“Maybe I’ll find myself someone young and sweet to train.”

“Just be aware, the sword cuts both ways.”

The other man laughed, and it wasn’t a nice sound. “Fuck that shit. I’ll never give any woman that kind of control over me. I wish you luck, my friend. She’s going to wake up ravenous.”

Dark satisfaction filled the slightly familiar voice as he said, “I know.”

My dream shifted, twisted, and I drifted away from the voices.

Awareness hit me in stages, the first being the fact that dryness coated my mouth and tongue. The second was that I felt a little floaty, and the third was the gentle caress of a large male hand stroking my neck and collarbone. My injured arm still throbbed, but it was nowhere near my earlier pain. I lay back on something immensely comfortable, and the room was very, very quiet, other than my breathing and his.

“Hannah, wake up for me, baby girl,” Leo said in a low, sinful voice. The hand moved from my arm to my face and his fingertips traced along my jaw.

“Ugh—my mouth tastes terrible.”

My eyes were still closed as Leo helped me sit up against what I was assuming were pillows. A straw was brought to my lips and I eagerly sucked down some crisp ginger ale before he pulled the drink away. The cool liquid soothed my throat and my stomach gurgled as it hit.

“Enough, or you’ll get sick.”

Slowly opening my eyes, I was relieved to see the lights were dimmed so I wasn’t blinded.

Then I looked at Leo and lost my breath.

He sat in a dark cinnamon leather chair next to the hospital bed I was lying in, his jacket off and his forearms showing, with their dusting of golden-brown hair and thick muscles. The scruff on his face had grown in even more, and his eyes were so dark beneath his heavy brow I could barely make out the difference between his pupil and iris. A slight flush stood out on his cheekbones as he gave me an intense stare that should have unnerved me, but aroused me instead. I liked how it seemed as if all his attention was focused on me, like I was something important, someone worth noticing.

“How are you feeling?”

“A little dizzy, but otherwise okay.”

“Have you ever taken painkillers before?”

“Um…once when I broke my leg while playing soccer. And when I sprained my wrist.”

The side of his mouth quirked up. “That’s what I thought. The medicine was only supposed to relax you, but it put you to sleep instead.”

“How long have I been out?”

“Five hours. I tried to wake you a few times, but you told me to go fuck myself gently with a chainsaw.”

“Oh…oh jeez. I’m sorry. It’s from the eighties movie
Heathers
.”

The darkness of his eyes lightened to melted chocolate. “I know.”

“You’ve seen
Heathers
?”

He shrugged. “I like to watch movies, especially the older ones.”

“Me too.”

“Well, that’s one thing we have in common.”

My sleepy mind wanted to be closer to him, so I rolled over onto my side…then frowned. “Why does my hip hurt?”

“You must have bumped it. At one point you tried to get up out of bed, and that’s probably when you hit it.”

On my back once again, I rubbed my hip with a frown, not liking that I couldn’t remember. “That’s it, nothing stronger than Tylenol for me.”

He gave me a smile I could only describe as indulgent. “How’s your arm?”

“Much better. How’s your hand?”

The gold watch on his wrist gleamed as he held up his hand wrapped in an Ace bandage. “Fine.”

I snorted and went to lean up, forgetting almost instantly that my arm was injured.

When I yelped, Leo stood and scooped his arm behind my back, supporting me without any effort. “What are you doing?”

Flushing, I cleared my throat and looked away.

“I have to use the ladies’ room.” I was hyperaware of how easily he lifted me out of the bed then carried me across the room. “I can walk, you know.”

Setting me on my feet, he gave me that tender, lingering forehead kiss again, the one that made my toes curl and my chest fill with warmth. Then he smacked my butt with a little tap that had me laughing as I moved away. “Go.”

I was tempted to turn around and stick my tongue out at him, but I managed to act like an adult. The bathroom was nice, but it was still obviously a hospital bathroom with its extra railings and handicap-accessible shower. A wrapped toothbrush and little thing of toothpaste sat next to the sink, and I gratefully gave my mouth a good scrub while examining myself in the mirror with a wince.

At some point, someone must have taken my ponytail out because my hair fell down my back in its usual boring, bone-straight way. The edge of my right sleeve was still splashed with coffee near my biceps and my eyes were red-rimmed from crying. With a sigh, I wished I had a hairbrush and a team of makeup artists to work some magic on me, but unfortunately the best I could do was pinch my cheeks to try to add some color to my pale face. My light brown eyes were bloodshot with dark circles beneath them and overall I resembled a zombie apocalypse survivor, but splattered with coffee instead of blood.

“Hannah, are you okay?”

“Yeah,” I yelled back right away, afraid he’d come in and catch me mooning over myself. “Just washing up.”

I cleaned my hands in like three seconds then dried them on one of the fluffy white towels hanging next to the sink before girding my loins and opening the door.

Leo stood on the other side of the room, talking with Dr. Gardener, who regarded me with a rather forced smile. “Feeling better, Hannah?”

“Yes, thank you. Am I okay to go home?”

“Of course,” Dr. Gardener said as she typed something into her phone, avoiding my gaze. “If you don’t need me for anything else, Mr. Brass, I have a patient that I need to attend to.”

“You’re free to go.”

She cast him a brief look of longing as he strode towards me, then left.

While I’ve had a problem with jealousy before, I’ve never felt as intensely possessive of a man as I did Leo, and we weren’t even dating. What in the world was wrong with me? Maybe I needed to go see a psychiatrist again before my anxiety started up. This fixating on a man I barely knew, who was so different from anyone I’ve ever been around, couldn’t be healthy. All I could think of as he closed the distance between us was that he would be strong enough to hold me up while he fucked me against the nearest wall.

My breathing sped and when his wide chest filled my world, I found myself afraid of meeting his gaze, afraid of the desire he would see in my eyes.

“Leo, can you take me home please?”

I checked him out as surreptitiously as I could, wanting to run my fingers down the open collar of his shirt to the light brown hair of his chest. His pulse beat against the tanned skin of his neck, making me want to lick him there. My need for him was so strong, I had to press my thighs together in the hopes of easing the ache.

“Of course. Dr. Granger left some medicine and antibiotic cream to take home with you, along with a change of bandages. There shouldn’t be any scarring.”

“Thank you.” I hesitantly reached out and gently touched the fingertips of his injured hand, telling my hormones to shut the hell up as guilt reared its ugly head again. “Leo, I’m so sorry I hurt you.”

“Don’t worry. I have a very, very high pain threshold.”

“I don’t.”

“I know.” He sounded amused as he took a step back, then gestured to my lilac jacket nicely hung over the back of a nearby chair. “You might want to answer your phone, it’s been ringing a lot.”

“Oh, crap, my roommates!” I stumbled over to my jacket and dug my phone out, groaning at the amount of messages and texts from Joy. The only one I had from Kayla was to tell me—not ask me, tell me—that I needed to run her library books back for her, like she couldn’t do it herself.

No doubt she’d sleep all day tomorrow, the day her books were due, and continue to beg me to take them back while looking pitiful and laying on a guilt trip. Normally helping her didn’t bother me…but right now, it irritated me that Kayla just got to coast through life, using her money and connections to do whatever the heck she wanted while I busted my butt to just get by.

Rather than answering all the individual texts, I called the house and Joy answered, “Hello?”

“Hey, it’s me.”

“Hannah! Are you okay? You never came home and I got worried so I called your work. They said you burned yourself and left with some guy.”

Conscious of Leo watching me, I turned slightly and said in a low voice, “I’m fine. In fact, I’m on my way home. I spilled coffee on one of my customers and myself, burning us both. He was nice enough to take me to get medical treatment at a fancy private clinic.”

“He did what?”

“I’ll talk with you when I get home.”

Something in my voice must have alerted Joy, because her tone changed as she asked, “Is he hot?”

“Oh yeah.”

“Is he standing right there?”

“Yep.”

“Do you want to lick his balls?”

“You suck.”

She giggled, and I had a hard time keeping my blush under control. “Uh-uh, I bet
you’re
the one who’ll be doing the sucking. Tongue all up in his—”

“Anyways,” I said loudly, “I’ll be home in a bit.”

“I’ll make some cookies and hang out and wait for you.”

“You don’t have to. I know you have a study group this afternoon.”

“No way. I was worried sick. I’m just glad you’re okay and that you’re having an adventure. You need an adventure, bad. Just be safe. I’d have to go on a path of vengeance if anything happened to you, and that means I’d have to start jogging or some shit.”

Knowing Joy used humor as a defense, I softened my voice and tried to make my friend feel better. “I’m sorry, honey.”

“Love you, cupcake.”

“Love you too, pookie bookie wookie.”

“Oh, and if you don’t want to come home and want to boink his brains out instead, feel free.”

“Thanks.”

Laughing, I hung up the phone, only to find Leo watching me with a dark look that set me on edge—and aroused me. “Who was that?”

“Uh—Joy, my roommate.”

“Do you love her?”

“Of course, she’s been one of my best friends since high school.”

The stiff line of his body, the anger that I glimpsed in his eyes, all melted away. “I see.”

Grabbing my jacket, I stuffed my phone in the pocket. “I’m ready when you are.”

A bright, beaming sun pouring through the floor-to-ceiling windows pierced my eyeballs with its rays as we stepped out of the elevator and into the foyer, people bustling about as the room echoed with various conversations. Everyone was dressed for business and I stuck out like a sore thumb, especially with the bright white bandage on my arm. Leo had his bandaged hand on my lower back and the heat of his palm pressing against me was distracting to say the least. Unknown feelings zipped along my nerves, and I wanted to reach out and grab a handful of his bubble butt. Really, having an ass that good must be illegal.