Pretty Stolen Dolls (6 page)

“How was your day, babe?”

I drop my gun and badge on the table beside my purse and follow my nose into the kitchen where Bo is standing at the stove.

“Fine,” I say with a sigh and pat his back as I peek into the skillet. “Hamburger steak, mmm.” If he didn’t cook for me, I would have starved to death a long time ago.

He chuckles and kisses the top of my head. “You look like hell today. So glad you came home. Are you sure everything is fine?” His brows lift in question.

“Just what I want to hear from the man who claims to love me,” I tease, stealing a piece of celery from the bowl of salad he’s prepared.

“I don’t just claim it, baby. I’ll show you it too, later.” He winks and I internally sigh. He truly is a good man.

My eyes drag over his handsome face, taking in his sweet features. He doesn’t have much facial hair, but what he does have matches his dark blonde, naturally shaggy hair he now keeps short because of me. The first night we slept together, when he cuddled into me from behind in the dark room and the strands tickled over my skin, I became hostage to a night terror of
him
—only I wasn’t sleeping. I fought back, knocking Bo to the floor and leaving a scar above his right eye from a punch I threw while wearing the ring he had gifted me earlier that day. I was a mess back then, still am now, but he adores me. I feel it in his touch, when he gazes at me with those crystal blue eyes, and the way his smile lights up every room I darken. We truly do match—his good-naturedness with my chipped shoulder. The universe made sure we evened things out.

“Actually,” I tell him with a huff as I go on the hunt for plates, “it was terrible. Missing person. Alena Stevens. Fourteen.”

Taken from the mall by
him
.

He turns off the stove, but doesn’t say anything, and I sense the shift in his mood. Bo hates my obsession with finding Macy. He knows I treat each and every case like a lead to find her, and this one is no different. Telling him anything about the case is frowned upon, but if I didn’t have him to vent to, I’d silently go insane.

“Try not to get sucked in, babe. You tend to lose too much weight and not sleep enough. I like my girl on the curvy side,” he says with a forced grin. He always tries to make light of my fucked up obsessions.

“Well, I’m starving, so your curvy girl isn’t changing any time soon.”

This time, I earn myself a genuine grin from the good looking man.

“Good. I like you just the way you are.”

And he did. I was fairly attractive, I suppose. The mirror showed me I’d blossomed into an appealing woman during those years I was locked away being used and abused by Benny. My dark locks complimented my pale complexion and my hazel eyes that mirrored Macy’s were vibrant but jaded. My figure was only now beginning to have curves that showed I was a woman. It took years for Bo to put meat on my fragile bones and I liked the fuller hips I now owned. They flattered my modest C cup and rounded ass.

I guess there’s a reason Bo is in love with me—and it can’t be my delightful personality.

But you don’t love him.

I wake to lips sucking on my nipple and my heart jackknifes through my chest. For a split second, I’m back in my cell. I’m seventeen and he’s taking me for the first time. It isn’t until I thread my fingers into his hair that I realize I’m latching onto short, stick-straight hair—not curly, thick hair. My tense body tightens for a different reason as I embrace the feeling of his hot tongue circling and sucking.

“It’s me, babe,” he whispers. “It’s just me.”

Bo.

Sex isn’t something I ever thought I’d want after Benny. I didn’t like the way my body betrayed me with him, but Bo took things slow and taught me how to be in control of what I do and whom I share myself with. Sex is good with Bo. He’s a gentle lover, but there’s this demon lurking inside me, tainted by Benny’s torture, that wants more—needs more.

“I love you. It’s just me,” he murmurs against my flesh as he trails kisses over the globe of my breast to my abdomen. “Don’t ever forget that, babe.”

I won’t. I can’t. There are many reasons why I hate myself and him loving me is one of them.

I don’t deserve him.

I let out a whimper as his tongue dips into my belly button. He continues his tasting until I feel his hot breath against the sensitive lips of my pussy. A choked gasp escapes me the moment his tongue slides along my slit.

“I love you,” he breathes against me, the three words hot as his breath scorches over my already fevered flesh. His mouth gives me the pleasure I need, but the words darken the spark that should be firing right now, causing my blood to chill.

He
loved me too…

When I got with Bo, I wasn’t looking for love. I was looking for a friend. The idea of being alone scared the shit out of me. Plus, Bo was what I should have been interested in all those years ago. He was headed for college with a good head on his shoulders. Instead, I allowed my stupid hormones to lead me right into a van that drove me straight to hell.

Never again will I let my body make decisions for me.

From now on, my mind calls all the shots. And love is something locked in a cell with my sister. I loved her more than anything, and I failed her. Love has no place in my life now.

“I love you, Jade. It’s me, Bo,” he murmurs again as he worships me between my legs. He reminds me every time he’s inside me that it’s him. I adore him for wanting me to feel safe in our moments of passion, but he doesn’t realize Benny used to whisper those same three words.

Talking dirty would serve him and me better.

“I love you.” His words are on repeat.

Shut up…shut up…shut up…

Sometimes I want to give in, tell him I love him too so he’ll stop saying the words, gift him what he deserves, but I can’t. I’m not a liar when it comes to such important things. Love is a lie.

“You’re my sweet, adored Bo,” I whisper. It’s what I always tell him—my equivalent to his heartfelt words.

And he knows this.

Satisfied with my answer, he becomes ravenous, but I know he is still holding back, and I hate it.

He sucks and licks me like he’s taken courses on how to do so. And being an anatomy teacher at the local college, who knows? Maybe he teaches the damn course. But sometimes, I wish he’d bite me. Hurt me just once.

“Yes,” I moan as he slides a finger into my wet center. “More…”

He expertly finds the sweet spot within and soon, I’m shuddering with bliss. Bo knows how to make me orgasm.

So did Benny.

My body is a slut for pleasure and with Bo, it is punishment to myself as much as it’s gratification. His words take me back there, yet his scent and touch keep me here. I’m in limbo.

And I deserve to be for not loving him back. How could I love him when I couldn’t even give him my entire mind during sex?

Dirty little doll.

My thighs cage him to me until they weaken and fall to the sides.

“Jade…” His voice cracks with emotion as he climbs over me, spreading my legs farther apart so he can settle between them, the tip of his hardened cock teasing at my throbbing wet pussy.

“Mmm?”

Slowly, almost torturous, he drives into my needy body and I cry out when he pushes all the way inside.

“Babe…”

“Mmm?”

He thrusts harder and then sucks on my bottom lip. “Marry me.”

An icy shower of reality douses the heated flames of my desire. His lips find my neck and he suckles as if I’m the most precious thing he’s ever encountered. I can’t marry him. I don’t even love him. It’s not his fault. Bo is the textbook partner. A great lover. Understanding and forgiving.

In a perfect world, I could love Bo—should. My parents love Bo, everyone freaking loves Bo…
but me
.

Perhaps if Benny had never stolen his pretty little dolls, I’d have fallen for Bo.

But this isn’t a perfect world.

He did steal us.

The world is wicked and hateful. I’ll never stop searching for my sister. I’ll never lose the desire to find all the missing girls in this world. I will never lose the festering hate for Benny and the all-consuming desire to bring him to justice.

There’s just not enough room inside my broken heart for Bo. Bo is a good soul and my job, my desire for vengeance, will dirty him.

Bo’s fingers on my clit between us jolts me from my thoughts. He works me into another delicious orgasm within minutes. When my body contracts around his modest cock, he releases his own climax into me. The moment our bodies still and our breathing is all that breaks the silence of the room, he lifts up to look down at me.

Moonlight shines on his handsome features, but I don’t see the bright, happy man I know. All I see is sadness and loss. He wants more than I can give.

“Is that a no?” His Adam’s apple bobs in his throat. I hate that I’m so toxic for him.

“Bo…” Tears prick my eyes, but they never fall. Not anymore. After what I’ve been through, nothing makes me cry. Not even a sad, broken man whose only wish in this world is for me to love him. “I would be a terrible wife.”

“Not to me,” he assures, his lips finding mine. “To me, you’re pretty perfect.”

Pretty little doll.

He kisses me so sweetly, I think my black heart might throb a little with life. It guts me for him.

“Okay,” I murmur with a sigh, knowing I’ll later regret it.

Dirty little doll.

“But I want a long engagement. Like a year or two.” Cruel, selfish woman. I hate me.

His blue eyes shimmer in the moonlight and he grins. He truly is a beautiful soul. “I’ll give you all the time you need, babe. We’ve got nothing but time.”

I return his smile, but it doesn’t reach my eyes.

He and I may have lots of time for
us.

But I’m afraid Macy doesn’t have much time at all.

If the man from the mall is Benny, that means he’s on the hunt again. If he’s on the hunt, then he’s growing bored with his little dolly.

Or worse, maybe he’s replacing a doll who’s too broken to repair.

I have to find her.

And soon.

I
T’S SO BRIGHT AND
BIG.

Shiny and new.

Flawless.

Not me at all
.

It’s heavy and certainly not suitable for work. Dragging the engagement ring from my finger and dropping it onto the dresser top, I cringe at the fact that I agreed to marry Bo. I was selfish and petrified of losing him, so I became one of those women I despise by locking him in, knowing I can’t give him everything he deserves, everything he’s earned by just putting up with my shit-storm of a life.

“Does it need resizing?” His voice lures me from my inward disgust with myself.

“It’s—”

“Perfect and pretty?” He flashes me a panty-melting grin. “Just like you.”

Pretty little doll.

I suppress a shudder and force a smile.

His arms reach around my waist and clasp together to keep me locked against the hard planes of his chest. Bo eventually did grow muscle, and he works hard at the gym to maintain it. He’s the ultimate dream for any woman.
Any woman but me.

Spinning in his arms, I wrap mine around his neck and devour his lips with my own. Pushing past the threshold into his warm inviting mouth, I swipe and duel with his tongue until his cock strains against the apex of my thighs and he lifts me onto him. My legs snake around his waist and he breathes against my lips. “You’ll be late.”