Intuition Power Wrap
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“So, what do you think of the dress I picked out?”
I could hear her moving around on our bed. There were a lot more noises that didn’t sound like furniture being moved in there today than normal. It was a very different sound from the usual creaking and groaning sounds. And those were usually accompanied by a little shriek of excitement as she got dressed for work or to go somewhere else besides here at home.
But it wasn’t happening today, so I was wondering about that. “What’s wrong with your voice? Do you have a cold or something?”
“Nah. My mom’s been calling me all morning and talking over the phone with her boyfriend.”
She was still moving around, getting ready for work. So it couldn’t be an excuse. But I wasn’t sure how much of my suspicions were really worth pursuing anyway. I’d always had the tendency not to trust women when they said they were okay because there was a good chance they weren’t.
That was why I’d never dated anyone until this last year or two, even though plenty of guys told me I should give it a shot and then proceeded to laugh at my expense after I told them no thanks.
Not only did I want to make sure a woman actually wanted to be with me rather than just trying to get into some guy’s pants, but most of these women who came at me with their propositions were too far gone in their addictions and were using me to fill whatever voids they had in their life. They were not someone I would ever choose as a steady girlfriend.
And that was exactly what I told myself every time one of them tried to convince me otherwise, which was pretty often lately since I’d given up on dating other women. So I wasn’t too worried about what had happened to this latest one, although I hoped I didn’t regret having made myself clear.
There was no point in getting upset about something that wouldn’t change anything. The problem was mine alone, and I needed to learn how to deal with it before I let any future relationships affect me the way they had these others.
I heard the toilet flush, followed by her footsteps coming back toward my bedroom door. “You’re going to hate me,” she said, opening it and walking inside.
My mind went straight to thinking I’d lost another friend—and I hadn’t even known about the girl long enough to know if I cared whether or not I liked her. But I knew there wasn’t a chance I’d have done anything differently even if I’d had some kind of warning beforehand.
I sat up and grabbed one of the pillows off our headboard to hold against my eyes. “Why is that?”
She was pulling open drawers in her dresser. She pulled out a couple items and tossed them aside without looking at them, so I guessed they were things she didn’t like wearing. I wondered why she’d brought them up with me first thing upon entering the room. Then she finally found what she was looking for.
“The new dress,” she said, holding it up for me to see.
It looked very nice. It had a white lace overlay and a high-necked bodice with straps that crisscrossed under my arms. On the left side, it had a plunging v-shaped neckline that showed just a hint of cleavage below, and it flowed down into a full skirt that stopped right above her knees. It was simple and elegant while remaining sexy and feminine.
She handed me the gown and started to turn away from me to put it away again, but I caught her arm, making her stop short. “Is it too low cut?” I asked.
“No, it’s fine. But—”
“Don’t tell me to leave.”
She gave me a quick glance. “Are you serious?”
“Yes, I’m serious. You need to get dressed. You’ll be late. And don’t think I won’t remind you every day about this if you come home late again. If we’ve made a date together, it means you are obligated to stay true to me.”
I watched her face as I spoke. It wasn’t blank with surprise; I saw her mouth form words in disbelief. I waited for a moment longer. I wanted her to process everything I’d said, not just the part about being able to control where I stayed in this house, but also what else I’d told her. Because all those statements were important. Everything I’d said had been the truth.
But she didn’t respond to any of it. She just stood there staring at me as if I’d suddenly grown horns and a tail. Her lips curled upward ever so slightly in what might have been the tiniest smile. Then she turned and walked quickly toward her closet.
I listened as she shut the door behind herself and then heard her heels clacking down the hall to the stairs leading outside to the sidewalk. When I realized she’d left me alone, I got up and moved closer to the doorway so I could watch her walk away from the house.
Her shoulders were hunched up in defeat and her hips swayed forward, giving me a better view of the curve of her ass. She wasn’t wearing a bra, so when she reached the bottom step and took off her jacket, I couldn’t help noticing her nipples were hard and poking out through the thin fabric of her blouse.
My cock swelled up instantly, and I wondered how long it would take her to get to the car and get inside before she noticed her exposed breasts in the moonlight.
When I was sure she’d gone far enough ahead that I’d be unable to hear her coming, I went back to my desk and opened the top drawer. From my hiding spot, I watched her leave the driveway and cross the street over to an older model sedan parked along the curb.
The car was dark blue, with a tan leather interior, and its windows were tinted so I couldn’t make out who she was talking to, but I imagined they must have been waiting there for her.
From my position, I couldn’t see into the vehicle, but the way she was leaning over to speak into the window of the driver’s seat made it obvious it was a woman sitting there. As soon as she finished talking and straightened, she climbed up onto the passenger seat, and a second later they drove off toward town.
As much as I’d hated losing a girlfriend because of what someone else had forced on me, now I found myself hoping she’d drive past this house. That she’d realize she had no idea how many guys were out there hunting us down, and if the police didn’t catch her first, the rest of them surely would.
Or maybe she’d simply change her mind about going anywhere near me again after this night. No matter what happened, at least she’d know where she stood with me and wouldn’t feel the need to keep any secrets from me anymore.
That seemed a lot more preferable than whatever else had been driving me to lie to her about what was really happening around us. But even though I knew it wasn’t a good thing to be lying to someone like I’d been doing, that wasn’t the reason I kept telling her these things.
It was for fear of hurting her feelings. Because I cared. For the first time, I felt a genuine affection for someone who mattered to me.
I didn’t want to cause her pain by letting her believe that all I thought about was how attractive she was, or by suggesting we’d go home to fuck one another, or by making fun of how uncomfortable she got when I pushed her to do something sexual against her will.
If she understood how much I liked her for who she was instead of what she looked like, that would make it easier for me to say all those things. But I was afraid she’d laugh at me, or worse still, call me out for the liar I was.
Because of what I’d done before, I’d given myself away the moment I’d touched her hair. So I didn’t try to hide the fact I’d kissed her once more. Instead, I let her know in a very clear way that if she ever tried anything like that again, I would break free of my chains.
I’d never hurt a girl. Not since I was eleven years old. Never again.
But if it came to it, I knew I could kill without conscience. And if you’ve never been in a situation where you’re faced with taking the life of another human being, I can promise that every instinct in your body will scream at you to spare your life.
To let them go. It takes a lot of willpower to ignore your instincts—something I hadn’t had until this day. But in order to save this beautiful creature standing before me now, I was willing to make the sacrifice.
She’d been crying. The tears streaming down her cheeks gave me the courage to push her harder than ever before, so I did everything I could think of to shock her out of her silence. When she finally spoke, it was barely above a whisper.
“What are you going to do?”
I shrugged one shoulder. “Whatever it is I need to.”
***
After I’d waited several minutes to give her some space before returning to the office, I took a couple of steps toward my desk before stopping short. If anyone was watching from behind the blinds or windows of this place, I might not be able to get out of there alive.
Instead, I leaned against my desk, crossed my arms over my chest, and waited for her to come back to work. I wanted to see her face when she realized that if she refused to talk to me anymore, she’d lose all of this. Whatever she could have won by refusing to tell the world about our little secret.
I knew I should just walk away. Walk away tonight, forget about the money I had paid her, and leave this place behind me forever. I didn’t have to live in fear, and I certainly didn’t need to spend any more time with her.
Then again, how long would it take the others to figure out that she wasn’t working as hard as they thought? After all, if they weren’t paying attention during the day while she was sleeping or running errands, they must be asking questions themselves about why she was always leaving to see me and coming back late.
So I couldn’t imagine how many days it would take before they figured out she wasn’t giving up on them. How soon she’d be ready to sell out to whoever offered enough cash to convince her to reveal her story. She’d probably already planned it out in her mind, and if I left now, I risked having her tell her boss what I’d done to her.
When she returned to her seat, she looked exhausted. I wondered if she’d slept well last night. Then I remembered that she’d taken off her clothes right before we’d gone to bed, so if she’d stayed there and gone to sleep immediately after our lovemaking, she wouldn’t have had an opportunity to rest.
Or maybe it was because she was no longer playing into my fantasies.
As soon as she sat down, she reached for her phone and tapped out a message to one of her friends on Facebook. This message told me exactly which friend had the most influence in getting her hired as a journalist, and the best shot she had at keeping her job.
And the best chance she needed to escape this hellhole of a city.
But I had bigger plans. Plans to keep her trapped in this city with me. I would have kept her here for the rest of her life if I didn’t feel so badly for her.
She turned her phone around and stared at me for several seconds before typing something else.
“Who are you sending that message to?”
Her fingers froze. “To whom did you send it?”
It was the same question I would have asked anyone if they were talking about someone’s past. I hadn’t seen the point in lying to her yet. It only served to make me seem suspicious, and that kind of thing was usually what brought the worst out of people.
They tended to think it made them look cool, and if you played stupid with me, then it just gave me more ammunition to use against you later.
I held her stare for several moments before nodding slowly. “Someone who used to be a big part of your life.”
My eyes narrowed. I could see her struggling with whether or not to answer me, but I knew that if I pressed her, she’d end up telling me whatever I wanted. And if I wanted to know her secrets, I needed to start somewhere. This was my chance to find out as much information as possible.
The woman who had once been such a big part of her life was named Jessica. A beautiful name, and a very pretty girl, I’m sure. At least, judging by her photograph and the few things she’d shared with this reporter friend of hers on Facebook.
Jessica. The word seemed to echo inside of me. Like there was another Jessica buried deep in my subconscious, but that’s where this new Jessica came from. Her real name was Jessica. But I was beginning to wonder if it wasn’t the first time she’d had the name Jessica, either.
I didn’t have anything to compare my thoughts to, but I wondered if other people ever felt like this. If I was the only man who had ever suffered from an identity crisis over something like this, and that made me different than everyone else.
“How do you know my former roommate?”
She hesitated.
“You don’t have to lie,” I said. “This is all part of the game, isn’t it? Just tell me the truth and we’ll move on with it.”
She glanced at me briefly before focusing her gaze back on her screen. “I met Jessica online years ago. We hit it off, and we became great friends. It was easy. There wasn’t really anything complicated about it.” She shrugged. “We got along so well.”
She smiled at me. “We spent all our free time together. It was nice. Then one day she decided to move to New York City with her boyfriend. He’d recently graduated college, and he’d accepted a job in Manhattan. She wanted us to go with them. To make it our home.”
I waited patiently for her to continue.
But she didn’t say anything for several seconds. Her fingers moved over her phone, but the messages appeared to be in code. She was trying to avoid answering my question, I realized. Or maybe she was just too embarrassed to say what she was hiding. Whatever it was, I needed to get some answers. I couldn’t leave until I knew why she had betrayed her friendship with Jessica.
And if that meant torturing this sweet girl for every secret she possessed, then I would happily do it.
Because I needed the truth from her.
If she’d never had any intention of going with Jessica and her boyfriend, then it meant she was still in love with me. That she’d lied about that.
And I wasn’t ready to let her go just yet. Not when she was mine, to begin with.
“Why did you decide to stay here with me instead?”
Another hesitation. Another pause before she continued with her story.
“I was worried about the future. About money and rent and bills and stuff like that. So we decided to wait, to figure everything out.” She sighed and looked around nervously, as though she expected someone to walk in at any moment and catch her talking to me about something personal like this.
“When did you meet him?”
She frowned at my choice of words, probably realizing that she didn’t have an appropriate response to that. I knew exactly who she was talking about without even having to ask. But I wanted to hear it from her, and this seemed like a good place to start. “What does that mean?”
“Did you fall in love with him after moving here?” I asked softly.
She shook her head. “Not like that. He was my boss. My superior. And when the time came for me to quit my job, I thought… Well, I was scared. He’d been nice enough to keep me on the payroll while I was figuring out what I wanted to do. When it came down to it, I couldn’t turn away from being near him.”
Her lips pursed slightly as she stared at the phone screen before her. She’d stopped typing now, but I could still see her fingers hovering over the buttons. I’d caught her off guard with my question, and she needed some time to gather herself before she answered it honestly.
So I kept asking questions to give her a chance to think it over.
“Do you love him?”
She blinked at my question for a few seconds before responding. “No, not really. Not anymore.”
Then I remembered how quickly she’d kissed me earlier tonight. How eager she’d been to get my clothes off. Had this just been a ploy to win my affection, then? To try to prove she still loved me? I tried to remember if the kiss had been tender or passionate, but I couldn’t tell because of how much she’d pushed into me, and how far her tongue had gone.
No matter what kind of kiss it might have been, I doubted she had ever cared about me in the way she’d pretended to. And if there’d never been any real emotion between us at all, then it was all just for show. A calculated move designed to trick me and manipulate my emotions.
I hadn’t fallen for it, but I didn’t regret it either. Because now she was telling me more than I’d ever expected to hear from anyone. She was opening up and revealing something deep inside her that I’d never seen before, something she’d kept hidden from me all these years.
And I found myself wanting to know everything about it. The way her cheeks grew rosier and redder with each passing moment told me that I was already starting to hurt her feelings with my persistence. But I couldn’t stop.
I needed to understand why she’d done this terrible thing because I needed to learn from her mistakes. If she was willing to risk losing everything—me and the life she’d built for herself here in New York—then maybe it would inspire me to be better than her. Stronger.
It’s what Jess had always said to me before we’d left for college. It was a promise she’d made to help me grow up. But maybe it also served another purpose for her: to teach me a valuable lesson. To make sure I understood that whatever happened, she’d stand behind me and support me no matter what.
The End