He stripped his clothes off and went to the bed to join her. Naked, he rolled against the mattress, rubbing his body over the sheets, over the pillows. He breathed in the delicate scent of her.

Open-mouthed, he kissed her pillow as if it was her face, thrusting his tongue against it until the pillowcase was wet with his saliva. Then he pulled the pillow down his body and thrust his cock against the wet spot, fucking it the way he would fuck her—hard, fast, violently.

He dug his fingers against the mattress the way he would dig them into her small breasts, pinching the bedding between his fingertips the way he would pinch her nipples—hard, until she cried out in pain.

As the fear came into her eyes, his excitement built, taking him to a higher level, filling him with a sense of power. He would fuck her harder, as if his cock was a battering ram and his intent was splitting her in two. She would try to fight against him then. He would have to teach her a lesson. She wouldn’t like it. But he would.

His climax was explosive. He felt like a volcano erupting. Afterward, he lay on the bed like a corpse until the sweat had dried on his skin and dried on the sheets. A deep sense of calm came over him.

He didn’t question any of it. He didn’t wonder why he had the fantasies he had. They had been a part of him for as long as he could remember. He didn’t believe he was a freak. He didn’t feel ashamed of himself. He accepted himself entirely. In fact, he felt superior to most people. He felt that in fully embracing who he was, he was more fully alive than most people could ever hope to be.

He left Denise Garland’s bed the way he had found it—a pile of rumpled sheets. He went into her tiny bathroom and washed himself. He used her toothbrush to brush his teeth. Then he put his clothes back on and left the house the same way he had come in, a pair of her dirty underpants stuffed in his pants pocket for a souvenir.

Chapter 31

31

Did you miss me?

Lauren clutched the note so hard her hands began to tremble. She couldn’t breathe. Her emotions were like a trio of whips striking her, one, then the next, then the next. Over and over and over.

She was upset. She was angry. She was frightened.

Did you miss me?

It upset her that he could so easily reach out and, with four simple words, make her blood run cold. It made her angry he had that kind of power over her. And it frightened her that there wasn’t anything she could do about it.