Total pages in book: 27
Estimated words: 25089 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 125(@200wpm)___ 100(@250wpm)___ 84(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 25089 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 125(@200wpm)___ 100(@250wpm)___ 84(@300wpm)
I’ve been thinking about this moment for the last five hours as I drove and thought I was at least semi-prepared, but when I enter the room and see Parker curled up on the floor in a fetal position, I realize just how unprepared I was.
A sob chokes in my throat, and I rush quickly to his side, tears streaking from my eyes and blurring my vision.
“Parker!” I cry, rolling him onto his back. “Parker, baby!”
The last two weeks have taken their toll on him. I’ve definitely lost weight, but Parker looks like he hasn’t been eating at all. He’s all veins and sinew, dehydrated with a full beard. And when he opens his eyes, I see they’re streaked and bloodshot.
“Ali…?”
Pain fills my stomach. This is all my fault.
“Yes, baby,” I sob. “It’s me. I’m back.”
Parker growls, waves a dismissive hand in the air, and rolls away from me. “Seeing things…” he mutters. “Seeing things again…she left me…Ali left me…”
“No!” I yelp, tugging his shoulder, forcing him to face me. “It’s me, Parker! I came back to you. I never should have left. I’m so sorry!”
Sorrow and confusion fill his face as he blinks away the fog of the hell he’s been living in these last two weeks and looks up at me. And despite the dirt, despite the shaggy beard and the hollowed-out eyes, I see the man I love there looking up at me. My heart swells with joy, and the whole world narrows into a single angle of perception containing only him.
“I never cheated,” he rasps, reaching out to touch my cheek like he’s still not sure if I’m real. “Janice…she was lying. She had to have been stalking me too–”
I nod quickly, smiling as tears pour down my cheeks. “I believe you. I should have given you a chance to explain.”
“It’s okay.”
“It’s not,” I sigh, caressing his face with my hand. “I need you, Parker. I know that now. Maybe I always knew it. I was just so afraid–”
“You never need to be afraid of me, Ali,” he says, forcing a pained smile. He needs food. Water. Real sleep.
“I know that now,” I reply. “And we won’t be without each other ever again.”
“Never again,” Parker repeats, a light igniting in his eyes as he smiles up at me. There he is. The man I fell in love with. A few meals, a shave, and sometime in the bed with me and he’ll be back to his old self.
“Then come on, you old dog,” I tease. “Let’s get you out of this place and somewhere nice and warm and dry.”
“Promise me you’ll never leave my side again, baby,” he says, the need so clear in his voice. “Never for the rest of our lives.”
I nod as I help him to his feet.
“I promise, baby,” I tell him. “I’m not going anywhere.”
EPILOGUE
ALI
Five years later…
The house creaks, sending a thrill through my chest.
Is that him?
It’s just past midnight and I’m on the couch in the downstairs living room, pretending to be asleep. He was out this evening, providing extra security for a staff outing the firm had organized at some new upscale sauna that recently opened in town. And I’ve been craving his touch since he left, knowing he’ll be sneaking back into the house when he’s finished, just like he used to do when we first began courting each other with our twisted ways.
We moved in together the week after I came back to him. I spent the next few days nursing him back to his full strength in my apartment that he just eventually brought his things over and cancelled the lease on his place. Six months later, we found this nice little cottage just outside town and put a down payment on it together.
We tried to live like a normal couple and have normal sex, but we realized quickly that wasn’t going to work for us. We’re just both built differently, as they say. We need that thrill, that rush, that tingling sensation I get from our naughty little game we play together. And we’re both absolutely obsessed with each other.
Parker watches me from afar whenever he’s not working, and I go about my day knowing my man is always near. And then when I can find a spare minute from my psychiatry practice, I’ve got my eyes on him. Not because I’m jealous or suspicious. Not anymore. But because I can’t stand being away from him. We’re both addicted to each other, and although we just celebrated our five-year anniversary, every day I spend with him feels fresh and new.
Once I came back to him, we spent weeks indulging in one another. I barely got any schoolwork done, and it was finally Parker who forced me to get back to my old ways of doing things so I wouldn’t end up flunking out. He always shakes his head when I tell him I owe at least half of my degree to him, but it’s the truth.