Call Me Killer (25 page)

I’d let Griff believe that shit because maybe a part of me wanted to believe it myself—that I wasn’t born into a privileged lifestyle, but that I’d earned my way in the world all by myself.

Total fantasy, worthy of some slick, fake Hollywood film.

Griff had every right to be mad at me. His mom was a hairdresser and his brother Sean had died for his country. Griff had had to drop out of college—where he had a fucking 3.8 average—he was no dummy—and take a job working construction because another rich fucking privileged woman had vanished. And the blame had fallen on him.

But, man, Griff was glorious when he was mad.

When he’d gone on that BDSM tear, complete with that riding crop that had scared the shit out of me when he’d used it on my
breasts
, I’d been blown away. I’d never come so hard in my entire life, and that included the amazing orgasms he’d been giving me all week. No wonder rich chick Hadley had been all over the guy—he was incredible in bed. It made my pussy clench again, remembering.

But it wasn’t just the sex. Oh no. I’d known a couple of days ago that whatever this was, it was way more than just sex.

For me, anyway.

He was hot and sexy, but I’d grown up in Beverly Hills surrounded by film industry people, so I hardly even noticed when a man was gorgeous. The best looking guys were usually the biggest douches.

But when we loved, it wasn't his yummy body that I saw, it was something deeper. Something biochemical in his cells spoke to all the receptors on my molecules, making me want to touch him, stroke him, and feel his flesh imprinting on mine.

I'd felt comfortable with him too, from practically the moment I met him. He made me calm, like human Xanax. He made me happy. When I was with him, I could feel myself grinning all the time.

But I had to go and fuck it up. Lying to him about who I was and where I came from, and just as I’d feared, he totally freaked when he found out the truth. I wasn't sure if it had been rage or lust that was driving him, but whichever, it was a total mindfuck. I’d basically melted into goo. Yes, Master, punish me Master, wow, that hurts so good, Master. My brain cells grew wings and flew away.

If I'd hoped for a kinkily ever after ending, though, I’d been wrong.

When I’d walked out, he’d let me go.

As I plowed through the puddles toward the railway station, I tried to tell myself that it had just been one of those crazy spring break romances. Wild sex with a mysterious stranger during break was a staple of college life. You weren't supposed to obsess over stuff like that. File it away as a crazy experience and move on.

Right?

Thank God for the driving rain in my face, because when I got on the train with water running down my cheeks, no one would be able to tell that I’d been sobbing.

Griff

My brain was splitting into a million pieces. I was so fucking messed up and angry and confused that I grabbed a wooden chair from the kitchen and heaved the damn thing at the wall. The entire house shook, plaster went flying, and the crappy chair lost one of its legs.

I could hear the rain outside, pelting against the walls and windows as the wind blew it every which way. Rory was out in that, walking to the train station. Damn her! Damn Hadley! Fuck all women for messing with my heart.

First Hadley was missing. Then she was dead. Then a year had gone by without a trace. Now she was alive, and just as calm, cool, and casual as ever.

She obviously didn’t care what I thought.

She probably never had.

It's not about you anymore,
Connor had said.

I stalked around my apartment, trying to figure out what I was so mad about. I picked up the chair leg from the floor and gripped it hard. Like a club. I wanted to bash some heads. I thought about smashing the glass doors of the china cabinet my mom had planted in the kitchen or maybe tossing some plates at the walls, too. But that would be idiotic. I’d just have to clean up the mess. Rory wasn’t going to do it for me.

She’d neatened up the place. Cooked for me. She used to hum to herself while she did stuff like that, as if she actually enjoyed it. When I’d asked her about it, she’d said, nah, she wasn’t a neat freak particularly; she was just tired of living in messy dorms. This place was more like a home, and she wanted to make it tidy.

Why was she trying to make a home out of my apartment? Who the hell did the brat think she was, coming into my life and upsetting everything?

Hadley had never done shit like that.

Hadley had never touched me gently or curled her spine with kittenish pleasure under my hands. Hadley hadn’t wanted me to control sex—the way I liked it—because she wanted to control it herself. She always gave directions. Made suggestions. Bitched if I didn’t learn to do things her way.

Okay, Hadley and I’d had fun. She’d taught me stuff. But I’d never felt comfortable with her in bed. Not comfortable the way I felt with Rory. Hell, I hadn’t known her long, but Rory was like my other half, or something.

It struck me that even though it had only been about a week, Rory and I had been living together. Eating together, sleeping together, taking walks, talking, laughing, making love. I had hardly ever even spent the night with Hadley. We’d gotten together for sex, but that was pretty much it. We hadn’t shared any real intimacy.

Because of Rory, I was excited about my life again. I’d been happy, the last few days. She’d helped me put Hadley behind me, and some of the things she’d said about Sean were even helping me come to terms with my brother’s death.

I’d decided to go back to school, finish my degree, and resume working toward some of the goals I’d had a couple of years ago before all the shit had gone down. Get a better job. Put down some roots. Figure out how I wanted to live the rest of my life.

And who I wanted to live it with.

I prowled around my place, seething with feelings I couldn’t even understand. Mostly I felt a deep dark pit of emptiness. A chasm that my heart knew only one way to fill.

I saw a flash outside and, a couple seconds later, a crack of thunder. I heard the wind roar.

And suddenly, without further thought, I was grabbing a jacket and my car keys and running out to the car.

I had to find her.

Stop her.

Bring her back.

Fuck Hadley. She’d been out of my life for a year, and she’d never been mine to begin with.

It wasn't about Hadley, dammit.

It was about Rory.

I wanted Rory.

I fucking
needed
Rory.

No way was I letting her go.

As I drove toward the train station, I could hardly see out the windshield, the rain was coming down so hard.

It was just like the night we’d met. Spring rain, hard as fuck, lashing, driving, drenching the ground, the streets, everywhere. And poor Rory was out in it. Again.

Damn. I didn’t see her anywhere. What if she’d gotten a ride with someone? Hitchhiked? I wouldn’t put it past her. But if she had…something might have happened to her. What if whatever had happened to Hadley happened to Rory, too?

My heart was racing and stuttering in my chest as various disastrous scenarios played out in my mind. I had to find her, fast.

It wasn’t far to the train station, but how much of a head start had she had? She’d probably be walking fast. Maybe running. She wanted to get away from me. Was she running because of what I had done to her with the feather and the riding crop? Had I crushed the fragile thing we had going in the palm of my hand?

God, I was such an idiot! I remembered how anguished she’d been at Reef Hill when she’d witnessed that caning. She’d really freaked. What I’d done hadn’t been anywhere near as severe as that, but it had been harsher than anything I’d subjected her to before. She was a beginner. I shouldn't have done it. Would she ever forgive me?

Where the fuck was she?

I didn’t find her anywhere along the street leading to the train station. As I turned down the access road to the station parking lot—almost totally empty at this hour—I began to lose hope. She wasn’t here. She’d probably called a taxi or an Uber or something. She was a rich girl; she didn’t have to take the fucking train.

The train was standing there, its lights burning, making train noises, waiting to get its big ass moving. I drove toward it, my eyes scanning the platform on both sides. Had she gotten here this fast? Was she already on board?

Just as I drove the car to the curb and slammed it into park, I saw a hunched-up form jumping down the embankment on the other side of the tracks. Even through the dark and the driving rain, I knew it was her. She’d cut through the parking lot of the old grain feed store up above the embankment. Damn. You weren’t supposed to do that—it was dangerous.

She crossed the tracks casually, like there wasn’t a huge fucking train there getting ready to roll. She climbed up the platform on the side where I was and walked down toward the place where the conductor was keeping the door open and the steps down.

She hadn’t seen me yet. The rain was driving into her face and she was keeping her head down.

She walked almost right into me. I grabbed her shoulders and stopped her short. “Rory.”

I felt a shudder go through her. She raised her face and looked up at me. “Griff? What…what are you doing here?”

I heard shock in her voice. And I thought I heard hope. I knew there was hope in mine as I told her, “I came to get you. I don’t want you to go.”

“But—” she wiped rain out of her face, but the drops stuck to her eyelashes and her hair was plastered to her throat. She reached out a hand to cup my cheek. “Griff.”

“I’m sorry I hit you with the crop. If we’re going to do stuff like that, we should talk about it first. I don't want you to fear me.”

“I don't. I could never. And it was fine. Hot. Sexy. You can be my Dom anytime, Griff.”

Okay. Okay, good. That was a relief. Maybe that wasn't the problem. Maybe the problem was that she didn’t want to be with me. Really be with me, I mean.

She was stroking my wet cheek. “Listen. I understand how you feel about Hadley. I do. You probably want to go try to find her and bring her back. I get it. It’s okay. It’s like a guy thing, right? Something you have to do.”

“No. You don’t know shit.”

“What? Of course I—”

“Hadley and me were done a long time ago. She’s been gone for a year. We had some good times, but it was never serious. It was never right. We never clicked, not like you and I do.”

“But I understand if—”

“Look. What you did—helping prove that she was alive, that was awesome, babe. Now Connor and Marks can turn it over to her wealthy family and to whatever agencies deal with shit like that, and they can take it from there.” I shook her a little. “It’s not my concern anymore, Rory. It's not about me. I’m not like Sean—I don’t have to spend my life trying to save people. If I’d wanted to do that, I could have tried to join the SEALs or whoever’d take me. That’s not the life I want. And Hadley’s not the girl I want.”

“Do you mean…?”

“I’m in love with you, Rory.”

She stared up at me through the rain. Her eyes were huge and her face was wet. Was she crying? She was biting her lip and looking up at me as if she wasn’t sure whether or not to believe me.

I tried again: “Do you think…is there any chance that maybe you could love me, too?”

The glimmer of a smile. “There’s a very good chance of that, yes.”

The train whistle blew and the engines revved up. The conductor leaned out the door of the train and glared at us. “All aboard!” he shouted over the rain.

“He’s looking at me,” she said, “and he’s getting impatient. I should board that train.”

“No, Ilsa, honey. This isn't
Casablanca
. You’re not boarding the fucking train. I'm no noble, self-sacrificing guy. I need you. You’re coming home with me.”

She looked from me to the train and back again. Then she burst out in her familiar delighted, infectious laugh. “Seriously? Am I hearing you right? The tough guy with the riding crop wants a chick flick ending?”

“You talk too much,” I growled, and stopped her sassy mouth with a big rainy kiss. Then I marched her over to my car and opened the door for her. “Get in.”

Her smile lit up the stormy night. She dived into my car, her clothes drenched, her hair sticking to her face, looking just as bedraggled as she had on the night we’d met.

I climbed in on the driver’s side and grinned at my waif, my lover, my submissive, my kick-ass brainy hacker, my freaking savior. Down on the railroad tracks, the train blew its whistle one last time and chugged away into the darkness.

I started the car and took my Rory home.

Thanks for reading!
Call Me Killer
is done, but there is still another free bonus novel below.

Some of the minor characters in
Call Me Killer
will appear in other, forthcoming books. Connor Finlay is featured in the novella
Color Me Blue
. Silas Marks is the billionaire hero of
Call Me Master
, coming soon. And you’ll learn what really happened to Hadley in
Call Me Captor
.

And now for a BONUS! A free full-length romance is included for a brief period in this edition.
The Dangerous Hero
is not explicitly connected to
Call Me Killer
, but it does take place in the same fictional universe, and some of the characters in
Call Me Killer
will later prove to be friendly with some of the characters from
The Dangerous Hero
. Stephen Silkwood, the hero of that novel, is also into BDSM, and he knows a little something about Reef Hill, the secret society of kinky lifestyles whom you meet in
Call Me Killer
.

The Dangerous Hero
is a second chance romance about two long-ago lovers who meet again after significant changes in both their lives.

The Dangerous Hero

BY

Linda Barlow