Curiosity Killed the Kat

Curiosity Killed The Kat

A Katherine Flynn Novel

by Elizabeth Nelson

Fi
rst Kindle Original Edition 2012

A Bristlecone Book

All rights reserved.

Copyright © 2012 Elizabeth Nelson

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author and/or publisher. No part of this publication may be sold or hired, without written permission from the author.

Copyright 2012
, First in Flight, LLC

C
ONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

PROLOGUE

They say reve
nge is a dish best served cold; but, I know better. R
evenge
is hot. It never cools, and i
t never dies.
It burns
inside
your
veins,
and grows stronger
with
every beat of
your
heart
.

To understand what happened after, you have to
know
what came before.

I don’t remember a time when I didn’t dream of being a wife and mother.
My earliest memory is
of
playing
‘
wedding
’
in my parent’s backyard. As the bride, I was
draped in my mother’s antique
white lace tablecloth, my head covered with a homemade veil and my arms laden with
the roses
she grew in her
garden that summer
.

In my mind’s eye, I can see myself as I was then. A thin, serious looking child with long brown hair and big brown eyes walking
slowly up the garden path
like it was a cathedral aisle
,
toward
my groom, the love of my life, the man that would take care of me forever.

By the time I turned 19, I knew that my real life groom would be Steven Flynn. He was the perfect man; he would be the perfect husband.
I still remember the first time I saw him. A freshman in college, I ran into my psychology class 15 minutes late on the first day. Breathlessly, I took a seat in the last row and started madly arranging myself, my books, and my notepad; when I looked up
I saw Steven.

As
the
t
eaching
assistant,
he was standing at the front of the class passing out the syllabus.
After a moment, h
e cau
ght my stare and smiled at me. He waved
me
to the front to get a syllabus and
I slowly approached him taking in every inch
of his stunning good looks,
from his dark brown hair
and intense blue eyes,
to his perfectly chiseled body, on down
to the tips of his elegant shoes. He was dressed conservatively, in a
neatly ironed
button down shirt and
gray
slacks. He looked like he’d walked off the cover of GQ
magazine
.

As I got closer to him I
could feel
him watching me approach.
His i
ntense
gaze
made me feel naked.
I couldn’t believe the other students weren’t staring at him. To me, he looked like Prince Charming.
The other students swarmed around, talking and laughing but
my eyes never left him
.
When I reached out my hand to take the syllabus from him, he handed it to me but didn’t let go. I stared at him and he looked back at me with a knowing smile.
In that moment I knew; my life would never be the same again.

When Steven decided he wanted me too, h
e courted me recklessly; never taking no for an answer, never leaving me alone for a moment. Af
ter that first day
, I don’
t have a single memory from
that time that doesn’t include
him
. He brought me
red
roses to make me smile, took me to see movies that made me laugh, and when we were alone he took me in his arms and made me tremble with desire. For the first time in my life I felt loved.

It makes me squirm with s
hame to think of it now. My childhood
was a cliché, a joke. Abandoned by my father before I was even born;
I was a shy child
raised by a
busy single
mother
. I
didn’t have a lot of friends, preferring to spend my time in solitude reading and day dreaming.
My classmates thought I was strange
and they left me alone. I
was ripe for
a man
like Steven. I see that now, but then, oh but then all I felt was desire and love to the point of obsession. He was my fantasy. I needed him to love me
more than I’d ever needed anything else
.

I loved him, but I felt so unworthy of his attention
. I
tried desperately to reinvent myself into the woman he wanted me to be.
I was in awe when I looked at him. Steven
was everything I wasn’t.
He
was handsome
and successful, while I
was
average looking and quiet.
When we met, he was a senior graduating at the top of his class with a degree in Psychology and a full scholarship
to
Harvard Law School
; I was a freshman without a clue as to what I wanted to study
. He was on his way to becoming a master of the universe,
and all I wanted was to be at his side
.

His first request changed the way I dressed when we were in public. Instead of
the
unofficial
jeans and
t-shirt
uniform of my classmates
, I eagerly agreed to
upgrade
my wardrobe to dresses, heels, and pearls. When he told me I looked lovely and gave me a smile, I knew I had made the right decision.

His second request was more complicated.

Steven needed me to be the perfect woman in the bedroom as well as in public. He would settle for nothing less. He valued my virginity and blind trust because they made me pliable – there was nothing I wouldn’t do to bring him pleasure.
As a child, I’d lived in my imagination without many friends and a mother who didn’t have time
or interest in teaching
me about the world. Sex was a mystery that I didn’t have a clue to solving.
Steven’s
limitless needs and desires were my secret to carry alone; I didn’t have anyone to discuss him with, no girlfriends to gossip with about his need for blindfolds, whips, and endless sexual punishment. All I had was my obsession to make him happy, to earn his praise, to maintain my place in his heart. For those reasons I would do anything he asked – and he asked a lot. I became the essence of the prop
erly dressed lady in public
and a sexual slave in the bedroom
.

When he asked me to marry him
the night he graduated
I felt triumphant
.
I felt as proud of myself as if I’d been the one
accepting a diploma
that day.
His proposal made me feel that i
t had all been worth it; the meticulous attention to my wardrobe and the sometimes painful “lessons” in the bedroom – I was going to be Mrs. Steven Flynn.
I eagerly quit school and moved with him to Boston. My only ambition was to be a good wife to him.

I
maintained that blind ambition
for seven long years. I stubbornly insisted to myself that Steven’s fierce control, his rigid standards for my dress and appearance, and his
increasingly
cruel
sexual
desires
were normal, just his way of dealing with the pressure he was feeling as
a lawyer with one of Boston’s most respected firms, Bradenson & Arthur
.

My only job was to be the perfect wife and partner.
In my mind there was no limit to our success, I was enveloped in my dream
of a secure and happy life with my husband
and that was all that mattered.

Until the
day
I woke up.