Cruel Malady : A Necrosis of the Mind by Trisha Wolfe

Author:Trisha Wolfe [Wolfe, Trisha]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lock Key Press
Published: 2023-07-04T18:30:00+00:00

26

TARGET PRACTICE

ALEX

I have loved to the point of madness.

I never fully appreciated the meaning of Sagan’s verse until I crossed paths with Blakely Vaughn.

She changed everything.

She changed me.

I’m no longer the same man, reformed on a molecular level.

Even my cells crave her, to be connected.

I find myself reciting the verse every time an image of her comes to me. The way her teeth sink into her bottom lip so teasingly. The way she crosses her long legs, knowing just how seductive she is. The way she stares straight through me with those bottomless, sea-green eyes, down to the rotten marrow in my bones.

I never felt more alive, more out of control, then when I was around her. Normally, that would terrify me. Loss of control goes against everything I stand for. But with her, it was easy to allow my primal, wild beast to revel in base pleasures.

She makes me weak, but also stronger than I’ve ever felt.

I trace my fingertips over the sketch of her face, infusing Sagan’s words into my system the way she infuses my whole being.

She is maddeningly a part of me now.

Mind, body, soul. My obsession consumes me from the inside out. Like the Carrion beetle burrowing to feast on decay, my necrotic matter called to her, and she devoured my rotted humanity to resurrect a new man.

I wasn’t strong enough for her then.

But I am now.

No matter what she professed at the river, I know the truth. She tried to deny what she felt—truly felt—when we made love under the fall.

But I felt her wilt in my arms. The strong, stubborn, unbreakable Blakely shattered beneath me. She broke against me as we came together, melding two souls into one. A sublime collision of lust and longing, and pure, unadulterated ecstasy.

Her emotions scared her. She’d never experienced them before. I had never experienced anything like her before. We connected on a plane above morals and judgement, and that’s what frightened her.

She’s fallen in love with her villain.

The mad scientist she loathes. Her tormentor. The one she envisions when she smashes her fist into the punching bag, and the one she thinks about when she touches herself.

And, oh, she’s so painfully beautiful in her torment, in her confliction, the denial that festers her once-impenetrable resolve. I’ve seen what’s under that hard layer, and it’s vulnerable and tender and starved.

And it’s mine.

Using my thumb to smudge the shadowed contour along her jawline, I blow away the lead debris, mindful not to impact her lips. Captured in perfect lighting under an illuminated marquee sign, her lips are flawless. Her features divine.

A single moment stolen.

I give myself credit, I’ve been patient. I watched her the other night as she waited to cross the street. The whole city abuzz around her as she stood motionless. A lost soul amid a sea of strangers all bustling with energy. And Blakely, arms crossed around her trim waist, trying to disappear in the stream.

I’ve been watching for a while, monitoring her progress, cataloging her setbacks, waiting on the sidelines to intervene.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.