Haunting Adeline (Cat and Mouse Duet Book 1)

I don’t remember ever being a needy child. Growing up, I had a great relationship with my parents. My mother was incredibly loving, and my father was supportive and very involved in my life.

But I was always a naturally independent person. Determined to do things on my own without help. And because my parents showered me with love and attention, it wasn’t something I sought out.

I can’t say that anymore.

Addie’s mouth is wide open, drool steadily leaking from her mouth. She’s snoring softly, and I don’t think I’ve gotten the chance to tease her about that yet. She’s going to get angry, and I smile just thinking about it.

Despite her disheveled state, my cock is incredibly hard. The witch went to bed in nothing but a white, silky set, and the second I slowly drew back the covers, I nearly went to my knees.

Did my little mouse wear that just for me?

Reaching out, I trace a finger up her thigh, enjoying the sight of her skin puckering. She shifts, moaning softly at the disturbance in her sleep.

How would she feel waking up with my cock inside her?

She shifts again when I finger the strap of her underwear. Normally, she wakes up fairly easily. And despite Addie giving in to me, I’m not foolish enough to believe I don’t set her on edge still.

Which means she had a few drinks.

Grinning, I toe off my shoes and slide out of the suffocating suit I’ve been wearing all night.

After we got to the station, they hauled Dan off to a separate room and let me go. I came straight here, my body strung tight with the need to bury myself inside my little mouse.

Completely naked, I slide into the bed next to Addie, curling her body into mine.

Her eyes flutter, and I watch as she regains consciousness. When her eyes slide up to my face, they widen ever so slightly.

I could’ve tried to fuck her while asleep, but I decide to hold off on that until Addie admits her love for me and freely accepts mine. Until I can fuck her without a fight, though I think some part of Addie will always fight me.

Although I’ve taken advantage of Addie on several occasions, at least her being awake and coherent allowed me to watch her body’s reactions. Doesn’t make it right. But her body has always wept for me.

And if it ever didn’t, I wouldn’t have touched her until it did.

“Why are you in my bed staring at me like a creep?” she asks, her voice groggy with sleep.

I chuckle. “I thought it’d been established that I’m a creep already?”

“It has, and yet you still keep doing it.”

“Would you like me to stop?” I query, sliding my hands down her backside. She sucks in a sharp breath, appearing much more awake and alert as I grip her plump ass in my palms.

“No,” she admits quietly. She looks so tiny and vulnerable admitting it, so I stay quiet.

She trails her finger across the tattoos on my chest, her eyes averted firmly away from mine.

‘Do these mean anything?’ she murmurs, seeming as if she’s concentrating hard on the design.

‘No,’ I answer. ‘I have them because I like them. I prefer to keep anything of significance as a possession.’

Frowning, she peers up at me through long lashes. ‘Why? I would think your body would be the one place you would have anything meaningful. You carry it around everywhere you go.’

I lift a shoulder. ‘My body is just a vessel that my soul inhabits, attached to a shell that it’ll one day leave. And when that day comes, I won’t care to let that shell go. I carry my body around because I have to, not because it’s a choice. But when I possess something meaningful, I’m choosing to hold on to it. Carrying something meaningful in my skin is effortless but holding onto something that I could lose—that takes devotion.’

She drops her eyes back down, seeming to contemplate my words. I curl my finger under her chin, wanting—no needing, her eyes back. They suck the oxygen from my lungs, and I’ve always loved to toe the line between life and death.

Those pretty brown eyes fasten on mine, big and round, and all I want to do is consume her.

“I will always possess you, little mouse. So, know that you have all of my devotion to keeping you.”

“Why does it always sound like a threat?” she wonders aloud, though a small smile tips the corner of her lips.

I grin. “Because it is.”

I roll to my back, bringing her with me so she’s sprawled out on my chest.

“Zade,” she warns, but her words contrast against her actions. She shifts her legs, so she’s straddling me, her center lined up on my cock. I can feel how hot and wet she is through the silk of her underwear.

Gritting my teeth, I ball my hands into fists, fighting the instinct to rip the sorry excuse for panties to shreds so that I can feel how ready she is to take me inside her.

“Adeline,” I echo.

Her light brown eyes are shaded, but I can feel the effect all the same. She’s leaning just above me, her soft body molded to mine. I swear I can feel the tension lining her hips as she resists the need to grind her pussy on me.

“What?” she whispers, feigning ignorance.

“Sit on my cock. Now.”

Her breathing hitches, and with her breasts pressed tightly against mine, I can’t tell if the rapid pulsing in my chest is from her heart or mine.

The internal struggle in her head is loud, and indecision radiates from her.

Eventually, she sits up, her body cutting through the strands of moonlight shining through the balcony doors.

And I crumble.

Her curvy body is cascaded in both shadows and light, the two forbidden lovers clashing on her skin and creating a fucking masterpiece.

Her beauty is blinding, turning my body into ash beneath her light.

She drags her hand down her flat stomach until her fingertips tease the edges of her underwear.

“Addie,” I snarl through clenched teeth. My hands slide up her thighs, pausing at the juncture where they meet her hips. I’m a weak man, and I don’t possess the strength to deny the need to touch her.

“Yes, Zade?” she asks, her husky voice low and breathy. My hips jerk impatiently in response. She smiles, the act wicked and cruel.

Finally, she lifts up and slides her underwear to the side, baring her pussy. I lift my hips again, desperate for contact, but she evades me, hovering just out of reach.

“You have five fucking sec—”

“Shh, baby.” I’m so thrown by her calling me ‘baby’ that my threat vanishes, as if my voice were a ghost teasing the corner of your eye.

Her smile widens at my incredulous look, but I’m only confused why she thought calling me baby would calm me down.

Now all I want to do is flip her on her knees, pin that pretty face into the sheets, and fuck her until her head is coming out the underside of the bed.

Before I can make good on it, she finally drops her hips. I groan at the feeling of my cock being enveloped by slick heat as she glides up and down my length. My head kicks back, and my hands tighten on her hips. Bruises will mar her skin and the thought only enrages the beast more.

“Fuck, Add—”

I have no time to even finish my prayer before the tip of my cock is slipping inside, and I’m completely incapable of formulating words.

Slowly—tortuously, she works my cock inside her, balancing her weight on my stomach. Little, breathless pants puff from her mouth while I tremble beneath her.

So fucking tight.

“God, I’m too full,” she whimpers, her own body trembling as she works to take me in.

“Baby, I’m not going to be able to control myself much longer. Sit. Down.”

Sucking her bottom lip between her teeth, she lifts up one last time before seating herself completely on my cock.

A yelp bursts from her lips, her eyes round discs. My body hums from the euphoria of her pussy wrapped so fucking tightly around me.

Goddamn nirvana. There’s nothing like it.

“Now move,” I rasp out, my control slipping as I pump my hips up once. It’s enough to send electric shocks down my spine.

Her chin tips up, eyes rolling as she swivels her hips.

“Oh,” she moans, continuing the movement until we’re both delirious. She moves slow and languid, sliding up and down and twisting her hips in a way that makes me see entire constellations.

Her eyes are pinched shut, her little mouth parted as she gets pleasure from my cock. It feels incredible, enough to make me come if I allowed it, but I need more. I need her fast, and hard.

“Little mouse,” I call, my voice hoarse with need. Her hips still, and her eyes creak open. “Run.”

Her eyes pop open, and her breath stalls. A moment passes where we’re both frozen in time, and then she springs into action. I hiss from the sensation of sliding out of her, and then she’s catapulting towards the end of the bed.

She bolts out of the room and guns for the stairs. I stay right at her heels, enjoying the startled screams that slip from her throat every time she sees me so close.

Purposely, I let her run, my cock hardening further from the chase.

My little mouse loves to be scared. And I get off on making her so.

Barreling down the stairs, she aims for the back of the house. I grin when I realize exactly where she’s going.

I let her get to the hallway before I snatch her up, relishing in the bite of her nails in my arm.

“Trying to relive a favorite memory, naughty girl?”

She growls in response, kicking her legs at air. I nearly bust into the sunroom, the beauty of it lost on me when I hold the most precious gift in my arms.

I drop to my knees and twist her around, laughing as she struggles. “Feel familiar?”

“Zade!” she cries with indignation, but I don’t give her a moment to get her bearings. She’s on her back in a matter of seconds, staring up at me with wide eyes.

“Let me know which stars you prefer. The ones above you, or the ones I make you see.”

And then I’m driving into her tight heat, not giving either of us a moment to prepare for it. She cries out, her back arching and her claws sharpened as she scores them down my arms.

“Jesus fuckin—” her words are cut off from another sharp thrust, a moan replacing her sinful words.

I shudder, my control completely in tatters as I drive into her, fucking her so hard that I’m forced to keep dragging her back down towards me.

Sharp screams fill the air and there’s a moment where the pitch is so high, I fear I broke something inside of her.

But then her pussy clamps tight, making it almost impossible to move before she comes around my cock, her body nearly convulsing from the power.

My name falls from her lips, but I can’t stop. The sound of our skin slapping and her garbled words bounce off the windows surrounding us as I continue to slam into her.

Her tiny throat is in my hand, squeezing until she can no longer utter a word. A hand wraps around my arm, branding bloody crescent moons into my skin as she fights for oxygen. I’ll gladly sacrifice my name on her tongue if it means climbing up to heaven with her.

I bare my teeth, intense pleasure racing down my spine and building at the base.

Fuck, I feel the explosion right at the precipice. Parsons Manor will always be destined to be the house that burns and takes lives.

“Give me another, baby,” I urge, my other hand reaching down until my thumb circles her clit.

Her face pinkens, nearing red when she falls back over. I release her throat, the dizzying rush from lack of oxygen coupled with her orgasm has her back coming entirely off the floor. Like a woman possessed, she clings to me, as more scratches are torn into my skin.

Gnashing my teeth, I sit back, bringing her squirming body with me until I’m kneeling with her legs wrapped tightly around my waist.

She gyrates down onto me relentlessly, riding out her orgasm and pulling me down over the edge with her. I come with a roar, clutching her to my chest so tightly that we’re both only capable of small, jerky movements as we grind into each other.

I lose myself. My name. My identity. My soul. It’s been hurdled away into the vortex our bodies have created. Like being sucked into a wormhole and kicked out into a new universe.

And when we come down, the stars surrounding us suddenly look so dull and lifeless compared to the ones shining in her eyes.

“I have an extraction tomorrow. It’s what I’ve been building up to for months now,” I say, my fingers tracing across her bare back. “It’s going to be pretty dangerous. I just want you to be aware of that.”

Addie’s head lifts, her face much more visible now that we’re in a room housed in windows. I can see the barest hint of the freckles dusting her nose and cheeks, and I want to kiss each and every one of them.

We collapsed after I fucked us both stupid, and neither of us has felt inclined to get up since.

“Is it the rituals?”

I nod and tell her all about the night I had. She was aware of the fucked-up dinner party, and when I tell her it was successful, her face softens with relief.

“I can’t wrap my head around people actually doing that. People just came over and sat at that table as if they were going to eat fucking lobster tail?”

“Yeah,” I murmur. I bite my lip, a shit-eating grin already forming on my face for what I’m about to tell her. Her head just settled back on my chest when I say, “The little girl I saved, Sarah? She asked if I’d be her daddy.”

Addie’s head snaps up so quickly, she comes close to breaking it.

“Careful, this world would be in trouble if you died.”

Her mouth flops. “What did you say?”

I shrug. “I didn’t really get to say anything. She had to leave so I could go get fake arrested. If I didn’t, Dan and the Society might’ve found the raid too convenient. Luckily, I was able to play it on a charge that Dan has gotten in the past.”

She blinks. “Would you? Adopt her, I mean?”

I lift my hand, gently swiping a lock of her hair from her face and curling it behind her ear. She tries to hide the shiver, but her body is pressed too closely into mine for it to be successful.

“I wouldn’t do anything without your say-so. But yes, I would.”

She swallows. “Why do you need my permission?”

“You think I stalked you just because I wanted a quick thrill? No, baby. It’s you and me forever. Which means if I become a daddy, then you become a mommy.”

Her eyes widen, and what looks like panic flashes in her irises. I curl a finger beneath her chin and land a quick peck to her lips.

“Don’t worry ‘bout that right now. Sarah is safe, and at the moment, we’re more worried about her trauma and getting her mental health taken care of.”

She nods, though I don’t miss the lingering look before she settles back on my chest.