Page 27 of ’Til You Break

He’s enjoying this. Enjoying watching me squirm. Relishing the thought that I—

No. That isn’t it.

I’m the one squirming because I want it.

Badly.

And that’s the problem.

We’re already standing on unstable ground. Changing the rules now will only muddy the waters even further. If we’re going to survive living together, there must be boundaries.

Even if they suck.

I pull my phone from my pocket to distract myself. No messages are waiting, so I open the news feed and start scrolling.

The usual doom-and-gloom. War. Famine. Death. Despair.

Then one article catches my attention. A home invasion that went wrong has resulted in the disappearance of an elderly man.

There are thousands of stories like this on my news feed every week, but this one feels different. Lindsey lives only a few streets away from where it happened. I skim the article until I reach a photograph of the man suspected of committing the crime.

He is obscured by shadows and almost impossible to make out. But I can see that he’s tall and broad, and dressed in a black turtleneck and combat pants.

He is wearing a mask that stands out, even in the grainy photograph. Amid the darkness, the white skull concealing his face is unmistakable. If I didn’t know better, I’d think he was looking directly at the camera on purpose. Leaving behind a single image for the world to discover. It’s almost as if he’s taunting his observers, convinced they’ll never catch him.

That’s just my imagination running wild, of course. I will latch onto anything that distracts me from Vik, even if it’s the monster staring back at me from my screen.

“What have you got there?”

I was so distracted by the article that I didn’t hear him come up behind me. Vik plucks my phone from my hands and studies the photograph.

“This guy looks insane,” he says before placing my phone on the table and sliding it away, out of reach.

I snap my head towards him, ready to glare. Instead, my attention lands somewhere else entirely. I am involuntarily drawn to the tent in his pants, which is hovering dangerously close to my face. His swim trunks aren’t very good at hiding what’s inside, and even my quick glance reveals the full length of his thick, throbbing cock.

Why is my mouth watering…

“What are you—”

My words trail away as Vik’s hand glides up my arm.

“I admire your attempts to keep this clean, Hannah,” he says, one hand settling around my neck. “But we both know it’s too late for that.”

My pulse spikes, my head instinctively tilting into his touch. Staying strong is so much easier when there’s distance between us. When he’s this close, every part of me turns to jelly.

Weak.

Willing.

Fucking pathetic.

He holds my neck in a firm grip as his free hand slides to my upper thigh. His fingers claw underneath, and he grabs my ass firmly. He lifts me into the air without so much as a strained groan, and props my ass on the dining room table.

“I… thought you were making breakfast.”

A wide, toothy grin stretches over Vik’s lips at my wispy tone.

“Making? No.” He drops to his knees in front of me. “But I am about to feast.”