“We all have skills. Yours is killing. Mine is making you come apart. Just be happy my skill isn’t something stupid like twirling batons.”
Kicking the front door shut with his foot, Quill carries me to the back room where he dumps me on the bed. He yanks off his shirt, making clear a simple handjob won’t do. I remove my shirt too and then reach for him. Before my fingers can discover his rough chest hairs, he grabs the chains. Our gazes meet, and I know what he knows.
The beast inside him won’t be denied, and sex isn’t the only thing on its mind.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Quill
Odessa wants to learn to hunt so she can help me clear the traps. I only agree because I lack the will to say no. She holds all of the power now.
A simple look from Odessa sends me into animal arousal. With such control over me, she calls the shots, but soon I’ll rid myself of her and the gnawing desire inside me.
The machete looks too big for her small hands. She uses both of them to hold it. I watch her swing the weapon in smooth motions. She practices attacking threats by chopping into the trees near the cabin.
“Can I learn to shoot too?” she asks.
“Bullets are a rare commodity in the Lost Highway. I can’t waste any on teaching you.”
Odessa glances back at me over her shoulder and smiles in a way I feel down to my toes. She’s under my skin like a parasite, stealing my strength and common sense.
“Don’t sulk,” she teases before returning to hacking at the tree.
“With Death Dealers, you can only kill them with head wounds or by removing the heart. Other wounds will heal.”
“Like my leg wound did. You knew I didn’t need the bandage that day after you put me in the coffin. You still wrapped my leg to make me feel better.”
“The human mind needs a lot of reassurance.”
Odessa studies me with her pale eyes, and I am already thinking of her on top of me in the bedroom. When she smiles again, I imagine her lips wrapped around my cock. All we do now is rut in bed. I can’t shake the need, and Odessa meets my hunger with her own insatiable desire.
“I’m almost done cleaning the second wall,” Odessa says, swinging around to chop the tree. “I’ll probably run out of cleaning supplies before I finish the room.”
“I don’t know if I can find more.”
“It doesn’t matter. It’s busy work to keep my mind from going Lost Highway bonkers.”
My mind isn’t as sharp as before I made the mistake of saving Odessa. If I could return to that day, I would leave her in the trap for the other Death Dealers. More than once, I’ve wondered if ending her life might free me from this weakness.
The problem is the longer I think of Odessa, the more my body aches for her. Once my cock is hard, we end up in bed until I can barely move.
“When will you take me hunting?” she asks as I lead her into the house.
“Why are you in such a hurry?”
“I think the secret to staying sane here is to keep busy. Boredom turns the mind to mush.”
My hand removes the machete from her grip while I hurry her down the hallway. “We’ll hunt in the morning.”
Odessa smiles at where we’re heading. She finds nothing wrong with spending hours fucking like animals. No doubt she thinks sex helps her mind remain sharp. Of course, she isn’t the one chained to the bed.
Her voice is tender when we’re in the bedroom. She tells me how strong I am. She wants me to own her. She promises I’m the only one she sees.
I know these words are supposed to mean something. In bed, they do matter. Once we’re dressed, my mind no longer remembers why I should care.
Admittedly, I sometimes like the way her fingers feel on my arm when we sit on the porch and watch the woods. I’m not as quick to swat them away as when she first arrived. Occasionally, I struggle against the urge to reach out and touch her too.
Odessa’s face is delicate when she sleeps. Watching her rest on the couch, I count her breaths and admire how her lips part as she dreams.
Until Odessa arrived, I rarely slept and only dreamed of monsters in the woods. Now when I sleep, I see her naked and waiting for me in bed. In my dreams, I can touch her without our passion immediately leading to violence. Sometimes in the better dreams, I explore her body as she does mine.
“Did you like music before you came here?” she asks that night while we sit on the couch and stare at the TV’s static.
“No.”
“Did you like anything?”
“I liked succeeding at my missions.”
“You’re doing that robot thing again.”
I frown at Odessa, only to find her grinning back at me. “You’re mocking me.”
“No, I’m just playing with you. I want you to stay sane for a long time.”
“What happens if I go feral? Will you put me down?”
“No, I’ll let you kill me.”
Frowning darker, I look at where her hand now holds mine. “Are you so weak you won’t even attempt to save yourself?”
“No, I’m so weak I won’t want to live alone here without you. I love you, Quill. Without you, I have no reason to exist.”
“Pathetic.”