LILLY

I stay planted on the single couch with my feet up when he comes back with a Chinese takeaway. He keeps the box on my side of the table and starts digging into his food. Calm. Ignorant. One leg over his knee as he sits on my couch like it was his. He opens up a can of beer for himself but keeps a can of soda for me.

I don't eat. I don't touch the chopsticks, I don't touch the soda. The only voice between us was the fizziness of the soda in the can. That was it. I couldn't even get up to get my phone from my room even though my phone pinged that it was charged.
He sighs, sits up straight, and keeps the box on the table. He takes the wooden chopsticks, pulls them apart and stabs them inside the box, and holds it up for me "We play this game again, Lilly? It's just food. You gotta eat if you wanna be able to fight me, no?" I pull my cardigan tighter and curve myself in the chair with my legs up. As far away from him as possible.

He abruptly stands up and kneels in front of me. Nothing in his hands. He grabs my ankles and has his hand firm around them and pulls my legs down so that I sit up. He grabs me behind my knees and pulls me to the edge of the seat till I'm almost on his lap. I try not to make a sound, I try to keep my face neutral. I try to stay calm. But as soon as his hand gently lands on my thighs, I jerk in my seat. Try to close my legs without meaning to. His hands gently slide down my thighs to my ankles, he grabs them, squeezes them gently, and then caresses his hands to my calves, squeezing them too. I clench my toes on the carpet so I would stay still.
He presses his forehead to mine and closes his eyes. His voice is soft but there's a bite to his tone in every word "You're testing my patience every damn second, Lilly. I told you that I don't like it when you defy me." He huffs through his mouth "It makes me wanna fuck you up. It makes me wanna hurt you but I don't want that because I don't like the way you look at me when I do." He slides his hand up my thigh, up my stomach, up my breast, and grabs my neck. His fingers pressed on my artery but he was not rough. But the thought that if he grabs me the right way, he'd be choking me in seconds. I could pass out or I could just stop breathing forever. That thought scared me.

He pulls me forward by my neck and his nose brushes against mine, his breath warm on my lips. My hands are on the armrest as I claw my fingers into the leather of the chair. He notices everything.
Every move. Every breath. Every tremor.
He says "I'll give you a choice from now on. If you continue to defy me, I'll let you choose something. You either drop the attitude and do whatever I say, or you can just let me do what I want and take it like a good girl. I'll let you choose." He groans on my lips " Choose, Lilly, the nice way or the not-so-nice way." His fingers squeeze my neck once and it made me look him in the eye. My breath came out in shivers as I ask "If I eat, will you sit far away from me?" He smirks "Is that what you're choosing? Fuck, the fun I had planned for us in a not-so-nice way- fine, I'll sit at the corner if that gets you to eat. Deal?" I dip my chin in a soft nod and he stands up, lets me go, and sits at the corner of the couch. He has his back to the armrest but he doesn't give me privacy. He keeps looking at me. A smile on his face. I take the food and start eating, little bites at a time.
He grunts "All of it, Lilly. You eat all of it." I swallow and stuff more bites into my mouth.

♡

He cleared the table, he threw the boxes in the trash.

I was again curved into the chair with my feet up, my eyes closing again and again but I tell myself to stay awake by patting my cheek every time he wasn't looking. But that was not doing anything.

I rested my eyes for a second when I feel him try to take me in his arms. My eyes open and I pull away from him. He stands straight, looking down. I swallow "What are you doing?"

"You were sleeping."

I shake my head "I'm not tired." My eyes burned but I become stubborn.

"Really?"

"Yeah, leave me alone."

He bites his bottom lip to hide a smile but then I'm seeing the world upside down. He threw me over his shoulder and walks into the room "You're not tired but I am." He drops me to my bed and gets in with me. Taking me in his arms. I press my fists on his chest to create some kind of distance but he doesn't care. As long as I'm pressed to him, he does not care. He stroked my hair and then stroked my cheek but I keep my eyes on him. Trying to read if he makes a move. He does, he leans his lips to mine but I turn my head the other way. His lips collided with my cheek and I clench my eyes close. He trails kisses down my jaw and to my neck and whispers "Good night, Lilly." The lights go off and I'm in this utter darkness, pressed to him as I trembled in fear.

♡

I'm up before sunrise.

I'm ashamed to say that I fell asleep for an hour or two. Can't almost breathe the way he's holding me. His legs draped over my hip, arm wrapped around my waist. Head on my chest. I don't know when did he even take his shirt off.
I try to wiggle out of his hold, but he stirs. I wait again. Wait for five minutes and then seven minutes. I wiggle again. He stirs and takes his leg off me. I'm almost to the point his arms loosen from around me but he groans and pulls me to his side so that I'm half over him.

I take a deep breath and I try again. Wiggle out of his hold. He groans and this time his leg is draped over my waist, pulling me close enough that his face is between my breasts. My breathing stops when I feel the vibration of his light snores against my breasts and I have to control a grunt. I can't wake him up. I can't have him open his eyes. I need to get out before he wakes up. I grab his wrist and gently, gently pull it off me. His eye cracks open and I pause. Like a deer caught, I stop and swallow. He asks with his voice sleepy "What are you doing?" I answer "I need to go to work." He buries his face in my neck and says "Ten more minutes." I shake my head "I need to be at work by five." He says "No, you don't. I checked your schedule on the fridge. You don't have to be at work until nine." I stop and my back goes stiff "There's no schedule on the fridge."

"I know. There's one on your phone when I tapped it."

"You tapped my phone?"

"Don't act like it's a surprise. Go to sleep."

And that's what he said last before he slept again while I was freaking out. He tapped my phone, he held me hostage, he abused me emotionally and mentally, he's in my apartment, he's holding me without consent, and he's constantly harassing me.
And he wants me to lie with him for ten more minutes?

♡

My eyes open to the bright sun in my room. The bed went cold. I look around and there's no sign of him.
I run to the bathroom and lock the door. I take a shower and change into my scrubs.

I get out and still no sign but the apartment smelled like bleach for some reason.

Don't let your guard down, Lilly. He likes popping up unannounced to scare you. Don't let your guard down.

♡

CARTER

I woke up to the sound of knocking. Lilly was asleep in my arms but the knocking didn't stop. It kept coming. Seven times. Seven seconds between each knock at three in the morning.
I kept her ear covered so she wouldn't wake up but suddenly it stopped. Silent.

Something was not right.

I quietly pull my arms from around her but she snuggles in. My head tilts as I watch her. Lilly was something else. The woman does my head in but there's something about her that I can't seem to let go. Something pure that I want to ruin. Something innocent that I want to rip away.
This obsession I have with her is unhealthy for me and my soul. But I can't take her out of my mind. I can't stop messing with her. I can't stop touching her and sure as fuck can't stay away from her.
I'm in deep shit with her but I like her reactions. I like how her eyes go wide or how she swallows and nibbles on the inner part of her bottom lip when she knows that's the time to stay quiet. Her scared big blue eyes with tears were a bad turn-on.

And then suddenly, there was a double knock. She stirs in her sleep again and speaks "What?" She whispers "Carter." And my ears perk up. She doesn't like saying my name at all and I'm fine with that, but when she does say my name, I'm fucked.

Seven seconds and another double knock but this time soft. I get out of bed and close the door to her bedroom first, walking slowly to the main door.
I wait. Listening carefully. Nothing. I look through the eyehole- too dark to tell.
I unlock the door and slowly twist the knob, look over my shoulder to make sure her door was closed, and then pull open the door. I'm met with a harsh kick to my chest that gets me to fall on the floor and someone walks over to her door. I grab the person's leg and pull and the person falls.

I stand up to turn on the lights and spot the gun in the waist of his jeans and when I try to get it away from the person, he grabs me by my neck and punches me across the face. I try not to make a sound. I can't have Lilly coming out of her room. Not yet.
The guy was wearing track pants with a black shirt, a black cap, and a black mask. He kicks me in the knee and I go down. He gets up and holds the knob of her door but I'm on him in seconds, grabbing him by his shirt and pulling him back but in doing so, he powers to walk back and hit me up against the wall. I groan but I hold onto him. Take off his cap and go for his mask but he doesn't let me. He elbows me in the stomach and then in the face. I grab his hair and twist us around so that I'm standing in front of him, pushing him down on his knee and hit his face hard on my knee, hard enough that he groans. I bang his head on my knee again and he's down in pain.

I stride to the kitchen and grab a knife. His eyes go wide when he sees me coming back and he goes for his gun.

Before he could even unlock his gun, I put my foot on his chest and keep him down as I steal away the gun, dismantling it all in a matter of seconds in front of his eyes. He tries to get up but I keep him down, putting the blade to his neck "Who sent you?" I was angry, I was in the mood for murder because if I wasn't here, he would've gone after my Lilly.
He doesn't answer. Just breathes harshly. I growl "Who the fuck sent you?!" I pull off his mask and there's blood coming out of his mouth. The guy was unfamiliar to me. He smiles and opens his mouth. The bastard bites his tongue in seconds and throws it up on her carpet. 2/3 of his tongue out. Staining her carpet red.

I look at him in disgust but he uses that distraction as a way to escape by grabbing my foot and pushing me but I save myself from the fall and he crawls and then gets to his feet and runs. He was fast but I was faster. I chased him down the stairs and pushed him. He rolled down the stairs and I grabbed him, yanked him up to his feet, and pinned him to the wall with the knife to his artery. One swipe and he would be gone. I hold him back and smile "If you think that biting your tongue would get you out of this, you couldn't be more wrong. Who sent you?" He smiles and spits in my eye. I grunt in anger and banged his head against the wall. He loses consciousness and then he's down.

Shit! Fuck!

I grab my phone and I call Elijah "Where are you?"

♡

"He did what?!"

I wiped the bloody spit from my eye and we watched as his guys took the intruder in the van. I told him about how he bit his tongue off. Elijah almost puked. I look down and I had blood on my white T-shirt "You heard me. Find out who sent him." Elijah nods "You got it." I'm about to walk up the stairs again when he grabs me by my arm "Where are you going?" I reply "To get some sleep. I'm tired." Then I remember the tongue "Oh and, send someone to clean up that tongue and blood on her carpet. I want it spotless in thirty minutes." Elijah is confused but he will never understand the obsession.

He will never understand my obsession.

I walk up the stairs back into the apartment, ignore the tongue and walk in. She was still asleep. On her back. Calm. Her tank top rode up her stomach and her cardigan was pulled down her shoulder. Long brown hair sprawled on the pillow. I sigh and take off my shirt, hiding it under her mattress for a while and get in bed.
I could already hear footsteps outside and I smiled at how fast Elijah was getting the carpet cleaned.

I laid down beside her and took a deep breath, slowly grabbing her by the waist and pulling her in my arms. She made this adorable sound and tucked herself into me again. Head pressed to my bare chest. Cuddle to me close as if she has been missing it. Such a weird creature. She denies me and my touch, but when she's asleep, she seeks it. She yearns for it.
My eyes slowly close and I push myself down, cuddling to her chest and wrapping my arms around her waist. She holds me back in seconds, her snores soft and light in my head that it puts me to sleep in seconds.

♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡

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Love, Hope
♥️♥️