French Quarter by Lacey Alexander (small books to read .TXT) 📕

“Come now, you don’t think you can keep me from what’s rightfully mine, do you, Elizabeth?”

Oh God, he really was off the deep end! Her only choice, though, was to act tough, be tough. “Look, Todd, I don’t know what you think you’re doing, sneaking into Lynda’s house and hiding in my closet, but I suggest you get out of here before I call the police.”

He glanced at the room’s phone—unfortunately located on the side of the bed where he currently stood. He looked smug, still wearing a menacing smile. “I don’t think you’ll be able to make that call, my love. And I don’t think you really want to, either.”

She blinked, nonplussed by his bizarre demeanor. For the first time, he was actually scaring her—a lot. Before now, she’d taken these episodes as aberrant behavior based on his shock over the breakup, but finally she was seeing—believing—that this was the real Todd.

She had to figure a way out of this situation, and that meant she had to keep herself from panicking.

He began slowly rounding the bed, heading toward her. She refused to cower, though—and only hoped her fear didn’t show on her face.

“Elizabeth, my dear, I can only presume you were planning to put on that hot little bra and panties for the Neanderthal who came to your rescue a few days ago, but I forgive you. You’re just a little confused right now.” He stood directly in front of her, only a foot away. “You’re angry with me and I understand that. But you don’t really want anyone else, you only want me. And I’m fully prepared to remind you just how much.”

She shook her head. “Todd, you’re delusional. I don’t want you. We are over, okay? Listen to me. We’re done. And I don’t know why you want me so much—now you’re free to have whoever you want in your lap whenever you want. So go home and leave me alone.”

“My dear little Elizabeth,” he said, as if berating an unruly child. “I want you because you’ll be the perfect wife. We belong together—you know that as much as I do. So I might get a little extracurricular entertainment on the side now and then. What does it matter? You’ve had your fun with your big caveman, but that’s over now. From now on, you’re only going to be with me.”

A sense of self-preservation forced her to finally take a step back from him, but he reached out and grabbed her wrist, using the other hand to rip the blouse away from her chest. “You have such great tits, my love—just seeing them right now has me turned on.” He tightened his grip so much it hurt. “You’re going to fuck me now, Elizabeth. You’re going to fuck me just like you’ve been fucking that other guy. Only you’re going to like it better with me, do you hear me? Then when we’re done, you’re going to tell me how much you missed it, and how good I was. And we’re going to go home together where we belong, where all this nonsense can come to an end.”

Up to now, Liz had kept her head about her. She’d been frightened, but able to act brave, still not quite believing Todd would really do something like hurt her, or—God forbid—rape her. Before a week ago, she’d never seen him behave this way. He might have been sneaking off to Club Venus every night for weeks, but when he’d been with her, he’d remained his steady, reliable, respectful self. Today, though, his eyes were different than she ever remembered them being. Maybe she just hadn’t really looked at them all that much before. Or maybe she just hadn’t wanted to see, because back then, good conservative Liz always played the role she was given without protest or doubt. Now, a true sense of panic began to bite into her, seeming to gnaw at her from the inside out.

Still, she had to try to reason with him, even if he was out of his mind. She was here alone, Jack wasn’t due for another hour, and she certainly couldn’t overpower Todd. Reasoning with him was her only hope.

“Todd, I’m not having sex with you. You need to go. Now.” She’d sounded forceful, but her voice had come out shaky, damn it.

“I can’t go without making love to you, darling. Once I do, you’ll realize we belong together. You won’t want anyone else. You’ll just want to put this whole silly breakup behind us, like I do, and get on with our life together.”

He continued squeezing her arm so tight it hurt. “Let go of me, Todd. Let go of me right now.”

“Are you going to make love to me the way a good wife should?”

She let out a nervous breath. “Of course not.”

“Then I can’t let you go yet.”

As panic began to consume her, she reacted with her gut and tried to jerk her arm away. His grip was too tight and she only succeeded in pulling him off balance, making him crash into her—his other arm came around her nearly naked body, tight.

“Fuck me, Elizabeth,” he growled as if they were sharing mutual passion. “Fuck me now.”

Chapter 10

She couldn’t take this—having his arms around her, being naked with him, against him. Following her instincts, she began to struggle, and when that didn’t work, she drove her knee upward into his crotch as hard as she could.

Thank God—a direct hit. It made him release her entirely as he yelped and curled into himself, backing away. “You bitch!”

Just then the doorbell rang and, even in her state of near-nakedness, Liz ran out the door, down the hall, down the steps, thinking of nothing but getting help before Todd got his strength back. She ripped open the door to find Jack on the other side.

“Chere,” he said with a wicked little smile, taking in her nakedness but not her panic, “I thought we were