Free Playing with Monsters by Amelia Hutchins Page A

placed it on the side table as I pulled down the sheet and moved it aside. I managed to sit back up as I remembered the tea and took a small sip before I moved to check the salt around the bed, the door, and beneath the pillow. After what I’d seen tonight, I wasn’t taking any chances.
    Tonight had been a clusterfuck. I pulled my hair into a ponytail before bringing the cup up to my lips and blowing on the hot liquid before I took another drink, then sat back in bed. Luna jumped on the bed and moved to my side as I placed a hand on her and scrunched up my nose.
    “I think I made a mistake coming home,” I whispered to the cat, who ignored me as she cleaned her paw.
    I felt the valerian root start its magic and my eyes grew heavy as I lay there. Eventually I pushed the cat over enough that I could lay on my side, while stroking her gently. I fell asleep with her pressed against me, her soft rhythmic purring the only noise in the room.
    I’m not sure what woke me, but something had. My hand smoothed over the bed, looking for Luna, but it wasn’t the cat that I felt. What I felt was hard and yet soft at the same time, warm. I whispered a name, and groaned as I opened my eyes a slit to see what my hand was touching, but the room was bathed in dark shadows.
    My hand continued to explore the contours of whatever was in my bed, and then slowly, my brain kicked in and I lifted my head. I pushed off the bed instinctively, but before I could make it even an inch away from him, he was on me.
    His hand captured my hands and pressed them against the metal frame of the bed painfully as his other arm pressed against my chest, pushing the air from my lungs and blocking me from being able to draw any new air in to replace it, or scream.
    My lungs burned. I gasped and struggled against his unmovable body. He didn’t look like he weighed that much, and yet I couldn’t even pelvis bump his ass off of me. I moved my head and thrust my hips until stars filled my vision. I felt my pulse quicken as the reality of what was happening sank in. He was freaking killing me! In my own bed, why did the bad shit always happen in my bed?
    His eyes watched me as if fascinated by me suffocating and the moment he lessened his hold and removed his elbow from the center of my chest, I gasped and sucked in air. I had planned to scream, but his hand covered my mouth, trapping it there.
    “If you scream, you’re dead. Don’t be stupid. Don’t scream,” he whispered hoarsely. His hand lifted from my mouth and moved to my throat gently, the threat abundantly clear.
    “Get out of my bedroom,” I whispered through the pain of fire that filled my lungs.
    “And miss hearing you saying my name in your dreams? I think not, little witch. Were you dreaming of me?”
    “No,” I whispered as I considered my options. They were limited, and I was pretty much fucked.
    “You called out to me; my name left your lips more than once while you slept,” he argued as he positioned himself between my legs with finesse. I bucked my hips to move him and his lips curved into a wicked smile. “Is that an invitation?”
    “Fuck you,” I snapped. “If I was dreaming about you, it probably had something to do with dead bodies and you being covered in blood, asshole.”
    “Hold still, Magdalena,” he said after I bucked wildly to dislodge him, uncaring of the hand placed strategically against my windpipe.
    “Get off of me,” I hissed and continued struggling to free my hands, right up until his hand left my throat and moved to my ass, lifting it to press me against his fully erect dick that no amount of clothing could hide.
    “I’d stop before you drive me past the point of no return,” he growled, and I went limp. No struggling here, calm is me. “Too easy,” he whispered as he moved his erection away from me. “You’re fragile,” he noted. “You’ll be bruised come morning.”
    “Proof that you’re an ass?” I sassed, which probably wasn’t the best