He groans. “Fuck, babe.”

  “Now, Alex,” I say, a demand in my tone. “Come home now. Otherwise, I’ll be forced to do it myself and then both of us are going to be left without.”

  “I’m on the fucking edge, Kyah.”

  “Well, tell me,” I say, holding my comforter a little tighter. “Do you get a rush when you’re with me? When you sneak through my window and spread my legs? When your tongue rolls up through my cunt and you feel my body spasm beneath you?”

  “Fuck, baby. You know I do.”

  “You told me last night that being with me gives you a bigger rush than when you end someone’s life. Was that true?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then stop wasting both of our time and come home,” I tell him. “Forget about that guy and come give me what I need. Put us both out of our misery.”

  He groans again, and a moment later, I hear the subtle brush of the breeze against his phone and a smile pulls at the corner of my lips. “Five minutes, Mace. Don’t even think about touching yourself before I get there.”

  “You’ve got yourself a deal,” I tell him. “Though, would it be the biggest pain in the ass if you snuck in through my window? I’m not looking for the sweet, cocky asshole from across the hall. I need the unhinged psychopath who likes to fuck me until I scream.”

  I can almost hear the way he grins. “Just you fucking wait, baby.”

  Alex ends the call, and I find myself flying up off the couch, scurrying into the bathroom, and peeling my clothes off. I smell like a bar, and probably like Nat’s vomit, seeing as though her aim is about as good as a two-year-old boy toilet training for the first time.

  After rushing through a quick shower, I riffle around my underwear drawers, pulling out a skimpy black lace lingerie set. It’s not as incredible as the set Alex bought for me, but it’s definitely a close second.

  Fully aware of the clock ticking, I get dressed and lock up my apartment, making sure my living room window is open.

  As I walk back into my room, I can’t resist stepping into a pair of black heels, knowing just how much he likes it.

  I can’t help but wonder if this is how we move forward. Last night at High Voltage Ink, it became startlingly clear to us both that we didn’t know how this relationship was supposed to work, but maybe we have a fighting chance after all. For some reason unknown to me, I make him better, and the proof is right there in the way he was able to walk away from that guy and his girlfriend, and as for me, he’s opened my eyes to a world I never knew I needed, and I can’t possibly imagine going back now.

  Alex Reid might be an unhinged serial killer with stalker tendencies, but he’s my unhinged serial killer. And for some reason, we just work.

  With a wicked grin playing on my lips and my heart thundering wildly in my chest, I turn out the light and lay down on top of my blanket, making sure he gets the best possible view as he walks through the door.

  Then barely even thirty seconds later, I feel a feather-soft touch dragging from my ankle up to my knees before that deep, sexy tone rumbles through my room. “I hope you’re ready to play, my sweet Kyah,” he says before his hand slips higher up my thigh and between my legs to cup my pussy. I whimper, grinding against his hand, already soaking wet. “Now get on your knees and show me that pretty cunt.”

  EPILOGUE

  KYAH

  TWO YEARS LATER

  Locking up the main door of High Voltage Ink, I can’t wipe the smile off my face. I’ve just sat with Big Jim for the last hour talking about how he would like to take me on as a partner, and after a few years, once I’m confident in running the business, he’ll be taking the leap and retiring, leaving the shop to me.

  I’ve always hoped this would come. I’ve worked my ass off for it, but I had no expectations. If it wasn’t meant to be, I would have eventually left High Voltage Ink to start a business of my own, but this has always been my home, and I can’t imagine having to start somewhere new.

  After double-checking the door is locked properly, I make my way down the street. It was a late one tonight. I didn’t finish with my last client until after ten, and when Big Jim asked to talk, I think we both assumed it would be fifteen minutes max. But then we started talking shit and had a drink to celebrate, then when I glanced up and saw it was already after eleven, we both gaped at the clock, completely dumbfounded by how fast time had flown.

  Naturally, Big Jim had offered me a lift home, but after the three shots of whiskey he took, I had no choice but to steal his keys and send him home in an Uber.

  As I make my way home, I pull out my phone and send off a text to Alex. I’m so damn excited about becoming business partners with Big Jim, I can’t wait to share the news.

  Kyah - You up? I have big news.

  My gaze remains locked on the phone, but after passing two blocks, I realize he must have already crashed. But it’s fine, I’m more than happy to break into his apartment and wake him up, just like he’s so skilled at doing himself. Assuming he’s even in his apartment. He rarely uses his place anymore.

  These past two years with him have been incredible, and while there has been the odd occasion where I haven’t quite managed to keep him from ending someone’s life, he’s definitely made huge improvements. And instead of murdering someone, he does everything in his power to channel that need into me.

  The first six months were a huge learning curve, having to work through all the kinks and quirks of a new relationship while also coming to terms with the fact that I was dating a serial killer. I wouldn’t have it any other way though. He drives me certifiably insane, but it’s been the best ride of my life.

  The moments we’ve shared together and the moments we’ve loved have made my little life here in Brooklyn so unbelievably worth it. And as I’ve gotten to know him on a deeper level, I’ve realized that I could never let him go.

  Alexander Reid is the other half of my dark and depraved soul.

  Nearly at the door of my apartment complex, I shove my phone back into my bag and step up into the small alcove before raising my hand to the keypad. As I enter the code for the building, a large figure steps in behind me, casting me in shadows.

  My heart starts to race, and before I can even get my elbow back to wind the bastard, a large hand clamps down over my mouth. I try to scream, but the sound is muffled around his palm. I’m dragged backward, his other arm locked around my waist as I claw at his skin, digging deep, bloody grooves from my nails.

  Fear blasts through my chest, only getting worse when he pulls me around the corner of the apartment complex and down the side alley, away from any prying eyes. But in the dead of night, there isn’t a single person out here to save me.

  I bite down on his hand, instantly tasting blood in my mouth, and he quickly adjusts his hold, shoving me up against the brick wall of the building. “Fuck, Mace,” Alex grunts, my face squished against the brick as his big body presses in behind me, keeping me pinned. “You’re gonna pay for that.”

  I shove my elbow back into his stomach, landing the perfect hit. “Try me, asshole.”

  He growls in my ear, and the deepest thrill shoots through me. We’ve role-played all kinds of messed-up scenes, but it’s never been quite like this before. I fucking love it.

  Alex grabs my waist, spinning me around, and as he grips both my wrists in one hand, holding them above my head, I feel something sharp biting into my neck. I suck in a gasp, realizing he has a blade at my throat. My eyes go wide, and I focus all of my attention on him. He knows cutting me is a hard limit, one I won’t negotiate, but that doesn’t mean we can’t play with knives.

  A wide grin stretches across my face, and for just a moment, he breaks, leaning into me and pressing the sweetest kiss to my lips. “Hey, baby,” he murmurs. “How was work?”

  “So good,” I tell him.

  “What’s this big news you’ve got?”

  A beaming smile lights up my whole face, and Alex smiles right back at me, despite not having heard my news yet. “Big Jim is retiring in a few years, and he asked if I’d like to become business partners so I can learn the ropes and be prepared to take over when he leaves.”

  “No shit?” he grins.

  I nod like a fucking bobblehead. “High Voltage Ink is going to be mine.”

  “Fuck, Mace,” he says, crushing his lips against mine. “That’s amazing. No one deserves it more than you do.”

  “Thank you.”

  “I take it we’re celebrating tonight?”

  I pull against his tight hold on my wrists, bringing his attention back to the alley and the compromising position he currently has me in. “I kinda thought we already were.”

  His gaze darkens, hunger booming through his dark stare, and like lightning, the terrifying unhinged psychopath is back. My blood pumps faster than ever before, my body wired as though there were a million tiny electric bolts shooting through me, each one of them leading right to my core.

  Knowing my limits with the knife, Alex eases up on my throat and drags the tip of the blade right down the center of my tank top, exposing my body to the chilly spring breeze. He tears the scraps of fabric off me, leaving me in just my bra as he dives for my jeans, holding the blade between his teeth to free up a hand.

  I squirm beneath his touch, and being just as worked up as I am, he releases my wrists, giving me the freedom to play as much as I’d like. Desperation pulses through me, and I reach for the front of his pants, my hands greedily diving in, already knowing that there won’t be time for foreplay tonight. I need to have him inside me, and nothing else will do.

  Releasing him from the confines of his pants, his cock stands proud and so fucking thick, the angry veins begging me to take him. I curl my hands around him as he shoves my jeans down over my hips. I step out of them, needing to hurry this along as my fist works up and down his thick cock. Alex grips my ass and lifts me, my legs hooking around his hips.

  “Fuck, Mace. I need to be inside you,” he says around the blade.

  “God, yes,” I groan, clutching his cock tighter and guiding him to my entrance. Alex adjusts his hold on me, positioning himself just right, and the second I release his cock, he thrusts forward, slamming deep inside of me.

  I cry out, throwing my arms around his neck, but with that blade controlled by nothing more than his clenched jaw, I take the hilt in my palm, and he doesn’t hesitate to give it up. He thrusts again, and my whole body shudders, but by the grunts and groans tearing out of him, it’s clear that he’s just as worked up as I am.

  He takes me hard and fast, and with each new thrust, I’m forced closer and closer to the edge. My nails dig into his shoulder, and when he grunts my name and I realize just how close he is, a wicked grin spreads across my face.

  Taking the blade, I hold it to the base of his throat, just as he’d done to me, but the move doesn’t faze him, and he keeps fucking me like the goddamn superhero I know him to be. “You even think about coming yet, and I’ll slit your throat.”

  His eyes spark with excitement. “Oh yeah, Mace?” he questions. “You don’t have the fucking balls to follow through.” I add a little pressure, not enough to cut his skin, but more than enough to excite him. “Alright, baby. What do you want?”

  “Slow, long thrusts,” I pant.

  Alex groans. He’s not a slow guy. He prefers it hard and fast because when he takes me slow, he feels it all—the way my walls clench around him, the way my body shudders, how fucking warm I am. Don’t get me wrong, he feels it all when he takes me fast, but when he slows down like this, he soaks it in and allows himself to indulge, and that has him crossing the finish line even sooner.

  More than willing to play my game, he takes his time, rocking his hips right back before thrusting forward again, taking me inch by inch and driving us both insane. “Mace,” he grits through a clenched jaw as he pulls back again.

  My eyes roll in the back of my head, and as he takes me again, the intensity builds, leaving me like a coil ready to spring. “Fuck, Alex. Just like that,” I tell him, clenching my walls around him. My head tips back, losing all sense of reality as I focus on nothing but the pure ecstasy rocking through my body. My hand falls away, my palm opening, and just as I hear the sound of the blade dropping to the ground, Alex cries out, his fingers digging into my ass so hard they’ll leave bruises.

  “FUCK!”

  My eyes spring open, panic tearing at my chest at the pain in his tone. “What?” I rush out, heavily panting as he continues to fuck me. “What’s wrong?”

  “Ribs,” he grunts. “You cut me.”

  Horror blasts through me, and I shove against his chest, giving me enough space to glance down, and the second I see it, my eyes bulge out of my fucking head. “Holy shit,” I gasp, taking in the deep gash that starts just to the side of his nipple, cutting through his chest tattoo and down over his ribs. Blood gushes from the wound, quickly trailing down his torso and over his hip, soaking into the top of his pants. “I’m so sorry. That’s bad. We need to get you to the hospital.”

  “Not before I finish fucking you,” he rasps.

  “What?” I gasp, my eyes widening like saucers. “Are you insane?”

  “Are you just catching on?” he demands, thrusting into me again, this time making my eyes roll in the back of my head, my whole body shaking with undeniable pleasure.

  “Oh, God,” I pant, tipping my head back against the wall and knowing there’s no chance in hell he’s about to stop. “Fine. Fuck me. But you better make it hard and fast. You have two fucking minutes to make us both come because you are not bleeding out on me in this shitty alley.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” he rumbles, a grin stretching across his lips. “But for what it’s worth, I’ll only need one.”

  Oh fuck.

  Alex doesn’t hold back, giving me everything he’s got, and true to his word, sixty brilliant seconds later, I detonate, crying out in the middle of the alley as he comes with me, both of us coming completely undone.

  My high rocks through my body, my pussy spasming around his thick cock, only it’s cut short when he loses his hold on me, and my feet fall to the ground. He uses his body to keep me pinned against the brick wall until I find my balance, and then he falls back a step, his face going white as the blood loss starts to take its toll.

  “Fuck, Alex,” I grunt, not having realized just how bad it is.

  He falls against the brick wall, using it as leverage to keep him up, taking his weight as I scramble for the scraps of my shirt left haphazardly across the dirty alley ground. “Lay down,” I tell him, the guilt eating at me. “I need to apply pressure. You’re losing too much blood.”

  I help him down and immediately jam the remnants of my tank against his ribs, hating the hiss of pain that slips between his lips. He reaches up, his fingers grazing across my face. “It’s okay, Mace. It’s just a flesh wound. I’ll be okay.”

  “I know, but I can’t handle the idea that I’ve hurt you,” I tell him, grabbing my phone and calling 911, desperate for an ambulance.

  “It’s all part of the thrill,” he tells me, trying to play it off.

  “New rule,” I say. “Knives are officially a hard-pass.”

  “Damn,” he mutters. “I was afraid you were going to say that.”

  Fifteen minutes later, I hold Alex’s hand as his face turns white, not from the blood loss but from the needle weaving in and out of his skin as he receives his stitches. “Might I ask how you managed a cut like this?” the doctor asks, not appearing to actually care, but doing the bare minimum to be polite.

  “Sex injury,” Alex says with a grin, watching as the doctor’s head snaps up. “My girl here has a few kinks that she likes to explore every now and then, but I think we’ll call it quits on knife play for now.”

  My face turns bright red, and I squeeze his hand so tight, I’m sure something must be breaking. “Holy shit,” I mutter in embarrassment. “You did not just say that.”

  “What?” Alex grunts. “You get to play slice and dice, but I don’t get to be honest about it? Where’s the fairness in that?”

  The doctor chuckles. “He has a point.”

  Oh, God. Someone kill me now.

  I try to zone out and forget about the humiliation of it all when I notice a few of the nurses pausing to glance our way. Seeing me catch their stares, they keep going, but it’s only a matter of time before I find the hospital administration doing the same.

  My brows furrow. What’s so interesting about us? I’m sure we’re not the first couple who’ve come in with sex-related injuries. Besides, the doctor hasn’t gone anywhere since he found out, so it couldn’t be that.

  A hospital security guard creeps in toward the administration desk, and my heart starts to race. “Umm, how much longer is this going to take?” I ask the doctor.

  “Few more minutes,” he says. “I’m just about done.”

  I give him a tight smile, and when Alex squeezes my hand, I glance down to find a questioning look on his face, his brows furrowed with concern. “What’s up? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

  My gaze flicks around the hospital again, and I inch in, lowering my voice. “Everyone is looking this way, and a security guard just started hovering.”

  Alex glances toward the administration desk, taking note of the staring nurses and the security guard who just happened to invite a friend to hover with him. He presses his lips into a tight line before shifting his gaze back to me. “You didn’t happen to give them my name when we got here, did you?”

  My brows furrowed, unsure why he’d ask me that. “I had to fill out the forms—OH SHIT!”

  “Yeah, they ran my name and saw the warrant out for my arrest,” he says, confirming what I just figured out.

  “Shit. Shit. Shit,” I chant. “What do we do?”

  His gaze sails back over the onlookers before coming back to mine. “Considering the guards are still hovering, that could only mean the cops aren’t here yet, so we have plenty of time,” he tells me, glancing down to see how far off the doctor is, and noting how he’s completely in his own world, not paying attention to our conversation. “It’s your call, Mace. What do you wanna do?”