Page 28 of Death Rydes Shotgun

In every direction I turn, there’s a hundred copies of me, a hundred shapes of the tall, dark shadow lurking through the glass.

I walk softly, my boots making no sound on the rubber floor mats. Closing my eyes, I block out all other voices, focusing on her.

Around the first two turns, the air becomes thick with the faint scent of her vanilla perfume. Her shallow, rapid breaths echo off the glass panels ahead—sharp, panicked gasps of a woman who knows she’s being tracked, but can’t figure out which direction the predator is coming from.

I move like a phantom, slipping around a corner where four glass walls intersect.

Through the clear reflection to my left, I spot her.

She stands in a small dead end, her back pressed against a glass panel, her perfect skin glowing under the purple UV lights. Her chest heaves, her hands resting near her waist where her knife sits.

Harmony glances at her reflection, then to the left, completely unaware that the wall to her right is open.

I glide around the corner, stepping up right behind her.

The heat of my body presses against her back before she even realizes I’m there.

I bend down, bringing my lips inches from her ear, and whisper into the cold air, “People do terrible things and pretend they’re good.”

Harmony flinches violently, a sharp gasp tearing from her throat at the same time her hand reaches for her blade. She whirls around, her back slamming hard against the glass wall behind her.

She stares up at me, her eyes wide, wild, and glowing under the dark light.

It may be my imagination, but her lips still seem slightly swollen from our kiss.

I stare at her cleavage as her breath comes in fast, ragged hitches that make her chest rise and fall inches from mine.

I close my eyes, remembering the feel of her tit in my hand, her hardened nipple pinched between my fingers. The soft moan that escaped her full, pouty mouth.

When I peel back my lids, I notice she’s struggling to pull her sharp, defensive mask back up, but the raw terror and dangerous attraction bleeding through her glare are impossible to hide.

“Did you do something terrible, Ryder?” Her voice trembles slightly despite her best efforts to sound cold, lethal, and unbothered.

My gaze slides slowly down her body, taking in the rapid flutter of her pulse, the mess of her hair, the way her hands are trembling at her sides.

I bring my eyes back up to hers, letting the full, unhinged weight of my darkness shine through.

“I plan to. Unless you stop me. Are you going to stop me again, Harmony?”

Her breath locks in her throat. She swallows hard, her shoulders pressing flat against the glass as if she could slip right through it to escape the suffocating wall of my chest.

“What do you want from me?” Her voice drops into a desperate, ragged whisper that echoes off the surrounding mirrors. “What do you want, Ryder?”

Stepping closer, I bridge the tiny gap between us until the front of my thighs press against hers, my hardened dick nuzzling her stomach, trapping her completely between the hard glass and my body.

I lean down, my hands coming up to rest on the glass on either side of her head, locking her in a cage of dark steel and muscle.

As I lower my mouth, my lips graze the shell of her ear, and my voice drops into a low, wicked, and chillingly intimate tone.

“I want you to be my willing sacrifice.” The words drip with a dark, sinister promise that sets the air on fire. “I want to pin you to the earth with your legs open wide.”

Harmony makes a soft, involuntary whimper that catches in her throat as the sheer, explicit weight of my words lands on her skin.

I tilt my head, my gaze boring down into hers with an intensity so raw, so brutal, it borders on madness.

The rapid, frantic beat of her heart against my chest, the heat radiating off her skin, and the undeniable wave of surrender beginning to fracture her defenses have me fighting the urge to fuck her right here.

My hands grip the edge of the glass panels behind her so hard, I fear the glass may shatter as a terrifying truth dawns on me in the dark.