Tobias’s breaths evened out in sleep, and my erratic pulse pounded along with my cock.
I couldn’t trust him. He’d hold that body over me and fuck me over the first chance he got. And I sure as hell knew whatever he was going to ask in exchange for his silence, it would be a lot worse than a blow job.
The thought of sneaking into the kitchen and grabbing a knife to slit his throat surfaced, but was quickly snuffed out. Despite the situation with Leah, I wasn’t a killer. Not to mention, the risk with a man like Tobias was too high, and one accidental body was plenty enough problem to deal with.
I couldn’t stay here, but what was I to do?
Disappear?
It would look suspicious, but if they couldn’t find me…
I eased the covers away, carefully slipping from the bed to gather my clothes.
Thoughts swirled through my head as I crept into the hall and quietly dressed.
I glanced over my shoulder when I reached the elevator. The penthouse remained eerily silent as I pressed the call button. My pulse climbed, adrenaline firing through me as the moments passed—moments where the motor to the elevator never whirred to life.
I jabbed my finger against the button a few more times, clamping down the sense of hysteria rising within me when I realized it wasn’t working.
This was the only way out of this apartment. I was trapped.
“Trying to run away?”
The deep bass of Tobias’s voice startled me, and I spun around to find him looming in the dark hallway. Naked, his semi-hard dick pointing at me.
The blood flow shifted to my cock at the sight of him. “Maybe.” I clenched my jaw. “Seems I’m trapped though.”
“Regardless of whether or not you could get on that elevator, you’re trapped.”
My gaze dropped to the floor on a nod, defeat weighing on my shoulders. There was no way out of this bar acceptance. His footsteps retreated, and I resigned myself to following him back to his room and into his bed.
We lay in silence, and soon enough, Tobias had drifted back to sleep. But I was still very much awake with the remnants of adrenaline refusing to fizzle out.
I stared at the high ceiling, listening to Tobias’s heavy breaths, and all I could think about was how much heavier they’d be when he finally fucked me.
I could almost feel the phantom heat on the back of my neck. Fuck. I couldn’t help but grip my cock, stroking over the length as I imagined Tobias taking me. He was basically keeping me captive in his bed, and yet here I was, jerking off right next to him.
Within seconds, heat drowned my body. Tossing the covers off, I fought to remain silent as I came on my stomach with a low grunt.
My body relaxed into the soft mattress just as Tobias rolled onto his side and swiped a finger through the pool of come.
“We’ll make such the perfect pair,” he said, before sucking the taste of me from his skin.
Fuck, I wanted to lick my come from his lips, and that was problematic…
8
Preston
The next afternoon, we sat in some fancy ass, Michelin star restaurant for lunch. It was the kind of place my father took his work colleagues to impress them, only to go home and bitch about the exorbitant prices and tiny portion sizes.
Silence filled the meal just as it had filled this morning. The total lack of conversation was unnerving, and I downed my wine as Tobias cut into his steak.
“So we have a dilemma,” he finally said, dabbing a napkin to the corner of his mouth.
“More than the obvious?” Ergo, the dead body hanging over my head like a swinging axe wielded by none other than Tobias.
“You’ll be a suspect…”
I glared at him. I knew it was only a matter of time before the police asked more questions. Time I had until he interfered. “Well, if someone hadn’t handed them a fucking body…”
“Likewise, if someone hadn’t killed her…” One of his perfectly sculpted brows arched. The man infuriated me.
“If you’d just left her where she was, I wouldn’t be a damn suspect. She’d just be a runaway.”
He shot a disapproving frown at me before taking the last bite of his rare steak. “Somebody must take the blame. Her family deserves closure, Preston.”
How did he mange to paint me like the asshole when he was blackmailing me? I did kill her, but still... Not like it was deliberate. I hated the muted pinch of guilt that attempted to break through the fog of indifference surrounding me. “Don’t pretend you give a shit about her family, Tobias.”
He grinned over the rim of his wineglass, like there was some secret I wasn’t privy to. “I thought you liked her mother? The first time you met her at the Hot and Hot Fish Club, you told her she was lovely. Was that a lie, Preston?”