Rabbit swung his long coat on, his back to me. He hadn’t looked at me sitting very prettily on my seat. My eyebrows pulled down when he reached for his cane, then the car keys. Everything but my makeup and doll were in the car ready to go.
I smoothed down my dress and cleared my throat. Rabbit’s shoulders bunched. I got to my feet, feeling the heat from outside kiss the bare skin on my thighs. Then Rabbit turned. As he did, I flicked the hair hanging over my left shoulder away from my face.
Stormy eyes fixed on me. My gaze dropped to his tattooed hand gripping his rabbit-headed cane. If that poor rabbit on his cane had been alive, its skull would have been cracked open like an egg. Rabbit gripped his cane so hard his knuckles turned white.
Grabbing the hem of my dress at both sides, I swung from side to side, looking up at him from under my eyelashes. “Do you like it, Rabbit?”
His nostrils flared, as did his eyes. His teeth ran over his bottom lip, and I saw his naughty parts swell under his trousers. “Mmm,” I murmured and stepped closer to Rabbit. He stayed still, yet watched my every step. As I walked, his pupils dilated and my heart began to beat fast. A tingling sprouted between my thighs; I knew I’d pleased him with what I’d done.
“Do you like it, Rabbit?” I asked again and stopped right before him. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the way he watched me. Rabbit always watched me this way. He stared and stared and stared. Then his gaze would drop, and he would stare at the throbbing pulse in my neck. “Your vein . . .” he would whisper to me when he thought I was asleep. “Your vein . . . so thick . . . so full . . .”
My breath would hitch as I kept my eyes closed, playing possum. I’d keep them shut because I knew what would come next: his mouth, hovering just above that vein. His sharp thimble, like a feather, touching my pulse. Warm breath would fan my skin, shooting shivers down my spine. Then came the tip of his tongue. Its wet tip tracing the vein so completely, never straying from its path. Rabbit groaning low in his throat as he touched his shaft between his legs. As he stroked his hand back and forth, faster and faster, lapping at my throat until he stilled and choked on his breath.
I would spy through my almost-closed eyes as he sat back against the wall, his shaft hanging from his pants, large and long, making me squirm. I’d watch his eyes close and the sharp-tipped thimble dig into his skin. Dig into the vein in his wrist . . . right on the tattooed clock that looked just like the pocket watch on his vest. Blood would sprout and he would rub it along his lips. Plump flesh, red and raw; his tongue would run slowly and gently over the blood—tasting and . . . enjoying.
I wanted that blood to be mine.
I wanted him to taste me that way.
I wanted to meld with him like that—blood and blood.
Merged.
“Fucking Dolly,” Rabbit rasped, hauling me back to the here and now. I tried to calm my flushing cheeks. But his silver stare just made them hotter. He reached out, his hand freezing just before it touched my left eye. “Roman numerals,’ he whispered. I nodded, smiling even though my legs shook at the intensity of his glare.
“I drew them on for you.” I pointed to the clocks branding his skin. “We’re the Sick Fux. Tick tock, Rabbit. Now we match. Rabbit and Dolly . . . hunting the bad men on borrowed time.” I tapped the clock drawn in black eyeliner around my left eye. “Tick tock, Rabbit. Always and forever, tick tock.”
He didn’t speak after that, just stared. I wanted him to say something. Wanted him to touch my cheek, my lips, the clock around my eye. But when he didn’t, I felt my heart deflate.
“We need to go,” he said as he walked past me. I fought back tears as I gathered my makeup from the vanity. I placed my lipstick in my pocket and took hold of Alice’s hair. I closed the door to the motel and stepped into the bright sun, keeping my head down as I walked to the car. Alice’s cracked china face knocked into my leg with each step.
I climbed into the car. As Rabbit pulled out of the car park, I pressed play on the tape player. Just as one of my eighties songs began to play, Rabbit snapped his hand forward and slammed the music to silence. “No music today,” he said coldly, and I felt the icy chill from his dark tone seep into my bones. Even though the hot sun blazed down on my painted pink cheeks, I felt as though I had been plunged into a freezer.