Endless Obsession – Episode 30
Episode 30
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⚘Poppy⚘
Sterling, my mystery man, is none other than Asher Knight—my boss! The man I’ve been sleeping with.
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With my heart in my throat and my breaths coming out in pants, I look back up at Asher, who looks like he’s preparing to spring from the chair and come after me. His hands are gripping the arms so tight, it wouldn’t surprise me if they splintered apart. His jaw ticks and his eyes are blazing with fire.
How could I have been so stupid? How could I have not known it was him? All the signs were there. The flowers started a couple months after I started working for him. Now that I look back, he’s always had his eyes on me, although I didn’t realize it at the time. Sterling claiming I would know who he was by next week. This extended weekend trip. Asher’s strange behavior lately.
Hurt, betrayal, and remorse slam into my chest, stealing every last bit of air I have in my lungs. Tears spring to my eyes, and I roughly wipe them away.
“How could you?” I whisper low, but I know Asher hears me when he winces. I ignore the pain I see flashing in his eyes. He has no right to feel pain. He was the one that tricked me, made me look like a desperate fool.
God! I’m such an idiot!
“Poppy—”
“No!” I yell, holding my hand up when he stands and takes a step toward me. “Don’t you fucking dare come near me!”
He stops in his tracks, but I can tell he’s barely restraining himself. His entire body is rigid and his hands are fisted at his sides. I clutch the sheet tighter to my chest and try to breathe through the suffocating pain in my chest.
“Beautiful, please let me—”
“No!” I say sharply. “You don’t ever get to call me that again, you son of a bitch! Ever!” My voice breaks, and I squeeze my eyes shut.
When I open them again, Asher’s closer to the bed. He holds out a hand, looking at me pleadingly. His eyes look desperate and the pain in them, so raw and bare, has my heart aching more. I’ve never seen him look so undone. He’s normally so strong and self-assured. The man in front of me is anything but. Still, I can’t let it get to me. He betrayed and played me.
I scramble back against the headboard, seeking a way to escape. I can’t let him touch me. He puts a knee to the bed, stopping my movements with his knee on the sheet. There’s no way I’m climbing from this bed naked. He’s seen enough of me already. Why in the hell do I have to sleep naked?
I close my eyes in mortification when I remember what I did with Sterling— Asher—at the window.
I tug, desperately trying to pull the sheet away, but it’s no use. His solid weight is there, and from the determined look in his eyes, he knows he’s trapped me and will take advantage of it.
“I never wanted to hurt you, Poppy,” he says, his voice hoarse with emotion. “That was never my plan.”
I shake my head and start pulling on the blanket frantically. I don’t want to hear this. I just want to get away from him. There’s no excuse for what he did. I thought we had something special, something real, but it wasn’t. I don’t know what it was to him, but it definitely wasn’t real. You don’t hurt someone you care about.
“The first time I saw you, you were at Maverick Holdings, waiting for an interview in the waiting area,” he explains, ignoring my attempts to get the sheet free. He doesn’t move closer, but doesn’t let me go, either. I’m stuck, and sure enough, he uses it.
“You were in a tight black skirt, light purple blouse, and fuck-me black heels. From the very second I saw you, you had me utterly enthralled with your beauty. I couldn’t look away. It was like I was seeing the other half of my soul. For the first time in my life, Poppy, my knees actually grew weak, and I felt flutters in my stomach. Me, a man, felt a thousand fucking butterflies in my stomach. Men don’t feel that kind of shit, Poppy.”
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He smiles wryly at me, but I hold my glare. There’s no way I can let him get to me.
“I told Colt not to hire you and to send you to my office. There was no way I was letting you go once I found you. From that moment forward, you were mine. I just couldn’t claim you yet.” He takes a deep breath before continuing. “I followed you that day back to your house and sat and watched you for over an hour.”
I gasp in shocked outrage, but he talks over it.
“You captivated my mind and took over my life. Every second of my day seemed to be consumed by you. You were all I thought about, dreamed about, and all I wanted. It drove me crazy the couple of days it took for you to call for an interview—completely fucking crazy. You were in here.” He taps the side of his head. “And in here.” He taps his chest, right over his heart. “I know that sounds mental, but there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it.”
“Stop!” I yell, throwing my hands over my ears and squeezing my eyes shut. I draw my knees up closer to my chest.
I can’t do this anymore. I can’t listen to him talk like this. I want him to leave so I can lick my wounds in private; so I can cry out my grief and try to pick up the tattered pieces of my heart. I don’t know what to do with his words because they seem so sincere. His eyes plead with me to believe him, and I do. I’m just not sure I like what he’s saying. On one hand, it seems creepy that he’s been so obsessed with me. But on the other, it makes my treacherous heart beat faster with the need to go to him.
When Asher touches my legs, my eyes snap open, and I jerk them back further. He stops for a moment, contemplating on whether or not to push, then makes his decision by quickly reaching forward again. Before I know what’s happening, I’m flat on my back with him hovering over me, the sheet thankfully still between us.
“What in the hell are you doing? Get off me!” I scream, pushing against his hard chest, digging my nails in. Satisfaction rushes through me when I see him wince. His jaw turns hard and he grabs my wrists and pins them over my head. I’m sure my glare is glacial.
“I know I hurt you, Beautiful,” he whispers. I open my mouth to yell at him again, but snap it shut when he leans down so close, only an inch separates our lips. “It fucking kills me knowing that. A huge weight sits right on my chest, knowing I did that to you. But you’re going to listen to what I have to say. I’m not finished with my story, and I’d rather get everything out in the open now so we can get back to the good parts.”
“It doesn’t matter anymore,” I grit out between clenched teeth. “Nothing you have to say matters. You lied to me, deceived me, and tricked me in to your bed. NOW GET! THE FUCK! OFF ME!”
My blood boils, and I yank my wrists as hard as I can and grunt as I buck my hips. I do this for several minutes, and it does me not one damn bit of good. The only thing I manage to do is make my wrists sore and, if the hard ridge against my belly is anything to go by, arouse the asshole.
I’m panting and out of breath when I sag back against the bed.
“Are you done?” he asks, looking amused. His enjoyment fades when he sees my grimace of pain, so he adjusts his hold on my wrists. Raw pain comes across his face when he looks up and sees what I’m sure are red marks.
“Fuck,” he mutters and brings my hands back down to inspect them. He lightly runs his fingers over the rawness he caused. “Will you please just listen to me?” he asks, his voice soft but husky, like he’s trying to hold his emotions in.
“I don’t really have a choice, do I?” I ask with bitterness.
“No. I need you to know everything,” he murmurs, still rubbing and looking at my sore wrists.
As much as I don’t want to hear it, it looks like he won’t give up until he tells me what he wants me to know. If hearing him out is the only way to get him to leave me alone, then that’s what I’ll do.
“Whatever. But can you get off of me first?”
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“No,” he replies simply, sending my hackles rising again. “You’re going to hate me even more by the time I get done talking. I’d rather stay here for when you freak out again so I can finish.”
Warning bells start going off in my head. What else could there be? He’s been practically stalking me for a year, been following me around for almost as long. Knew where I lived from the beginning. Orchestrated a job interview so I would work for him. Sending me flowers for months. Found out and then followed me on a date with a criminal. Slept with me while holding onto all these secrets, and has lied to me over and over again. How much worse can it get? I get the sense I haven’t even heard the half of it.
When I stay silent, he deems that as permission to continue. And what he says next rocks my world, flips it over, sends it spiraling, and completely freaks me the fuck out.
“When I left after following you that first day, I went straight home and did an extensive background check on you. My need to know more about you was unlike
anything I had ever felt before. It literally took over every part of my life. I went back to your house the next day because I needed to see you again. I needed to know if that need was just as strong as the day before. I sat out there for hours, waiting on you to come to a window or step outside. When you finally did, the need I felt the day before was obliterated by the need I felt right then.
It had only gotten stronger. I knew it wasn’t going to go away. It was uncontrollable.”
He stops for a minute, his eyes flickering back and forth between mine. He closes his eyes for a brief second, pulls in a lungful of air, and releases it at the same time he opens them again.
“A good friend of mine owns a security firm. I had him hook me up with high-tech cameras that were inconspicuous. When I went back to your house the next day, while you were out, I broke in and placed them in each room, except the bathroom.”
Before he even has the words all the way out, I’m frantically trying to get away from him again. I shove with all my strength against his hard chest, but he lays his weight there, pinning my arms to my sides with his legs.
“Stop it!” he demands. “You’re going to hurt yourself.”
“You sick bastard!” I shriek, trying everything I can to get away from him. He grunts when I pinch the ever-loving hell out of his side, but he just pushes my
hands so the tips of my fingers are shoved underneath the bottom of my thighs, affectively trapping me.
“Please,” he whispers brokenly and lays his forehead against mine. I turn my face away and his head lands against my temple. His breath fans over my ear as he breathes heavily. “Just let me finish, and I’ll let you go. I need you to know everything first.”
Knowing it’s useless, I lay there, not saying anything, feeling sick to my stomach knowing he’s seen me at my most vulnerable moments. Unbeknownst to me, for the last year, my privacy has been stripped from me. I feel violated and used.
“I also put a tracking device on your car.” I close my eyes and feel a tear fall down my cheek. He keeps his head against my temple as he continues. “I have no idea why I felt the need to watch you and to know where you were all the time, but it wasn’t something I could control. Maybe I was just doing it to protect you, because the thought of something happening to you had my heart feeling like it was being splintered into a million pieces. Maybe my mind is just warped, I don’t know. I just knew I had to watch you, had to see you any time I wanted. Had to know where you were at all times.
“I would stand at your bedroom window and watch you,” he whispers. Revulsion slithers in when I think about prancing around my room naked, unknowingly baring myself. “My day didn’t start until I saw you at work, or watched you from my computer or phone. Weekends were the worst for me because I was stuck watching you on camera. I had to wait until it got dark to watch you from your
window.” He stops again for a brief second. “Sometimes, I would break in and watch you sleep,” he murmurs.
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I jerk with that. My heart breaks further and the feeling of betrayal grows.
“As much as I wanted to, I never touched you beyond pushing your hair back from your face. I needed to see your face. You looked so peaceful and sweet while you slept.”
I start to tremble when a new emotion starts to form. An emotion I never thought I would feel toward Asher.
Fear.
Fear of what he could have possibly done to me while I slept. Fear of what he could do to me right now. I’m vulnerable and I know it. Asher could literally do anything he wanted to me right now and there’s not a damn thing I can do to stop it. And obviously, his limits are very low. He’s shown he’s willing to do just about anything. Does that include hurting me? I don’t want to think Asher is capable of that—he’s never hurt me physically before—but it’s obvious I don’t know him as well as I thought I did.
I tremble as I lay beneath him. He still has his forehead against my temple. Tears silently trickle from my eyes and onto the bed. The pain in my chest hurts worse than anything I’ve ever felt before. It hurts worse than when my mom and dad died. Worse than when I found Grant cheating on me. It feels like my heart will never be whole again.
I close my eyes and whimper when I feel Asher’s fingers on my cheek, wiping away my tears. His voice is hoarse when he continues to talk, breaking my heart and making me fear him all the more.
“The reason I’m so good at my job is because I used to hack into computers. I started when I was eight years old. I never came across a system I couldn’t break into. Anyway, I found the dating site you were using and broke into their database. All the dates you went on, I orchestrated because I knew they would turn out badly. To me, you were already mine, so I wasn’t going to allow some man to come in and take you away before I had a chance to move in myself.”
I flinch and try to hold back my sob, but it slips free. The more he reveals, the more pain I feel. I can’t handle much more before I completely break down. I focus my eyes on the vase of flowers on the nightstand and try to block out Asher’s voice, but he’s right there in my ear.
“The day you were supposed to meet Eric, I slashed his tires. When I found out you were having dinner with him, it took everything in me to not put my fist through his face,” he says softly, but there’s a hard edge to his voice. “I couldn’t let him near you like that. The stars in his eyes when he talked about you… fuck, Poppy. He’s been my closest friend for years, but I swear I wanted to hurt him. I wanted to knock every thought of you from his mind. I hated myself for thinking
like that, but I did. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do, nothing I wouldn’t give up to have you.”
“Please, stop. You’re scaring me,” I cry softly. My nails dig into my thighs, trying to distract myself from the pain that’s taking over the rest of my body. My breathing comes in harsh pants, and I feel like I’m hyperventilating.
“Oh, Beautiful, no,” he whispers, his own voice breaking. “Fearing me is the very last thing you should feel.” His lips whisper against my cheek. “I know all this sounds crazy and deluded. I know you have no reason to trust me, but I swear on everything I have, on everything I am, on my name and everything I stand for, I will never hurt you.”
He just doesn’t get it.
“But you already have,” I tell him softly. Turning to finally look at him, I let him see the fear and pain he’s caused me through my eyes. What shocks me is the pain I see reflected back at me. It’s so sharp you’d think I stabbed him in the heart with a dull blade. I hate how the look makes my chest feel even tighter.
“Please, let me go.” I hold his gaze, refusing to back down, begging him to see how much I need him to let me go. I’m at my breaking point. What he’s done has hurt me beyond anything I’ve ever felt before. He made me fall in love with a lie. He made me fall in love with him, knowing his sick obsession would be the end of me.
After searching my gaze for several moments, my breath catches at the fear I see enter his own eyes. I stiffen when he drops his head and lays a tender kiss against my lips. I keep mine sealed shut. Never again will I allow him to kiss me with the passion he’d shown me before. He doesn’t linger. He pulls his head back, then slowly lifts his body from mine. I lay there, not moving until he’s standing beside the bed. My hands automatically go to the sheet still covering my chest.
“I’ll let you go for now, but this isn’t over. I’ll give you time to come to grips with everything, but I’ll never give you up.” He runs both hands through his hair with agitation before finishing softly. “I can’t.”
With that, he turns and slowly makes his way to the door, opens it, and silently walks through. As soon as the door is closed, I run to it and click the lock, only to realize I’m still in his room. Making sure the sheet covers every part of my body, I unlock the door and bolt across the living room to my own bedroom, keeping my eyes away from him as I go. I lock the door behind me, go to my bed, curl into a ball on my side, and cry all the pain and heartache I feel out into my pillow.
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Tbc
Endless Obsession
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