Descent (Black Heart Romance presents Heaven & Hell)

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I had to walk for several blocks before I finally managed to hail a cab. My feet are killing me
after walking so far in heels and Marie started to get heavy after a while.
I’m exhausted in just about every way a person can be when I enter my apartment building. All I
want in the world is to lock myself in my apartment where I can imagine I’m safe, strip Calvin’s
clothing off my body, and take a scalding hot shower. I need to feed Marie first. I don’t even know if
she had dinner last night at Calvin’s.
What an ordeal all that was.
“Don’t worry,” I murmur, caressing Marie’s fur and placing a kiss on the nearest spot my face
can reach. “We only have to see him one more time, then we can put him behind us.”
That reassurance is definitely for me, not Marie. She’ll never see him again; it’s not like I’m
going to take her with me to whatever this last “date” is.
I cringe thinking of it as a date.
I try to ignore the unease because even though he assured me when I was trapped beneath his
spell that he wouldn’t kill me, he seems like the last man I should trust. Am I crazy to fulfill my
promise to see him one more time? I got away. Every instinct I has is screaming that if I managed to
get away from him this time, I should never go back.
There’s a cloud of uncertainty following that reasonable impulse, though.
What will he do if I don’t?
I tell myself he probably won’t do anything. A sane man wouldn’t, but I’m not convinced he’s
entirely sane. At his apartment I felt pulled into his crazy with him, but the sobriety of daylight and
distance away from him…
I don’t know.
I’m more confused than I’ve ever been, but he’s a pretty unorthodox man.
Attempting to shove every last thought of Calvin Cutler out of my mind so he doesn’t pollute my
personal space, I dig my keys out of my purse and round the corner to approach my apartment.
I stop dead a few feet away.
Questioning my sanity, I check the number hung there in gold, flaky paint.
Am I on the right floor?
I know I am, and the gold flaky numbers indicate this is, in fact, apartment 804, but… and I feel
nuts thinking this, but, that is not my door.
My steps slow, but I still move closer.