Under Pressure [IAD Agency] (Siren Publishing Classic)

into her in that single moment after the mind-blowing sex had ended. Then he had walked away from her and left her there in a melted puddle of emotions. She felt as if he had fucked her brains out and left her raw and exposed.
    Normal. For that short time she had felt normal again, for the first time in a year, and it scared her to death. Horrified now at the way she had run out on him, she sighed.
    None of this makes any sense.
    Bella turned off the water and dried herself off with an oversized towel. She groaned as she put on her robe, her body deliciously sore from being so thoroughly used. Walking back to the front door, she rechecked the lock on her door and the alarm as was habit.
    Mentally exhausted, she got ready for bed, turned the lights off, and padded over to her bed. She took off her robe and let it slide to the floor as she crawled into bed naked. Overcome by her emotional breakdown, Bella wanted to sleep for a year if possible.
    As she slipped under, silently she prayed, as she did every night, for a deep sleep where nightmares couldn’t reach her.

Chapter Five
     
    God, was she glad the day was finally over. Bella rode the elevator up to her suite in the hotel where she worked. She had moved into the hotel suite after she had started working there. It was one of the perks of her job.
    Exhausted from the long day of work, Bella wanted nothing more than a hot shower and sleep. Her sous chef Rick had been struck down and injured in a hit-and-run accident last night, so she was short-staffed and everything needed to be planned and ready for tomorrow night’s upcoming event.
    She loved catering for the weddings and other big events that the hotel hosted, knowing that a large part of why people booked the hotel was for her. Her talent, her food. Nothing gave her such pleasure like watching people enjoy what she created with her own two hands.
    She was nervous for the job tomorrow and worried about Rick. She had taken precious time to visit him in the hospital earlier and now she was ready to relax. She slipped the key card to her room into the slot and entered her room, putting her knife case on the table as she made her way through the sitting room. As any great chef, her personal knives were always with her and she never left them in the kitchen overnight.
    Taking off her chef’s jacket, she threw it on a chair as she walked to the bathroom, wanting to soak in the bathtub to ease her sore body, but decided against it since she had to get some sleep. She had a meeting with the Special Events coordinator early in the morning to finalize the plans for wedding being held that night. A sound from behind her had her spinning around, her eyes going wide with shocked horror as something slammed against the side of her head, and she felt herself fall as the world went black.
    Waking up, Bella’s head pounded with pain as she opened her eyes. A man sat next to her with one of her knives in his hand. Bella’s eyes were wide with a terrible recognition as the steel gleamed in the faint light. She had never seen this man before, but his eyes, those horrible eyes were glazed with insanity. Bella tried to get up, realizing that her hands were bound to the bed. Her scream was muffled by something he had tied over her mouth. Shocked and frightened, Bella fought against her restraints to no avail, struggling to break free of the ties, her wrists burning as she strained for release.
    “Hello, my beautiful little bitch,” he said almost pleasantly, looking down at her, a sick, twisted little smile on his handsome face. He moved the blade in his hand closer to the light, reflecting her own wild eyes back at her. From the moment he spoke, she knew who he was. He was a fan, a man who wrote her letters and called her, praising her talent. Now, she was at his mercy.
    “You didn’t think you could cheat on me and get away with it, did you? You”—he stroked the knife slowly across the skin of her neck over and over, making shallow cuts that had her screaming in pain—“are mine, all mine.”
    Bella could feel her wrists slick with blood as she tried to free herself from the ropes that held her. She couldn’t understand what he was saying. The pain was too intense.
    “You’re a no good, lying, cheating slut. I loved you. How could you do this to me?” What the fuck was he talking about? Terrified, Bella wondered what the hell was going on in his warped, demented mind.
    “You are nothing without me. No one. Oh,