The Fear Dissertation // A Jonathan Crane Dark Romance

40

The tarantula house is quiet, eerily so, and illuminated only by soft glow magenta lamps in the dark. Jonathan's silhouetted in red as he approaches, stalking as surely as the lions had in their enclosure, his gaze just as focused. Just as ready to devour.

I instinctively back away as my skin tingles and burns, until my back hits the glass viewing ports into the tarantula dens. A soft shriek escapes my lips as I turn around, heart beginning to thunder. But there are no spiders visible. They must be hiding, or sleeping, back where I cannot see.

Then Jonathan reaches from behind and brings his hand to my throat, his thumb gently stroking my jaw. "So beautiful when you're frightened," he murmurs.

"I'm not frightened," I try to lie.

He makes a small noise of amusement. Slides his hands down the length of my arms, goosebumps appearing across my skin, and presses two fingers to my inner wrist. Waits ten seconds.

"Your pulse tells me otherwise."

"Do you not think," I ask, "there might be another reason for my elevated heart rate? Namely, your hands all over me?"

He says, "I think," drawing out the last letter, "I'd like to see the effects of your arousal and fear together."

"If you make me touch a tarantula again, I'll be the one flicking abdominal hairs."

"That makes no sense, Sienna."

I scowl. "I'll find a way."

But he turns me around, forces me to look into the glass ports, our reflection lightly mirrored in the dim light as he brings his hand to my throat again and breathes into my ear.

"I don't want them touching you. I want to be the only one who gets to touch you."

His fingers trail down, past my collarbone, slipping beneath my shirt. I gasp softly.

"I don't know that the spiders consented to watching this," I say.

"You think our presence would be enough to stop them?"

He rolls me between his fingers and it lightly stings, travelling through me, my head tipped back as he brings his lips to my neck.

"You continue to astonish me," he murmurs, unbuttoning my jeans and dragging the zipper down. "The way you overcome fear."

His hand slides into my underwear and my legs threaten to shake as he finds my clit, easily dragging his fingertips across it in moderate succession, while I try to remember how to breathe.

I ask, "You're really going to fuck me in front of all these spiders?"

He turns my head and kisses me on the mouth from behind, then his lips smile over mine. "No. I have a better idea."

And then he pulls me round and pins me against the wall with his hips, so hard I worry for a moment the glass might have shattered, but I don't have time to check before he's parting my lips with his tongue and groaning into my mouth and tearing every piece of clothing off my body. The cool air hits my sensitive skin and I gasp, and when Jonathan rubs his fingers over my clit again, my mind doesn't seem nearly concerned enough about the fact I'm naked in a room full of tarantulas.

And then, cruelly, smirking, Jonathan pulls away. "You want to hear my idea?"

My eyelids flutter as I try to focus. "Okay."

He says, "You're going to stand here, naked, until you come."

"Wh-what?"

"And you'd better hurry. Doors open in ten minutes."