My Pulse

Chapter 2: Cian O'Shea

It wouldn't be long until those fuckers got what was coming to them, I thought, as dangerous desire rushed through my body. A wicked smile slowly took over my face. It was all thanks to her.

It'd been over a month since I started following her, and I'd been looking forward to meeting her in person. The way our eyes locked in that café, however, was another story. That was exhilarating, and I had never felt anything like it before.

It was like our souls locked onto one another, and it had been almost impossible to get up out of my chair. I'll admit I never imagined that I would actually get attached to this girl, but over the weeks, she had grown on me.

I found her intriguing and saw interest in everything she did. It floored me to find out that she was not a princess in any sense of the word. I had found her mostly around men, joking like she was one of the guys. Even more unusual, she seemed more comfortable with them than her girlfriends.

I had caught her playing pool and darts late at the bar, and she knew how to drink a pint. I once watched her beat everyone in the bar at billiards, and it had taken everything in me not to walk up and challenge her on the spot.

My train of thought broke when I heard her erupt into laughter with—wait, who was this now? Rory was on her couch in her apartment. I had been less than pleased that Quinn might have known I was watching her, as she invited her friend to stay with her. For how long? Who knew, possibly indefinitely. So incredibly inconvenient.

Rory was no threat to me whatsoever, but I was bothered by another male sleeping in her home. I stared with narrowing eyes toward my laptop. I had cameras installed in Quinn's apartment for a little over a month by then, and since then, I learned many things about her.

Like the way she would always snack after she brushed her teeth or how she sang to the famous tune "Galway Girl" while she cooked. She loved to dance around her kitchen in underwear, an old t-shirt, or a hoodie. I was pretty sure my princess didn't even own a dress.

I loved the way she slept the most, though. It was the most peaceful thing I had ever seen. That night, her dark brown hair, which was almost black, I realized, curled softly over her pillow. Quinn was wrapped around a large body pillow in the middle of her bed. Her lips were parted, and she was—what was this?

My thoughts shifted as I noticed her twitch in my feed and turn over restlessly. "Mhm Mhm," she muttered sleepily as she grasped her pillow, pulling it tighter toward her body.

"Wait," she said unmistakably. "Wait," she repeated as she rolled over again with an exasperated sleepy huff. I stared at the camera with vigilance, determined to figure out what she had been dreaming about that made her so unsettled.

She never moved during the night. Quinn amazed me with her ability to sleep. It was like her own personal superpower. The second her head hit the pillow, it was lights out, and her angelic features were painted with an expression of sleepy wonder.

Quinn was so peaceful that when I started watching her, it took everything in me not to break into her apartment to check if she was breathing.

That night, I couldn't escape the look she gave me when I softly ran my hand down her cheek. It was a rush to touch her finally. To be so close to her, it was almost torture not to steal her away right then and there.

I had to be patient, though, to win the long race, and I intended to do so. Quinn would soon be mine.

My eyes darted back to the monitor in shock as Quinn had woken up in a panic, sitting up straight and cussing loudly into the dark room.

She rolled over to turn the bedside lamp on and had swiftly gotten out of bed to go into the bathroom. Quinn hadn't been in the bathroom long before she walked out to turn the light on in the kitchen. She opened the fridge, pulled out the remaining piece of pizza, and bit into it while starting the electric tea kettle.