Page 13 of A Monster Is Coming

I took a step toward her and she quickly held up her hands. “Okay, fine, it’s okay. It’s fine. I’ll get in the car.”

I suspected she was going to run away, but it would seem I didn’t have the first clue as to how Niamh was going to react. She walked toward me, slid past, and sat in the passenger seat of my car. This was progress.

I put the child lock on the door and slammed it closed. I wasn’t stupid, and of course, as I rounded the car, I watched her test the door handle. She was going to try and make her escape, just as I knew she would. It was good to know some of my instincts were right on point with Niamh.

Whistling to myself, I climbed into the driver’s side of the car, and started up the engine. My machine purred to life, and I began to pull out of the parking space and head onto the road, in the direction of Niamh’s apartment building.

I hadn’t rented an apartment in a shitty part of town. There were some things I refused to do. Instead, I had purchased a house in not the best part of town, but a decent street that had kids playing out in their front yard. I would blend. There were several men who were bachelors living on the street. It was a nice family location, which was one of the reasons I got it. I would lie to Niamh and say I rented it from a friend.

There were some creature comforts I would take with me. During the whole drive, Niamh didn’t speak at all, but I knew her game. She was trying to keep things as distant between us as possible. I could play that game. It would only be a matter of time before she talked to me.

****

Niamh

One Week Later

I expected Peter to get bored.

Instead, the lessons at the gym were every day, except Sundays when the gym was closed. Not only were we now working on my swimming, Peter had also opted for different exercise strategies. I thought he was going to get me on the treadmill or doing weights, or other machine-based routines.

Instead, we had to do stretches, and work out muscles. Before we went to the pool, he got me on the mat, working on my core, doing some stretches and yoga poses. My body was not designed to do any of these, but he wouldn’t take us straight to the pool.

One hour with close contact—him touching different parts of my body, showing me how to do each pose so I didn’t hurt myself. Then we did an hour in the pool, followed by a thirty-minute cooldown session back on the mats.

Peter was always there.

Close to me.

Six days a week.

That wasn’t all. I intended to keep my distance, which should have worked, but didn’t. He would wait for me because Peter had volunteered to walk me to work. Yep, every day, Monday through Saturday. I also happened to have Sunday off work, not that I did a lot with my time.

Then, to top it all off, after work, Peter waited for me. He would drive me home. So far, for the past week, I had been able to keep silent. No small talk. No risk of giving away little secrets I wanted to stay hidden.

My only reprieve from all things Peter were the hours I worked, and when I went home to sleep. Unless my traitorous sleep ignored my request, and made me think about Peter.

I didn’t like any of this.

I totally got that Peter was an attractive man, but I’d never been put in a position like this. I’d never been close to any man. Not even the men my father brought around. Sometimes he got my mother to entertain them. There were times I truly felt my father loved the power he held over my mother. The fact he could get her to do anything he wanted with a simple click of his fingers. It was a power play to him, one he thoroughly enjoyed, and annoyed me.

Ignoring the thoughts of my parents, I stretched my arms out in front of me, drawing my ass back and then flopped down on the mat, all too aware of Peter’s hands at the base of my back.

“That’s it,” he said. “Slowly, remove the tension.”

There was no way I was removing any kind of tension. My whole entire body was tense, my core was tense.

His fingers massaged areas I wasn’t used to being touched, and as he pushed up the shirt I wore, I remembered the scars on my back. Quickly, I moved, pulled away from him, and spun around on the carpet.

“I’ve got to get to work,” I said.

We’d already done a lot of stretches, and time in the pool. This was our cooldown session where I only had a shirt and the bathing suit to provide protection for myself. Not that I thought I was in any kind of danger from Peter.

All my life I’d been told I wasn’t the kind of woman men wanted. There was no desire, no passion, no yearning, nothing. I was perfectly okay with that. I didn’t know how long I would be in Pickle Quest. It wasn’t that I had a solid plan. Far from it. The only plan I had was to keep moving. Not to get too comfortable in one place and not to build bridges, or even chance a relationship.

My father could use it against whoever decided to be in a relationship with me, and I would not let that happen. This was my problem, and I was going to deal with it in my way.

“I told you, you’ve got to cooldown. It’s good for the muscles.”

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