Page 58 of Bake the Town Red

His laugh rumbled in his chest. Reached the most inner parts of me. He had the loveliest, most carefree laugh I’d ever heard in my life.

“I love you, Dahlia.” Stubborn Tyler was strong. His words kept me in place despite the incessant need to crawl down and hug him. “Just not like that.”

My frustration grew tenfold.

“I want you.” Angry tears flooded my eyes. Rolled down my cheeks. Each word was a furious sob. “Is it the scars? That’s why you’re making up this bullshit excuse about my age?”

“It’s not a bullshit excuse.” His eyes softened, as did his voice. “My brain isn’t wired that way. I’m not into kids.”

“You love someone else.” I bared my teeth. Readying myself for murder.

“There’s no one. There hasn’t been anyone.” The honesty in his voice didn’t soothe me. It just brought more and more tears. Ones I couldn’t explain. “I do love you. That has to be enough.”

You’re mine, you’re mine. Please say I’m yours.

Silence.

“Tyler.” Sniff. Sob. Sniff. Sob. “Please.”

“Little savage.” He got up, pulled the blankets over my shoulders. “Try to get some sleep. Tomorrow will be better.”

It wasn’t. The days after weren’t great, either. Even when I took over my parents’ old shop. Even though Tyler hasn’t dated since.

I want him to be mine.

And I’m getting him.

I should be worried that a nice neighbor in this nice building might report me for climbing the fire escape in broad daylight.

That a particularly too-nice-neighbor would use it as an excuse to talk tomyTyler.

Pretty, happy, smiling Rita. The flirty neighbor Ty ignores like she doesn’t exist. She never sees me when I’m up here. Never sees me when I’m hiding in the shadows of an alleyway across the street watching her trying and failing to flirt with him.

She hasn’t, and she won’t. She won’t see much of anything soon.

My nails bite into the inside of my palms. The tattoo on my neck burns.

Restraining the surge of jealousy I have toward her doesn’t come easy. But if I scream or punch the brick wall next to Tyler’s window, he’ll know I’m here. He’ll scold me for risking my life. He’ll order me to leave.

Or worse.

He’ll lick me, hold off an orgasm, and send me away. Make me angry just so I won’t return. So we won’t be together and another tragic accident will rip us apart.

I wish I could resent him for it. As always, I can’t. Tyler’s not selfish. That day we lost everything—the day I lost Tyler—he saidI’ll never let anything happen to you. This ends here.

He’s keeping our lives separate for my sake.

His slightly unhinged psyche orders him to do so.

I don’t have to like it to accept it. I don’t have to like it to come here.

My body cools from the walk as I sit there, waiting for him to show up in the living room. I hug my arms to my body, rubbing my forearms. Small movements I allow myself, other than tilting my head to peek inside the apartment.

There he is. My stalker. The man who invaded my home and heart.

The love of my life. The man who gave me the best morning ever. Almost. The one thing that’d top his kinky note would have been to actually have him in my bed.

Oh, shush, Dahlia.

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