Page 8 of Scorching Sienna

I move around my black pickup and open the door for her. She hesitates, looking me in the eye before dipping her head and climbing in—a beautiful butterfly captured in my web. I slam the door shut, smiling to myself.

This was easier than I thought. For months, I have been watching her and sending her notes and gifts. I knew everything about her—what she ate for breakfast, what movies she liked, and even her favorite toothpaste—the eco-friendly version she buys from an online shop. She donates to a charity monthly, pays her taxes on time, and doesn’t need this job based on her account balance. Boredom, perhaps?

Climbing in, I start the engine and look at her expectantly. The pulse in her throat is beating frantically, and she is rubbing her palms up and down her thighs. She is nervous.

“What?” she asks, when I sit there, staring at her.

“Where to?” I knew exactly how far her house was from here in miles. I had driven and walked it so many times that I could get there with my eyes closed.

“That way. I’m actually within walking distance from here.” Her hands wring out her gym towel nervously.

She blushes when I catch her looking at me. Fuck. She is magnificent.

Her body has changed since I met her at Nero’s. Her time in the ring with my best trainer, Ria, has created more muscle. But Sienna's shape meant that her curves remained no matter how much muscle she gained.

Her ass was firm and round. The pink spandex she wore cupped them in a way that had the regulars at the gym jacking off in thechanging room to thoughts of her. Coupled with the tight pink tank top and gym bra that hugged her c-cups, their delicious jiggling in the ring and on the treadmill further spank bank material.

I knew because I heard them talk. It was only Big Mike's warning that killing off our bread and butter would raise suspicion that they were even alive. God forbid they ever cancel their membership. All bets were off then.

Pulling my gaze from her face, I follow her directions the short distance to her house on the corner of a road. Her deaf elderly neighbor on one side suffered from the onset of amnesia while the businessman on the other side was barely there as he traveled internationally for work. The perfect neighbors for a fucking nut job like me.

I pull up in front of her house, killing the engine and climbing out.

This would be the first time coming into her house invited. While I thought the feeling would be like a voyeur who finally gets an invitation to join in and can't get his dick up any longer, it isn’t. Excitement buzzes under my skin.

Before I can get to her passenger door, she opens it.

“Don’t.” Her eyes widen with surprise, and another emotion flashes so quickly across her face that I can’t identify it.

“Don’t what?” she asks, schooling her features as she steps back.

“Don’t open your own car door when I am here, Sienna.” It’s a warning.

I expect anything but the smile that stretches across her face. Fuck. It floors me. It lights her whole face up and a bit of my black heart.

“You’re old-fashioned. That’s so lovely.”

You’re old-fashioned. That’s so lovely.

Her words repeat in my mind. Over and over.

Instead of feeling like a bucket of ice water being poured over my head, which I expect, as those words have never been used by anyoneever concerning me, a warm spot forms in the center of my chest.

Perplexed. Incredulous. Stunned. Words to describe how I feel and ones I don’t feel often. Definitely not this strange warm feeling in my fucking chest cavity where nothing is supposed to reside.

“We don’t have all day,” I grind out, trying to cover these newfeelingsthat she has managed to pull from my black depths in just—I look at my watch—seven minutes and thirty-two seconds of being in her company.

My tone does nothing to her. She smiles and then heads down the cobblestone path to her brightly painted, multicolored front door.

My eyes catch one of my latest gifts hanging from her porch. A wind chime made from different colored Capiz shells, the same colors as her pots. A rainbow for my rainbow. That is how I saw her. It was how she appeared to me in the club.

Red hair, orange and yellow earrings, green eyes, blue, violet, and indigo dress. My rainbow in the darkness.

She unlocks her door and tentatively invites me in.

If she only knew. I have seen everything. Been everywhere. The only unexplored area is the owner.

“Do you want something to drink?” We stand in her living room, her hands clasped in front of her as she looks at me expectantly.

---