Page 66 of The Caretaker
“With any luck, we can sort shit out on the drive into the city, and I can leave her on the curb in front of our… In front ofherhome, and beat you back here for dinner.”
“I bet you won’t.”
“Bet I won’t what?”
“Beat me back here,” I whispered. Noon tucked my hair behind my ear, his gaze knowing. If I had to resort to a childish bet to make sure he got back to Haley Cove as fast as he could, I’d do it. I didn’t want him lingering around her too long.
“What do I get if I win?” His question was a seductive purr.
“You get to have me in your favorite position,” I said, voice affected by the hand skirting my hip to cup my backside possessively.
An exaggerated gasp escaped his mouth. “You mean the one where you—”
“Mmhmm,” I said, stopping him before he embarrassed me with the details.
“And then your legs go—”
“That’s the one,” I cut in as his arms went wide in demonstration.
“And then your pretty little ass—”
“Yes!” I exclaimed, pinching his mouth shut and looking around to make sure the walls hadn’t picked up on what he was implying. “That one, you idiot.”
He peeled my fingers away. “And what do you get if you win?”
“Just make sure I don’t win, okay?”
“Deal,” he said, hugging me. “I’ll be waiting for you at the tavern in our favorite booth at the back.”
“We’ve only been there one time, which happened to be tonight, and we already have a favorite seat? And more importantly, you already want to go back?”
“Yes,” he said unapologetically. “I mean, I can always meet you at your old home—”
“No,” I said, not wanting my meetup with Patrick to end in violence. “I love that you call it my old home, though.”
“Because it is,” he said, swaying us from side to side, as if music only he could hear played. “Your home is here now. Your home is with me and Gavin.”
I squeezed him tight, quietly speaking my part of what had become our nightly ritual. “You belong to me.”
Noon lifted me off my feet, his words sounding like a prayer as his lips brushed the shell of my ear. “And you are mine.”
He made love to me repeatedly, only allowing us sporadic catnaps in between before making love to me in a number of ways again. I’d even been woken up to his thrusts before my mind had fully engaged.
He loved me. He wanted me. Only me. He’d drilled it into my mind and body all night as he did whatever he wanted to with me. I believed him. I did. I wanted to. But no amount of orgasmic bliss could remove the sense of foreboding competing for my attention.
The next evening I arrived at the tavern, and Noon wasn’t there. I refused to be seated until our “favorite booth” became available, because that’s what we’d agreed upon, and I didn’t want to tempt fate.
I waited and I called and I texted. And then I ordered our food and drinks after being told I’d need to give up the booth otherwise. Then I waited and called and texted a whole lot more,my gaze cemented to the front door. I waited so long that the manager had to politely tell me they were closing for the night, and that I had to leave. So then I waited in the parking lot before hurrying through the streets to get home because maybe Noon’s phone had died, and maybe we’d gotten our wires crossed. Maybe he was waiting for me on his favorite couch.
I blasted through the front door of the aged farmhouse, checking every room. He wasn’t there. And so I waited by the window for his truck headlights to come into view on the road. They never did. I waited until the sun rose, still calling and texting. He never came. He…he never came back.
Noon
Now
RECALLING THAT HEwas naked, Solace slid off the bed to disappear into the closet. He reemerged in a pair of loose sweats. “I want to show you something,” he said, tying the drawstring. I followed him out of the bedroom and down the hall. He piled his hair atop his head as he walked, securing the disheveled knot with the elastic band he kept around his wrist.
He turned the corner, stopping at the narrow set of stairs leading to the attic door. The place he’d said he kept Gavin’s things. He took a deep, bracing breath before glancing over his bare shoulder at me, then ascended the steps.
