Page 45 of How to Flirt with a Hellhound
Holy. Fucking. Shit.
Goosebumps rose on my arms and I gave a shiver. “Cameras?” I squeaked out.
“And listening devices,” Dex added, gripping me even more tightly.
It kind of felt like he was all that was holding me together, and I heard him making soft shushing sounds as he picked me up and carried me over to the couch, settling me on his lap. I was shaking, and I couldn’t seem to stop.
It had definitely been my stalker. I mean, I thought that, but knowing it… And he had tried to listen and watch me. I would have taken those flowers into my home. He would have seen and heard… I gave another tremble, and Dex bit down on my neck. The slight sting stopped my spiral of panic and grounded me, although I still felt all kinds of fucked up.
“I’ll take care of you,” he murmured when his teeth let go.
“He knows where I live,” I whispered.
“Yes,” Dex answered simply. “I’ll protect you.”
He held me as my thoughts raced, just letting me process everything. I probably needed to call the police. I needed to tell Amy, too, and see if he had sent anything else. I loved my house, and I always felt safe there, but now… It didn’t feel safe anymore.
“It’s my home,” I muttered, and I knew that probably didn’t make any sense to Dex.
“I’ll stay with you,” Dex answered. “Unless you’d rather stay here.”
“Ok,” I answered, adding, “I have to work, though.”
“That’s ok. You can work here, someone can stay with you, or you can be home and we’ll keep an eye out. We have cameras and lights outside.”
I sighed in relief. Dex would take care of it. We snuggled for a moment longer and I got myself under control, and then something occurred to me.
“Cameras outside?” I asked, pulling back and looking at Dex.
He looked almost… sheepish. He rubbed the back of his neck, answering, “Yeah. The lights are cameras. I didn’t want anyone sneaking up on you.”
Ok. That was… sort of sweet. Sort of stalkerish, but he was my boyfriend, so that made it ok, right?
“I didn’t put any in your house,” Dex added, looking proud of himself.
Did that mean he’d thought of it and decided not to? Well, at least he had some boundaries, I supposed. I didn’t stop to question what it meant that I didn’t think I’d mind so much if Dex was watching me in my house. That was sort of sexy… in theory anyway.
“Don’t worry, Toby. We’re going to take care of it,” Dex added, holding me tightly.
I just relaxed against him, here for the cuddles. I had work to do, and phone calls to make, and I still felt super icky thinking about the stalker apparently knowing where I lived, but Dex was going to take care of me.
I trusted him to do just that.
Chapter 18
Dexter
Toby hadn’t seemed to mind when I’d said I’d stay with him, which was good. I didn’t think I would be able to stay away. I walked him back to his house and he called Amy, but there hadn’t been any more messages from the guy. When he talked about calling the police, I let him know it was already handled.
I knew Jude would be calling Liam, and I’d call him myself to check in. At this point, we didn’t need the human authorities involved. We would take care of things.
I got Toby settled in with snacks and his computer, and he talked about his book and where he was in it. Apparently he was coming up to the end, and he needed his hero to be in a dire situation followed by a suitable punishment for the evil vampire villain after all that had been done to the witch character.
“It can’t be a quick death, you know?” Toby was saying.
“There’s torture, dismemberment, starvation…” I rattled off, thinking of different ways he could drag out this evil vampire’s death.
“I mean, torture, obviously, but I feel like I’m running out of ideas,” Toby said thoughtfully. “Dismemberment, fingernailremoval, and getting shot in the kneecap gets old after a while, you know?” he added.
