Page 53 of Sunshine
“What does that mean?” I holler to his back. He turns, walking backward now.
“It means I plan on taming you.” His words make my heart flip. “Lily was right about a lot of things, but most of all that you’re worth the effort.”
I bite the inside of my lip, emotion welling in me like a geyser. So few people have ever made me feel worth it and this man who I’ve tormented just joined that very small club.
“Hey, I’m the Domme, remember?” I say, shoving my emotions back into their box.
“Good thing I don’t mind proving which one of us is in charge.”
As I watch him go, I wonder how much Gran influenced him in their short friendship. How much did she tell him about me? Was she orchestrating this before she died, knowing I’d be here? Knowing eventually Gary and I would be over, and I’d come home? That would have made me mad before, but now it feels like a hug from beyond.
I can almost hear her say,“See, Tessie Girl, I’m still stickin’ by you even from heaven. I said I’d never leave you and I meantit.”I can also hear the“I told ya so”about Gary, which makes me laugh.
“You sure did, Gran. You sure did.”
Chapter Sixteen
Case
I’m rock-hard as I leave Tessa, but I didn’t go there to get into her pants. I went there to check on her, make sure she was okay. I didn’t like her ex, and not just because he interrupted one hell of a kiss. Although that was annoying as fuck because if kissing was a sport, Ms. Tessa Harlow is the Olympic gold medal champion. And the way she tugged at me, a little desperate, and mewled needfully into my mouth…Christ!I don’t know if I’d ever been so turned on.
Shaking my head to clear the thought of Tessa’s sexiness, I focus back on her ex and the stalker.
Tessa’s ex seemed desperate, and my instincts from years of working as a cop and being undercover, had my alarm bells ringing.
I kept an eye on her, making several passes by the cottage to make sure she hadn’t let him in. I wanted to kick his ass for being a dick and pounding on her door when she clearly didn’t want him there, but that would definitely affect my custody case. So instead, after a half an hour of his menacing door-pounding, I slowed down, revved my bike, and gave him a threatening glare. That stopped the pounding, but he didn’t leave her porch. I hadto cut the engine and get off my bike before the message was fully received. He drove off leaving nothing but a cloud of dust and a bad taste in my mouth.
But the alarm bells I had over him were nothing compared to the bystander stalker.
The guy who was watching us earlier, possibly snapping pictures or taking video, had come back. Hid again to take more pictures of us while we were on the beach. I don’t know if the flash going off was an accident and he’d been watching us for a while or if it was the first picture. Admittedly, during our encounter, I thought it was lightning and since I had my hands full…of Tessa, it took me a few minutes to realize it wasn’t.
As soon as I realized, I knew I needed to get her home. So, the question now is, does Tessa have a stalker, or is it worse than that? Had someone from my past, someone from the Ransom, found me?
Am I putting her in danger?
After searching the beach and finding nothing but a flat spot where the man had been hunched in the tall grass, I don’t feel like being inside. I can’t stop wondering if he’s on Tessa’s property somewhere. I have a ton of energy I need to burn off to make sure I don’t bust down Tessa’s door. Mostly to make sure she’s safe, but also to finish what we started.
So, I jog up and down her road instead, making my presence known, but also attempting to burn away my agitation and sexual frustration. The animals are quiet in her barn, but if the guy’s been around a while maybe they were used to him.
I stop near Tessa’s driveway, my hot breath making clouds in the rapidly cooling evening air. There’s no way I can do thisall night. I’ve done twelve laps, which means I’ve passed Tessa’s twenty-four times, not once seeing anything suspicious, but noticing every single time that Tessa’s lights were still on.
Leaning on the cottage’s mailbox post, I slow my breathing. The mailbox isn’t a typical box, it’s rooster-shaped—of course—and looks just like Jake, but I know the mail carrier stopped using it well before Lily moved to Hospice. He’s used the door slot, so she didn’t have to walk down the drive. I tug on the little door, but it doesn’t open. Now it’s nothing but decoration.
I can see my house, a shell of what it will become, across the field, lit up by the security lights I installed to stop my naughty neighbor’s shenanigans. They did little to stop her, just like the cameras, but that seems to be because she wanted to be caught. I look back at Tessa’s and the Jake mailbox thinking a moment before jogging to my house.
An hour later I’ve set up a camera. It’s well hidden under the rooster’s ass and pointed at the cottage. It’s also far enough back to see the entire front of Tessa’s place and mine in the background. Thanks to Jeff and his security firm, the camera is a damn good one. The latest tech.
I link it to my phone, setting it up so I get motion alerts. With one last glance at Tessa’s brightly lit cottage, I head back to my trailer. I’ll tell her about the camera tomorrow, knowing it’ll likely be a fight. One she’s likely too tired for now. I do text her goodnight though. When she doesn’t respond, I wonder if she’s more freaked out than I thought about what happened and fell asleep with the lights on.
Sit-ups, push-ups, pull-ups, squats and burpees, I do it all until I’m even more worn out. The shower in the trailer is too small,and the thought of it makes me claustrophobic, so I opt for the outdoor shower. I’d rigged it up behind the trailer using skids and three walls made from an old privacy fence that I helped Mack take down from his new place. He didn’t like feeling boxed in especially when no one owned the adjacent properties anyway.
The shower is private, nowhere near the road and surrounded by trees so I have no worries about surprising anyone.
Except I do. And it’s the last person I expect to see at my trailer.
“You okay? Did you text me?” I ask, worried she’d messaged me for help while I was in the shower. Wrapping a small towel around my waist, I hold it there. Her eyes find mine as soon as I do, as if putting the towel on made her realize she was staring at my dick. My cock, much more aware of the attention, tents the towel.
“Yes, everything’s okay.” Her eyes, on mine, are unsure. Her mouth parts while she gathers a breath and then it’s clamped between her teeth. And I groan inwardly. I’d tasted those lips, and they are my new favorite delicacy.
