Page 27 of Cuffed By Your Love
I slid into a parking space two rows down, as if the pavement belonged to me. I cut the engine and let silence speak. Then, I stared, not aggressively, not loudly, just long enough for him to feel it in the back of his neck. That quiet pressure didn’t ask if you were guilty; it just knew.
He saw me. For a brief moment, we simply existed. Two men and one woman shared a moment without speaking. Despite the silence, everything that needed to be said was communicated.
He kept rolling. He didn’t stop or double back. He just drifted away with his tail tucked and his threats unresolved.
I paused for a moment before approaching her. I didn’t want to startle her. She already seemed like she’d been flinching since February.
Her shoulders were hunched up near her ears as if she was wearing trauma like a scarf. Her hands were locked at ten and two on the steering wheel. Her jaw was clenched. She was trying not to shatter out loud. I stepped slowly, making sure my shadow touched her before my voice did.
“You alright, Deputy Gorgeous?”
She jumped as if fear lived behind her sternum.
“Yeah.” Her answer was flat, automatic, a lie she probably told herself in the mirror every morning. “What makes you think I wouldn’t be?”
“’Cause your body looks like it’s waiting for something to go wrong.”
She blinked slowly, as if her brain needed extra time to process care when it wasn’t overshadowed by control.
“Does he always watch you like that?”
“Who?” she asked, deflecting.
“Don’t play dumb, ma. You’re too smart to pretend you didn’t see that Charger. You don’t have to explain. I just notice things: patterns, energy shifts, silence that doesn’t sit right.”
And then it hit me. Hard.
Moonlight.
That was the name on her phone yesterday at Crème & Chill. The text that rattled her so badly that she could barely sit still, the one that stole the light from her eyes.
I felt my fists curl at my sides.
“Tell me straight up,” I said quietly, but my voice carried the weight of command. “That text yesterday, the one that had you shaken… was that him? Was that Kam?”
Her lips parted, hesitation flickering across her face. Her silence was its own confession. She didn’t nod, didn’t say yes, but she didn’t need to. Her eyes, her breathing, the way her hands trembled against the steering wheel, told me everything.
I exhaled slowly, forcing my jaw to unclench. My protective side, my detective instincts, and my heart all collided in that moment.
“I don’t care how strong you are, Jonay. You ain’t supposed to carry this alone, not with somebody like him circling. You hear me?” My voice dropped lower, more intimate, my eyes locked on hers. “You don’t have to want me yet, gorgeous. But you gon’ have me in your corner regardless. Kam won’t touchyou. I’m damn sure not gon’ let him circle you like prey, not while I’m breathing.”
Her eyes widened, like she wasn’t used to being claimed in a way that sounded like safety instead of possession. She sighed and turned her face away from me, but not before I noticed how her eyes shimmered, not from tears, but from exhaustion. It was the type of tiredness that sleep couldn’t remedy, the kind that came from having to protect yourself all the time.
I softened my tone, reaching for her without even touching.
“You don’t need me. I know that. You’re built like a fortress.”
“So why are you here?”
“Because even fortresses need someone patrolling the outside gates making sure nobody gets too close, gorgeous.”
That hit her. She didn’t say thank you. She didn’t ask me to stay. But she looked down, shoulders sinking just slightly, like my words made her knees buckle inside where nobody could see. That was enough.
“You got my number,” I said, turning back toward my car. “You don’t gotta use it to flirt. Use it for safety. Anytime.”
I left. Just like that. No pressure, no power plays, no loud declarations, just presence. Sometimes, that was all a genuine person needed to offer.
I wasn’t there to cage her in fear, but to remind her of something she hadn’t felt in a long time, what it meant to have somebody watching, not to control her, but to protect her. If he was watching to confine her, then I was watching to end him before he ever got the chance.
