Flee (The Aurora Lockette Series, Book 1) (7 page)

“I’m the one who jumped on your lap,
remember?”

“You must really like beef,” he said,
gesturing at our plates. “If I had any idea you would react this
way, I would have taken you to steakhouse the first time we
met.”

He pulled me back into his arms, dissolving
all my concerns when his warm lips touched mine. The buzzing filled
my body, and I was in trouble. For a brief moment, only his arms
were keeping me on the chair.

His eyes flew open. “Are you okay? Did I do
something wrong?”

He hadn’t seen anything and I was now firmly
planted on the chair. I tried to give him a reassuring smile. “I
just couldn’t catch my breath there. I’m sorry. You can do that
whenever you like.”

“For a split second, you felt weightless in
my arms.” He rubbed his temples with his eyes closed. “I’m so sleep
deprived it’s not even funny.”

Shit. Super, stinky, double triple
shit.
“Um, bathroom.” I stood.

“What?” He dropped his hands from his face.
“You okay?”

“Yep, just need to go. Excuse me.” I fled the
room.

I put my hands on either side of the sink and
faced myself in the mirror. It was time for a reality check.

He was going to find out. It was only a
matter of time before I lost it in front of him. I should make an
excuse, walk out the door, and never see him again.

Even as I thought it, I knew I wouldn’t do
it. There was something with him I could not walk away from.

Bad decision, I knew. But it was done.

I returned to him. He looked at me with tense
eyes.

“Where were we?” I asked.

“You okay?”

“Yes. Are you?”

He took my hand and led me to his bed,
sitting on the edge. “I’m sorry. I’m so exhausted. I can’t even
function any more.”

I sat next to him. “I’ll get out of your hair
so you can sleep.”

“Stay,” he whispered. “No funny business. I
promise. I never thought I would say this, but I would rather sleep
than do anything else.”

I did, wearing his boxers and t-shirt,
snuggled against his chest.

“Clean up in aisle three, cleanup in aisle
three.” The annoying old-school twang was clear in the announcer’s
voice. I was standing in front of the canned goods, thinking about
dirty things I wanted to do to Gavyn instead of looking for the
low-sodium canned green beans on my list.

I’d spent the night in bed with him and had
the cute note he’d left on my pillow in the morning snug in my left
pocket to prove it. He’d fallen asleep right away, but that didn’t
stop me from thinking about it and him all night.

I glanced to my right. A very wiry man with
hair so blond it was almost white stood near the end of the aisle.
I wondered, for an instant, if he could tell what I was thinking.
Of course not.

I grabbed the green beans and shoved them
into my cart. I normally enjoyed grocery shopping, but it was much
more difficult with Troy’s restrictions and my restricted budget.
Too bad I was the only one who saw the results of my hard work.
Soon, though, maybe not. More dirty thoughts paraded through my
mind.

I finished my grocery shopping and dropped
them off at my apartment. I’d hurried to my door without a glance
at the trees. I felt the darkness, but I ignored it and kept
walking with my head held high. It was my new tactic: ignore bad
things and maybe they will go away.

My next stop was the bookstore. It was high
time I bought some reading material that didn’t involve torts, the
Uniform Commercial Code, or obscure English common law.

I parked in the parking lot of the largest
bookstore in town. It was tucked into the side of an uppity open
air shopping mall. It was a glossy, national chain store with huge
floor to ceiling windows expanding to the second floor.

I perused the fiction section. I loved
everything about books from the way they smelled to the little
worlds contained between their pages. Passing through the sci-fi
section, white-blond hair caught my eye.

It was distinct, that platinum hair color.
I’d seen it before, today, actually, at the grocery store.

He shifted as he re-shelved his book. It gave
me a chance to glimpse his features in profile. It was him.

I was being followed outright now. No trees
needed.

I put the book I was holding down with a
shaky hand. In a city of over a million, what were the chances?

The familiar buzzing sensation went through
my body as I went on high alert. I slowly walked out from the tall
row of books. I ducked behind a display shelf of new releases
lining the second floor until I was near the escalator. I stepped
onto it and waited to go down, not wanting to even make the noise
of walking down the metal surface.

As I descended to the first floor, I watched
him. He glanced in the direction of where I’d been standing, and
then scanned the second floor with a little anxiety in his face.
When he saw me descending, relief washed over his features.

That was the look he left me with.

As soon as I got to the first floor, I dumped
my selections on a nearby shelf, and took off like a rocket out the
front door. I almost ran into a woman with bright curly red hair.
“Pardon me,” I croaked as I shouldered past her and into the
sunlight.

Once I was back in my car, I hit the major
loop around the city and went north, instead of south, which was
the way home.

I tried to make note of the tiny cars in my
rearview mirror like I saw in detective movies, but in the late
afternoon traffic it wasn’t practical and I didn’t think my
junkmobile would survive another fender bender.

I got home just as the sun was descending
behind the hills in the north. The presence in the trees was quiet,
but definitely there.

I bolted my door, and put the chair back up
against it. I checked my cell phone to make sure it had a full
signal and dug pepper spray out of the recesses of my purse and set
it on the table.

I sat on the couch and stared at the black
T.V. screen. I couldn’t tell my mom because she would freak out,
and I didn’t want to go home and have whatever was going on follow
me to her house. That left me with no one to tell. I was trapped,
alone in my head.

At some point, I would have to take action
instead of pretending weird things were not happening to me, but
not today.

I poured a large glass of wine and pulled out
my school reading assignment for the following Monday. Thank God it
was Friday. Maybe if I got drunk enough tonight, I could sleep away
at least part of the weekend.

***

The ringing of my cell phone woke me up the
next morning. I answered without looking at the caller I.D.

“Yeah?”

“Will you let me in please?” Gavyn’s voice
came over the line.

I was shocked out of my sleepy state. “Oh!
Yeah, just a sec.”

I hung up the phone and darted out of bed
toward the bathroom. A quick glance in the mirror confirmed I
looked like absolute crap. I brushed my hair, used mouthwash, and
splashed my face with water. Thank God my nightgown was short and
cute. I glanced in the mirror again. There was marginal
improvement, but I still looked pretty bad.

I opened the door and he strode right in. He
was wearing khakis and a snug t-shirt which hugged his broad
shoulders. He had the usual leather strap around his wrist. Even
though I had spent a lot of time with him, his obnoxiously perfect
good looks always caught me by surprise. “Good morning. I’ve been
knocking at your door for a few minutes, but I figured you were
asleep.” He appraised me. “You look cute.”

“No, I don’t.” I looked down at my rumpled
gown. “What time is it?”

“10:00 a.m. and our lunch reservations are at
12:00. I’ll wait while you get ready.” He plopped down on my couch.
He removed the empty wineglass from the top of a pile of books,
picked one up, and flipped through it. I stared at him for a few
seconds before I understood he wasn’t going to leave.

I did my best to focus on a hot shower and
brushing my teeth, trying not to think of the gorgeous man sitting
ten feet away in the living room.

I stepped out of the shower dripping wet,
wrapped a towel around me securely, and walked out of the bathroom.
“What should I wear? What kind of place is this?”

He dropped the book he was holding. “How am I
supposed to answer your questions when you look like that?” His
British accent was stronger than normal.

I followed his eyes as they roamed over my
body. My wet towel was white, and now see through. Not a lot left
to the imagination.

Oops.

I stood in front of him, fiery tension
working its way through my body as he watched me with desperate,
hungry, eyes.

I cleared my throat. “Dress it is.” I forced
myself to step away from him. I would not jump his bones like a cat
in heat. Nope. Not me.

I came out of the bathroom in my sundress,
towel drying my hair.

Gavyn was waiting for me right outside the
bathroom door. He swept me up and carried me to the bed, gently
laying me down. He lay on top of me, propping himself up with his
arms to keep his full weight off of me.

“What were you saying?” His hand went up my
dress, gently caressing the outside of my thigh. His fingertips
danced down my leg and rested around my knee.

With one strong motion, he pulled my knee up,
wrapping my leg around his torso. His hardness pressed into me. My
breath hitched as I pushed back into him.

His soft lips traveled down my neck, into the
hollow of my throat. He moved my sundress strap with his fingertip,
stroking my skin as he did so. His mouth traveled oh so gently
across my collarbone.

I writhed under him, desperate to taste him,
to touch him.

He entwined his hands with mine and pushed
them to either side of my head. His lips were on my hungry
mouth.

My body exploded with a hollow, thirsty
longing for him. I wrapped my other leg around him, and arched my
back.

“Stop being such a gentleman, please,” I
breathed, tugging at the bottom of his shirt and pulling it over
his head, admiring his finely muscled shoulders and torso.

“As you wish,” he said, eyes burning.

He pushed himself into me, strong hands
roaming my body. My sundress fluttered to the floor, followed
quickly by my bra and panties.

His mouth was hot on mine, our bodies wrapped
together in heaving flesh on flesh. We moved together, travelling
higher and higher with a rough abandon. Then I was soaring, and I
was his, and he was mine.

He yelled my name as I contracted around
him.

I collapsed next to him. My thoughts
scattered in a thousand different directions as my body hummed with
pleasure.

“Wow,” he said.

“Wow,” I agreed.

We lay in bed for several minutes until our
breathing slowed. He propped himself on one elbow and absently
traced circles on my stomach with his finger.

I giggled and pulled up the sheet.

“No,” he said, pushing it back. “Please let
me enjoy the view.”

I rolled so I was facing him. “I’m
starving.”

“Oh, but I’m not done.” His hands slid down
my body to a place where they were much appreciated.

Eventually hunger overtook other urges.

I bounded out of bed, pulling my sundress on
in record time. I tried to get a handle on my messy but mostly dry
hair. By the time I was done, Gavyn was already dressed and
waiting. “Ready?”

“Yep. Where are we going anyways?”

“It’s a surprise.”

We walked into the parking lot, but he led me
over to a midnight blue luxury car.

“New ride?” I asked.

“It’s safer and,”—he bent down to whisper in
my ear—“a little sexier, no?”

“That,”—I turned my lips into his—“it
is.”

I settled into my seat and watched the pretty
hill-country terrain fly by. The Guadalupe River ran by the road.
Through the trees, the sun danced off the swiftly moving water.

We stopped in front of massive, Victorian
style home nestled against thick trees. Fountains dotted the huge
front yard. Multi-colored pebbled stones curved a walkway to the
front porch. Graceful white columns towered on the front of the
house. It was three floors, all bright sparkling white.

“Bed and breakfast?” I said.

“Yes. You like?”

“Haven’t you had enough today, young
man?”

He helped me out of the car. “No, but we’re
not getting a room here.”

Gavyn grabbed my hand and pulled me through
the lobby and out a rear exit. Outside, a beautiful restaurant was
built onto a large deck. Small round tables with white table
clothes shifting in the breeze filled the space. Each table was
topped by a bright aqua colored umbrella. It was perfect, and very
private.

He was watching me as we sat down. “This is
beautiful,” I told him. “Really. This is perfect.”

“Good. I hoped you would like it,” he
said.

The waiter brought over the menus. A single
dish cost more than I spent on groceries in a week. Reflexively, I
started scanning for the lowest priced items.

Gavyn was watching me closely. “Do you not
like French food?”

I laughed. Sometimes I forgot we lived in
different financial stratospheres. “No, the prices. Sticker
shock.”

“My treat. Please order whatever you’d
like.”

“Thanks. I appreciate it, but that’s not what
I’m worried about.”

“Then?”

“It’s these places I couldn’t otherwise
afford without you footing the bill all the time. I’m not entirely
comfortable with it. I’d like to be able to pay for some stuff,
too.”

“I understand. But if I take my girlfriend
out to a nice lunch, I want you to be able to accept it. I’ve never
had anyone to share this with.”

“Okay, but within reason, and you know, it
won’t hurt us to eat at normal people restaurants every once in a
while.”