The Running Series Complete Collection: 3-Book Set plus Bonus Novella (36 page)

“I put on the movie ‘9 ½ Weeks’.  Have you ever seen it?” he asks.

“No, I haven’t.  I’ve heard of it, but I don’t really know much about it.”

“I’m glad you never saw it.  I think you’re going to enjoy it.”  He whispers in my ear. 

Without much difficulty, I get Evan to sit on the floor, leaning back against me so I can give him a massage as we watch the movie.  I love to feel my hands on his broad shoulders, massaging his muscles and enjoying the closeness.  He shudders beneath my touch when I gently brush his skin with my fingernails.  Watching him respond to my simple touch is addictive.

As I reach down to gently stroke his lower back, my hair sweeps across his skin.  He lets out a soft moan as my hair tickles and teases his back.  In his deep, sexy voice, he utters a simple command, “Don’t ever cut your hair.  Promise me you’ll keep it long for me.”

After promising him what he wants, I begin to massage his scalp, running my finger through his thick hair, gently pulling and twisting.  He closes his eyes and allows me to tend to him.

I have completely forgotten about the movie until Evan gets up to rejoin me on the couch.  He sits behind me, wrapping his legs around mine.  As my focus returns to the film, Kim Basinger is doing a seductive dance in a nightie.  The lighting, music, and choreography create a beautifully sexy scene.  When Kim completely disrobes and continues her erotic seduction outdoors on their balcony, I get an idea.

Slowly, I slip out of Evan’s hold, slide down the couch and begin to get off the sofa.  “Oh, no you don’t,” Evan chastises me.  “I know what you’re up to, and if you think I’m letting you out on my deck dressed like that, you’re insane.”  He grabs me by the hips and drags me back to join him.  “Get back here.  I’m not done with you yet.”

Now it’s my turn, and Evan is a very attentive partner.  He knows how much I like to feel his stubble across my skin.  He brushes my long hair in front of my shoulders, exposing my shoulders and back.  Gently and slowly, he kisses and nibbles his way from shoulder to shoulder, punctuating his caresses with the tingling sensation of his scruff. 

Evan pauses to take a drink, leaving my nerve endings on fire and desperate for more attention.  When he returns and places his lips on my spine, I am shocked by the sensation of freezing cold moisture.  Evan has an ice cube in his mouth and it is dripping icy-cold droplets that run down my spine.  I gasp loudly at this completely unexpected rush.  The difference in temperature heightens the pleasurable sensations dramatically.

I hear the crunch of ice in Evan’s mouth as he chews and swallows the object of my delightful torture.  “Watch the movie, baby.”

When I look up at the screen, Mickey Rourke is holding a cup of ice cubes and Kim Basinger is blindfolded.  She willingly submits to the unbuttoning of her top, exposing her breasts.  With ice cube in hand, he rubs it along her skin and between her breasts, allowing it to melt and drip down her stomach. 

Evan takes my arm in his hand and ever so slightly runs his fingers up and down the inside of my forearm.  It sends shivers down my spine.

When it’s my turn again, I trace invisible letters along his back and make him guess which letters I’m drawing.  Each correct guess is rewarded with a kiss.  Each wrong guess is also rewarded with a kiss.  It’s a game without any losers.

After over an hour of playtime, Evan turns off the movie and we retreat to his room to reenact some of our favorite scenes.  He’s right about one thing, I really did enjoy this movie!

W
e wake up wrapped in each other’s arms.  Our legs are entwined together and it seems that even in our sleep, we cannot separate from one another.  I don’t know how I will ever be able to sleep alone again.

Over breakfast, we discuss our plans for the day.  It’s my scheduled day off and Evan still wants to take me around to fill out job applications in local bakeries. 

We’ve been in a media blackout since Monday night.  Adam warned both of us to stay away from all social media sites for the time being.  The uncertainty is killing me.  I wish I knew exactly where we stood.

As soon as we finish breakfast, Evan calls Adam to come over.  My stomach is in knots.  This is a make or break moment for both of us.  We have about an hour before Adam arrives, so I try to calm my nerves with a long, hot shower while Evan goes up to the gym to work out.

Since I’m not home, my clothing options are limited to what I’ve brought with me.  I look through the bag from Saks, and my brand new Diesel jeans aren’t there.  It’s empty.  I don’t see them anywhere in Evan’s room. 

I toss on one of Evan’s old t-shirts that I find in his dresser and I begin searching for my jeans.  Evan comes down from his gym needing to shower and finds me looking through his dresser drawers.

“What are you looking for Little Miss Nosy?” Evan asks.

“I can’t find my new jeans.  Where did you hide them?”

“I didn’t hide them.  I put them away.  See?” 

He takes me by the hand and walks me over to his walk-in closet.  I’m perplexed.  All his clothes are tightly packed on the left side of his closet.  The right side is nearly empty.  The shelves and racks are bare, except for my lone pair of jeans folded neatly on a shelf and my new red dress, hanging alone.

“Juliette, I cleared out one side of my closet for you yesterday.  I want you to keep some of your things here.”

I’m not going to over think this.  From a strictly logical point of view, it makes sense.  If I’m going to be spending more nights here, I need to have clean clothes to change into.

“There’s only one problem,” I tell him.

“Oh?  What’s that?”

“I’m a lefty.  Can we switch sides?”

While Evan showers, I finish getting ready.  My new jeans feel amazing, especially because I’m wearing Evan’s t-shirt.  I put on some lip-gloss, brush my teeth, and I’m ready to greet the day and welcome whatever news Adam has to share.

As I’m waiting in the kitchen, I open up Evan’s laptop to check my e-mail.  I’m careful to avoid Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.  After only one sign in attempt, a message pops up on the screen.  My account has been locked due to too many failed login attempts.  I don’t remember checking my mail in the last two days.  In order to unlock it, I have to go through a series of security questions.  Once I’m in, my inbox is full of MAILER-DAEMON rejection notices for mail that I know I never sent.  When I check my sent folder, it’s empty.  So are my contacts. Erased.  Gone.  Someone hacked into my e-mail and intentionally locked it when they were done.  Unbelievable.  Is it a coincidence or another gift from my unwanted friend?

I need to find out more, but first things first.

Adam arrives just as Evan finishes up.  He looks so much better than the last time I saw him.  Just twenty-four hours ago, Adam had spent the entire night investigating for us without any sleep.  Today, he looks well rested and relaxed.  Seeing him like that gives me an immediate sense of relief.

“Evan, you and Jette were absolutely perfect yesterday.  As I was releasing information to the press, reports of you two being seen in public romantically were being fed to all the news outlets simultaneously,” Adam explains.

He goes on, “When I released a handful of pictures of the two of you, dozens more were uploaded to Instagram from people who spotted you guys out yesterday.  Then there’s the live coverage of last night’s game.  It was nearly perfect.” 

“Nearly perfect?  What does that mean, exactly?” Evan asks.

“Averee.  She’s the last person I wanted to show up at the game,” he confesses.

“That makes two of us,” I mumble.

“Well, you both handled it well.  Let’s move past that speed bump.  The rest of it went exactly as planned.”

Adam continues, “When I released a police report that shows how you stepped in to stop an assault on your girlfriend before things escalated tragically, the Suit’s ex-girlfriend was releasing a statement about how he got physically aggressive with her, too.”

Evan asks the question that’s on my mind, too.  “Who found her and got her to talk?  I doubt she did this on a whim.”

Adam explains, “I sent a female intern from the office to talk with her and convince her to speak with a responsible reporter.  It was surprisingly easy to get her to talk.”

“How about print and air time?  Are we getting much attention?” Evan wants to know.

“Tons, and it’s all very positive.  Everyone loves seeing you two together,” Adam adds.

“I thought his female fans would absolutely hate me.  This is a big surprise,” I tell the boys.

Evan just shakes his head, clearly uncomfortable with the thought of having adoring female fans.

Adam seems to have an opinion about that.  “I think it gives all of them hope.  Jette, if you could get one of the gods to notice you and fly back down to Earth for you, then maybe they can, too.”

“God?  Seriously?  Adam, get real.  I broke someone’s nose in a bar fight.  Doesn’t anyone care about that?” Evan asks.

“Actually, most of the reports are praising you for your restraint.  You could have easily beaten the crap out of the Suit, but you didn’t.  Someone at the bar got pictures of you grabbing Jette, clearly distraught and holding onto her.  You’re a real-life Knight in Shining Armor.”

“How does the front office see things, Adam?” Evan asks.

“The same.  They’re not willing to speak out publicly, but off the record, they all feel you reacted appropriately and with control,” Adam gladly shares.

“See, baby, I told you there was nothing to worry about!”  Evan proclaims. 

I am so relieved.  I can’t resist the urge to grab Adam and give him a big kiss.  He looks at Evan to check his reaction, but Evan just shrugs his shoulders and joins us, giving Adam a big bear hug.  These two are more like brothers than just friends or coworkers.

“Evan, let’s take Adam out to dinner tonight to celebrate.  There’s a Springsteen cover band playing at the Stone Pony tonight.  Let’s make a night of it.  Please?”  I would love to go out with some friends tonight.

“Great idea.  Adam, what do you think?”

“Hell yeah!  I’ve never been to the Stone Pony.”

We spend a few relaxing minutes talking about the game last night.  Then Evan tells Adam he needs to contact Joey Griffin’s producers to schedule an appearance.  I suspect a lot of people are going to want five minutes with Evan right now.  Adam’s phone will be ringing a lot in the next few days.

I hate to spoil the moment, but I have to say something about my e-mail to the boys now.

“Hey guys, I think my e-mail got hacked.  Do you know if it’s possible to find out who broke into my Gmail account?  It might be a virus or a trojan, but I think it was intentional.”  Both men stop talking and give me their full attention.

Adam wants to know what computer I used to check my mail.  When I tell him I used Evan’s laptop, the two of them look at each other with a look that tells me they know something.

“Tell me what you’re thinking.” I demand.

“Juliette, Adam returned my laptop to me yesterday while we were out.  The tech department at the front office reimaged it with the most updated firewalls and spyware.  There’s no way this laptop was hacked into last night by a trojan, virus, or a worm.”  That’s what I was afraid of. I didn’t think it was random.

“Mac, think about it.  This is good.  If Jette’s stalker is the one who hacked into her Gmail account, then we may be able to track him using his IP address.” Adam explains.  “There are some guys at work who are pretty good at this stuff.  Mind if I let them see what they can find?”

This may hopefully end up being the turning point we need to find out who is behind all the malicious invasions of my privacy. 

Since Adam will be going into the office later on my behalf, the boys start talking shop.  It seems like the perfect opportunity for me to slip out onto the deck and get a little sun.

It’s peaceful here.  The early morning fishermen and beach joggers have all left and gone home.  Most of Evan’s neighbors don’t live here full time, creating a quiet solitude. I sit with my second cup of coffee and take in the sight of seagulls peacefully chirping as they soar overhead, singing and searching for food.

The salty air blowing on my face feels wet and cool as it caresses my skin.  Looking out, I see nothing but the deep blue sea, stretching far and wide. I completely understand what drew Evan to buy this home.  Sitting here surrounded by such grandeur makes all things seem possible.

I glance down at my phone and for the first time in nearly twenty-four hours, I turn it back on.  Immediately, it lights up with dozens of missed messages and calls, most of which are from Reese and Sara. 

Despite the early hour, I take my chances and call Reese.  “Jette, I’m so glad you called.  I’d ask you what’s new, but I already know the answer.”  It doesn’t sound like I woke her.

“I got all your texts, so I guess you saw some of the coverage.  Tell me the truth.  What kind of impression did you get of Evan after everything you saw and heard?”  I completely trust Adam, but I’d really like to get the opinion of someone fairly removed from the situation.