Brutally Beautiful(45)

On the third night, the brandy slid across the top of my table and her eyes fluttered down to mine. “A sketchy black truck has been seen everywhere I’ve been for the past three days. Intense steel-grey eyes staring me down and peeking in my windows. You’re the worst stalker I’ve ever met. What are you going to do now? Ask me to help you find your lost puppy? Offer me some candy and shove me in your truck? Or will it be something subtler, like asking me if your napkin smells like chloroform as you grab me from behind? Or wait, maybe you’ll just sit here and stare at me menacingly and pet your imaginary cat while collecting strands of my hair to knit a sweater for yourself later.”

“Wow. Don’t hold yourself back. I really get under your skin, yeah? Kind of hate me, huh?”

“If I gave you any amount of thought in my head, I probably would.”

I choked down the mouthful of brandy and almost spit it out all over the front of my laptop. “Are you always this witty? Or should I be afraid? And I haven’t peeked in your window since the mop dance. My heart wouldn’t be able to handle it again, although I do find myself listening to that same damn song every night. And I can’t knit…yet.”

Then, for the first time since seeing her in the diner, she smiled at me. “You should be terrified, actually. You never know when that little stalking plan of yours will backfire and I show up everywhere you are, like a crazy woman with zero self-esteem.” She leaned over the table, hands laid out flat across the wood top, “I’d keep repeating in a high pitched voice…that we were made for each other…that I couldn’t bring myself to shower after being so near you. You’d find me stealing your clothes and wearing them just to have your scent all over my body. Maybe I’d crawl into your window at night and slip under your bed and poke you every so often so you couldn’t sleep.”

“I will definitely be leaving the alarm off tonight,” I said, chuckling.

“Why?”

“Because I like the thought of you under me in bed,” I stated.

“No, Kade. Why are you following me?” She whispered.

Fuck. I had nothing to say to that. She would probably slap me if I told her I had trouble breathing when I wasn’t near her.

“My TV is broke?” Cold harsh humor laced my tone. I really was trying to be funny and flirtatious, but I needed to work on the lack I had of this talent.

She crossed her arms, “Try again.”

“I like the view?”

“Well, that’s not creepy at all,” she said, dryly.

Laying my palms flat against the table, I just let go. “Because Lainey, you somehow soothe the chaos that’s inside me. You heal me.”





Chapter 7





Kade had been at the bar every night for almost a week, staring at me so hard that I feared he might burst a blood vessel. I peeked out of the door in the bar’s kitchen and watched him walk in. He was scanning the room, dark serious eyes searching. Was he looking for me? Was it fear that had my hackles up? Or was it excitement? I wanted to punch myself in my head for thinking it.

I mean his actions were incarceration worthy, but then what he said to me last night…it just…touched me. Because, Lainey, you somehow soothe the chaos that’s inside me. You heal me.

You heal me.

You heal me.

“Let me guess. My brother is out there, yeah?” Dylan’s voice rumbled behind me. He settled himself next to me and peeked beside me behind the door. The closeness of his arm to mine made me shiver and I moved away. When he realized what I’d done, his eyes widened, “Ah shit. You’re scared of him? Damn, Lainey, is he scaring you? I swear Lainey; he’s not a bad person. He’s just not right in the head.”