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He shook his head, pointed at me, and mimed sleeping again. Then he closed the distance between us and leaned down to bump his masked forehead against mine.
Paula and George were from the deep south, and if country music had taught me anything, it was that some Southerners took pride in leaving their lights up all year round.
this is true.
The thing was, someone had already shoveled me out. My front steps and walk were clear, my car had been brushed off, and my driveway was spotless.
Have you ever heard of the word boundaries? I texted the Faceless Man. Doesn’t sound familiar, he wrote back. Can you use it in a sentence?
He sent a thinking emoji. Nothing comes to mind. But you do snore real cute. My eyes flashed wide. I do NOT snore. Like a chipmunk with a cold. Wheeze, wheeze, siiiiigh.
I expected a sarcastic response, but he wrote back, I like taking care of you.
You will never see me coming, I told him, hitting send before I noticed the double-entendre in the words. Welp. There go my plans for you tonight, he wrote back.
Was Aly turned on right now? Did she find me attractive? I felt both elated and slightly betrayed. Well, this was a weird feeling. I was jealous of myself.
She lifted back up and looked at me imploringly, and I decided I would give her anything she asked for at that moment. My help. My undying loyalty. The password to my investment account and all the money inside it.
She looked more relaxed than a moment ago, like her back was no longer up now that she didn’t suspect me. Mwah ha ha ha ha.
i literally LOLed
My evil plan was working. Step one: get Aly to drop her guard. Step two: fuck her on this couch.
LMFAOOOO
“Would you rather change sexes every time you sneeze or not know the difference between a baby and a muffin?” I asked.
WHAT FHE FUCK DNJDJDJD
Josh was the Faceless Man. I didn’t know how I knew it, but I did.
hahahahaha
And when he smiled and those dimples appeared? It triggered ovulation. You couldn’t convince me otherwise. Not after the way I stood there staring at him while my ovaries donned their warpaint and started metaphorically chucking eggs at the man.
By the time I was finished with the Faceless Man tonight, he would be the one walking funny.
There was another yowl, and then a deep, guttural voice broke the silence, too deep to be natural, so low it must have been modulated. “No, Fred. Mommy and Daddy need to have alone time right now.”
this was hotter than it had any right to be
“Let go, Aly,” he rumbled. “I’ll catch you when you fall.”
“What did Fred do?” she asked when I re-entered her bedroom. “Our angel baby did absolutely nothing wrong, and I resent the insinuation that he ever could,”
Not that I didn’t want to fuck Aly – standing up, sitting down, sideways, backward, against a wall
I snagged my backpack from her chair but paused before her on the way out to tuck a stray piece of hair behind her ear, unable to stop myself. It was impossible to have her so close and not touch her. “Take care of our son while I’m gone,” I said, forcing myself away. “And don’t give him any more bacon. He’s had enough.” Her laughter followed me out of the room. “You are so presumptuous!”
I took another left and gunned it, cracking my window to drop her tracker onto the road, leaving her staring at what I’d spelled out for her. “LOL?” she yelled. “LOL, you motherfucker?”
LMFAOOOOOOO
“I bet you’re real proud of yourself right now, Josh,” Aly said. I jerked my gaze back up to hers. Uh-oh.
nawww this is toooooooooo gooooodddd
“Let’s just say it involves a boy I like,” I said. Both brows went up. “You think he’s running around behind your back? I heard Greg down in the janitorial department has mob ties. Maybe he can disappear him for you.”
“Aly,” she said, gripping my arm with her free hand. “It’s okay to be selfish once in a while. You know that, right?”
On a scale of 1-10, how mad are you about the tracker? he asked. One being you need a day or two to cool off, and ten being we need to start drafting a joint custody agreement for Fred.
I’m only willing to allow you a few days. After that, I’m coming for you, baby, whether you’re ready or not. And until then, I’ll be watching.
It made me want to be bratty again, hold out until his patience snapped and he hunted me down.
Oh, God. Too late. 6’4”, muscle-bound, heavily tattooed, shirtless Josh cradling a baby in his arms. I could feel my ovaries back at it again, opening the floodgates and screaming, “GO, GO, GO,” as they released every single egg in my body. If I had sex with this man in the near future, we’d have to double up on birth control.
I’d treated a man with a stab wound who’d been convicted of brutally murdering two women. He’d been strapped to the bed, and there had been two correctional officers in the room with me the whole time I’d seen him, but I still felt unsafe in his presence.
Laws didn’t apply to the uber-rich, only to those without the money or means to subvert them.
“Go ahead. Try to grab me again.”
“I’d love to see how a coward like you holds up against a fully conscious woman.”
I didn’t bother knocking either, using the key I’d made to let myself in the front door. Fred came running right up to me, his tail held high and mouth wide open as he sang me the song of his people.
“How’s this?” I asked a purring Fred, dropping my voice as low as I comfortably could. “I am Batman.”
“What’s up with your voice? What are you, the scary mask version of Batman?” “Maskman?” I shot back. “I like it.”
Why wasn’t there a better way to verbalize empathy in moments like this? Some way to say that you were sorry that encompassed how your heart broke for someone and that you’d do anything you could to take their pain away.
“It’s been almost ten years. I shouldn’t still be traumatized.” I pressed my fabric-covered lips to her temple. “There isn’t a time limit on grief or trauma.”
I hefted her by the thighs and hauled her closer, wanting to banish what little space remained between us, wishing I could crawl right inside of her and fix the thoughts in her head.
This side was all ego. I wanted Aly on her knees for me, humbled and worshipping. I wanted to watch her crawl to me, naked, before kissing my boots and licking the flat of my knife.
I left her to grab my bag and ensure Fred was still minding his business in his felt house and hadn’t snuck into her room while we’d been distracted. What I was about to do to his mother, no child should see.
“Come here, Aly,” I said, wrapping my other hand around the knife handle so there would be no mistaking my intent. “I want to watch you ride it.”
He called my cat his son. He bought me a bed for both of us as if he planned on spending a lot of time in it together. When I needed him, he came to me, held me while I cried, helped me work through my issues, and listened without judgment when I confessed to wanting to kill someone.
Oh, fuck, why was the thought of him going off the rails so hot?
He made a tutting sound and tilted his hips back, denying me. “This is about you,” he said, gently pinching my nipples one after the other. “You’re going to sit. I’m going to play.”
“I want to kiss you too,” he said, his lips ghosting over the shell of my ear.
He let out a low laugh. “Not on your mouth.” My head spun as he turned me around. I heard a thud like he’d dropped to his knees before me, and, oh, god, if it weren’t for the handcuffs, I would have ripped the mask off to see such a thing.
He leaned his forehead against my lower stomach and let out a tortured sound. “Fuck, Aly. You can’t tell me things like that.” “Why not?” I asked. “Because every time I see you, I’m gonna know you’re wet for me,” he rumbled. “It might be this blindfold, but I don’t see the problem here.”
“My leg will give out if you do that again,” I warned. He pulled his mouth off me just enough to whisper. “Then you should take a seat.”
Oh, lord. This was happening. I was about to ride a knife handle while blindfolded and handcuffed.
“You’re a fucking goddess, Aly.”
