I See You (3 page)

My head tips when the front door finally opens and she steps out of her home. She’s pretty. Noah will be pleased.

Click.

Her long blonde hair falls over her shoulders and onto the swell of her large breasts. Her waist is small but her hips are wide, making her soft and real. She has long legs, her pink skirt displaying her pale skin from her thighs downwards. She reminds me of someone but my mind won’t let me search for her.

Click.

“Morning, Mr. Ilavich,” she shouts to her neighbor who is mowing his lawn. She smiles at him and my heart rate quickens. It’s not a reaction I’m accustomed to, but something about her, her innocence maybe, draws me in. Her smile is one of the most stunning things I have ever witnessed through my lens, the edges of her lips touching the apples of her cheeks with the size of her smile. She is simply beautiful.

Click.

“Are you on the late shift again, Nina?” Mr. Ilavich asks.

Nina nods. “Yep, again. Eleven finish.”

“Would you like me to feed Ginger?” he asks. I presume with that name it is her cat he’s referring to.

Nina shakes her head but smiles. “No, he’s good, thank you. Just fed and watered him so he’ll sleep now until I’m home.”

Click.

I’m captivated by her soft voice; her unique tone has a hint of an accent I can’t quite place but it’s the way her eyes sparkle naturally that makes her all the more enthralling.

She climbs into her little red car and waves to the gardening man before pulling away.

Click.

Mr. Ilavich winds the wire around the mower as I pull away from the curb and take the same route as Nina, but I keep my distance. I know what I’m doing by now. The last thing I want to do is spook her so soon. It’s such a shame I won’t get to actually touch her. For once I’m jealous of Noah. It never bothered me, the physical side to our business. I have always been happy with just photographing and documenting but my fingers itch to trace the contours of her striking cheekbones.

I can’t get the vision of her out of my head as I pull into the nightclub parking lot and park at the opposite end to her.

Her door opens and her legs are the first thing I see exiting the little Audi.

Click.

She climbs out then opens the rear door and grabs her bag before disappearing into the club’s side door.

Running my tongue over my dry lips, I throw the camera onto the passenger seat and wait.

I’ve been documenting her schedule for a week, and every new day is like seeing her for the first time. She steals my breath and holds me captive behind the lens. After watching her go into the bar for her shift, I leave. It’s dark when I arrive back at Nina’s. Her damn cat is blocking the kitchen door when I try and push it open. “Move, Ginger.” Like a perfect pet, it meows then walks away, allowing me access to its home.

My eyes scan the place. As suspected, it is pristine, everything clean and in its place. The whitewash cupboards and blue counter make me smile when I see the matching checked tablecloth. She takes pride in her home.

The hallway is long, with two doors leading off it. The first is an under-stairs closet. Her shoes are thrown in haphazardly and for some reason this makes me smile more. She isn’t as OCD as I envisioned. The lounge is small but decorated snugly, the deep plum walls making it appear cozy and warm. The single couch lets me know she lives alone, and the lack of photos around the place also states she doesn’t have close family.

The third step creaks when I venture up the stairs. I make a note of that. Ginger meows again and curls his soft body around my ankles as I step into her bedroom. My heart stills when a feminine floral scent strokes my senses, her unique fragrance making my dick hard. I close my eyes, fighting back the anger. I never react personally to any of them and I can’t understand what is different about this girl, but I refuse to give the desire any power. She is beautiful and I need to get laid, that’s all this is. I’ll call Simona later and have her suck my dick to take the edge off. She’s a ‘high class’ whore that I use when I need to vent sexually. She values my business-only attitude, which works well for me.

Nina’s duvet is floral, but the walls are a soft peach, taking away the girly aspect of the room and making it gentler to the senses. I run my gloved fingers over her hairbrush then pick it up and slide it into my bag. Her perfumes and creams are placed perfectly straight on the vanity, her cosmetics piled into a small basket. Picking the pinkest lipstick, I slip that into my bag. I rearrange her perfume, not enough to incite alarm, just enough to make her pause and question herself.

Sitting on the edge of her bed, I pick up her pillow and bring it to my nose, inhaling her aroma. Damn, she’s sweet, her scent almost intoxicating. I inhale again like my life depends on it. Her essence coils deep in my veins, my blood injected with something that makes my whole body shiver.

I growl under my breath. What the hell is it with this woman?

Placing the pillow back I pull in a deep breath then get to work.

I
SWEAR I HAVE A
poltergeist. Either that, or Ginger has become so advanced she now has opposable thumbs. I pick up my body lotion from the bed and place it back on the dresser where I could have sworn I left it. I take the few items I grabbed from the store from my bag and collapse on my bed. I hate working long shifts at night. I’m always exhausted but too wired to sleep. I welcome the weight of Ginger as she leaps up onto my stomach and kneads the fabric of my work shirt.

“Don’t wreck another one, Ginger. These come out of my pay check.” I sit up, balling her into my arms and rubbing my nose against her wet one. “You want some dinner?” I’m sure she’s rolling her eyes at me.

As I stand I hear something drop to the floor next to my foot; the nametag from Ginger’s collar. I bend down and pick it up. The small metal loop is all bent.
Strange.

“Looks like you need some new bling.” I baby talk her all the way down the stairs, not surprised that she takes the opportunity to dive through the cat flap as soon as I place her on the ground. “Love you too, deserter!” I call after her.

I notice Mr. Ilavich’s garden lights on through the window, and a woman’s laughter echoes through the night air.

‘No way does he have a woman there,’ my mind whispers in disbelief.

I race up the stairs, turning off all the lights, and sneak to the window in my spare room at the back of the house. Shadows crawl across the floor when I tilt the blinds, letting the moonlight pour in. I’m stealthy in my nosy neighboring, using the curtain to shield my body from sight.

“Oh my God.”

A young woman is naked, sitting opposite Mr. Ilavich in a lawn chair, her legs open and everything on display as she pleasures herself. I can’t peel my eyes away even though I desperately want to.

I slide my cell from my pocket and scroll through to the picture that Tricia added to her number. She’s photoshopped her face onto Chris Hemsworth’s wife’s body. No one would believe she’s twenty five; she acts like a teenager.

I dial the number and place the cell to my ear while it rings.

“If this is a booty call you have the wrong equipment for me. Sorry, sugar,” she says.

“My neighbor is having a booty call, or filming a porno. I’m not quite sure,” I reply.

“Eww, she’s like . . . ninety!” she shrieks.

“No, not Bernadette. She passed months ago, her house is still vacant. Mr. Ilavich!”

“Oh my God, that’s worse,” she screams, causing a giggle to bubble out of me. “Tell me what’s happening?”

I twitch the curtain to get a better look through the slits in blind. “They’re in the back yard, he’s fully dressed and seated opposite a blonde woman who can only be my age.” I inhale a quick breath when it dawns on me that she’s more than my age. She looks just like me, if I were nude and skanky, with Daddy issues. “What else?”

“She’s naked and playing with herself.”

Another screech shrills down the line. “Argh! Like rubbing her tits or full on finger banging?”

Gross!

“The fingers.” I shudder.

I quickly look away and dance around in a circle on my tiptoes when he unzips his pants. The hand not holding my cell is now covering my eyes. “I can’t look, I can’t look!”

“Take a picture!”

“What? No! Eww!”

“Come on, I need to see it to believe it.” She giggles. I sneak back to the window and look out. The woman has moved between his legs and her head is bopping up and down in his lap. I follow his navel, up his chest, neck.

“Oh fuck.” Fighting for the pull cable on the blind to close them, and instead opening them, making me scream and panic, I quickly abandon the cable and draw the curtain across and run to my room.

“What the hell is happening?” Tricia calls down the line.

“He was looking up at the window.”

“Oh God, that’s creepy and wrong. He is so gross.”

“Who’s finger banging? Nina?” I hear in the background. Tricia’s boyfriend, Simon.

I hear slapping sounds and an
oomph
. “Yeah, Simon. Nina is finger banging to me down the phone, dumbass.”

“That’s a show I’d pay to see.” More slapping and then the phone goes dead. Simon’s crude remarks aren’t new and I grit my teeth, once again annoyed by his childishness. He often makes jokes about me and Tricia getting it on for him. I don’t understand why she would stay with a man like him, but who am I to judge? My past is made up of a few douchebags along the way.

After another ten minutes I sneak another peek next door to find the party has moved inside. I’m hoping Mr. Ilavich and his choice of gardening will be a one-time occurrence.

I avoid him for the next week.