Just to be Left Alone (11 page)

“I
feel like I’ve known you forever.”

“Me,
too. How can that be?” I asked.

I
slid my hands up his chest, feeling his heart race.

“The
only thing that I know is that I’m not going to argue with fate. She can be
nasty at times,” he said while rolling his eyes.

“I
know what you mean. We need to get better acquainted if we’re doomed to be
together,” I mocked him.

“We’ll
start tomorrow when I take you to dinner after work, how about that?”

“We
can come here for dinner. I’ll grill you some steaks and you can toss a salad.”

I
stood on tiptoe to be closer to his full lips.

“How
about simple sandwiches that we can make from things at the store? I can go by
the grocery store behind my work so we can spend more time talking than
cooking,” he suggested.

“I
like that idea. We can grill steaks some other day.”
 

“Well,
now that that’s settled. Gimme a kiss, gorgeous,” he growled and I giggled.

I
stretched up to him and softly traced his mouth with mine. His hands gripped my
hips as I kept placing butterfly kisses to each centimeter of his mouth. He
drew in a deep breath as he put me up against the wall for a lazy kiss.
 

I
gasped as he slid his fingers up my ribcage. He took advantage of my open mouth
and slid his tongue inside. His fingers stopped just under the curve of my
breasts as he devoured my mouth. My hands were pinned against his chest and I
felt myself digging my fingernails into the front of his shirt. He finally
lifted his lips from mine and his eyes stayed closed.

“You
better get some sleep, honey. You have another full day ahead of you tomorrow
and I need to go take a dive in a cold pool.”

I
knew what he meant and felt him against my stomach.

“Okay,
but only because you say so.”

I
nuzzled his nose with mine.

“I
say so and I also say to have pleasant dreams. Now go get in the bed before I
pillage you.”

He
gently pushed me into my room.

“Alright,
just know that they’ll only be pleasant if you’re in them. Let me know if you
need anything out there.”

I
pulled nightclothes out of my drawer.

“I
think I can manage.”

He
walked away and I could here him sink down on the couch.

After
changing into my satin camisole and boxers, I settled into bed with a purring
cat at my waist. I tried to concentrate on relaxing thoughts, until I realized
I kept going back to thinking of the handsome man on my couch. I let my mind
wonder and fell asleep to a very different ending to the scene just moments ago
in the doorway.

Chapter Seven

I
heard a noise at my door and opened my eyes to see a shadow moving across my
room. I called out to Conrad. When he didn’t answer I got up to see where he
was. Within two feet of the door the shadow was upon me. I realized with horror
that it was Jason, not Conrad. He slunk toward me. I backed up until I hit the
foot of the bed. I could see his face in the moonlight. He had the same insane
grin that he had at the restaurant the night this all started.

“What
are you doing here and where is Conrad?” I asked him in a state of panic.

“He’s
asleep on the couch like a good little boy. I’m here to finish where we left
off, before you met him. Now come over here and give me a kiss.”

I
stood my ground.

“No,
I don’t want you here. I have a restraining order in place that states you have
to stay away from me. If you leave right now, then I won’t call the police.”

My
voice didn’t sound as harsh as I had hoped it would. With the footboard against
my calves, I knew I had nowhere else to go to get away from him. I had a
fleeting thought of dodging to the right and locking myself in the bathroom, except
that I didn’t think I could get that far. He saw where I was looking and
laughed while shaking his head.

“You’re
not going to get away that easily. I would just break the door down. I wouldn’t
want our first time to be on a cold, hard tile floor.”

I
was yanked against him. He was holding my hands down by my sides. He bent his
head to kiss me. In revulsion, I turned my head to the side as far as possible.
Instead of stopping, he just growled before licking the side of my neck. He
laughed harder when I made a futile attempt at pushing him further away.

His
tongue felt so slimy against my skin that I shuttered. His tongue continued to
run along my skin as it made its way to my chin. I shoved my knee into him with
as much force as I could muster. Thankfully, he fell to his knees. I ran toward
the bathroom. He lunged at me before I made it half way across the room and
grabbed my legs. I hit the floor hard enough to knock the breath out of me.

I
felt him dragging me under his body. I tried to dig my nails into the carpet.
It was useless. I felt him slam into me with a bone jarring thud. His mouth was
on mine in a bruising kiss. He yanked my hands over my head with one of his. My
face was lodged between my arms and I felt him squeeze my legs together.

“You
can’t do this, Jason. I don’t want you,” I said from smothered lips.

“Yes,
I can. You are mine and I intend to have you, no matter what.”

I
tried to scream. He smashed his mouth back on mine and tried to slide his
tongue through my gritted teeth. I felt as if I would gag when his tongue
started running over my teeth. I thought that maybe if I went limp he’d lose
interest. I was wrong. He became more aggressive.

“Now
you understand. There’s no way to fight what we have. Just give in and let it
all go,” he whispered.

Tears
slid down my cheeks as he bent his head to lick the hollow between my breasts.
I didn’t know what else to do. I managed a hysterical scream when he sat up on
my stomach and tore at my camisole straps. I screamed for him to stop.

He
grabbed my shoulders and shook me as he kept chanting over and over again,
“You’re mine, and you’ll always be mine”.

Then
I woke up with Conrad gently shaking my shoulders.

“Honey,
please wake up. It’s only a dream, a bad dream.”

I
blinked to see Conrad staring at me with dark, concerned eyes.

“Oh
God, I dreamt Jason was here and no matter what I did he just kept coming after
me. He wouldn’t leave me alone.”

I
leaned into Conrad’s chest and he started rocking me.

“It’s
okay. It was only a dream. He isn’t going to hurt you. He’s not here. I have no
intention of letting him anywhere near you again. Just try to calm down.”
 

I
started crying and I could feel his chest getting wet. Tears were running down
toward his stomach. I noticed he was sitting there with only his underwear on.
It took a little while for the tears to subside.

When
they did he asked me, “Do you need anything?”

“I
just need you to hold me.”

When
I started breathing normal and his skin was dry, he leaned down to kiss my
forehead. I looked up to see the frown on his forehead. I reached up to trace
the lines between his eyes.

“Here,
lay back and relax. I’ll stay right here while you go back to sleep.”

I
nodded as he settled me back into my pillows, stretching out beside me. His
hand came to lie over mine against my stomach. He whispered nonsense into my
ear. I finally dozed off, in the warm cocoon of his arms.

* * * *

I
woke up and looked at the clock. It was 5:20. I felt a weight on my chest and
noticed Conrad’s hand there. Moving my head, I looked over at his sleeping
figure on top of the covers. His lashes were lying against his tanned skin and
his hair was tousled against the pillow. It felt right that he was here like
this. He must’ve felt me move because he opened his eyes and smiled up at me.

“Good
morning,” he said lazily.

“Hi.
You stayed with me all night.”

“Yeah,
I saw you sleeping so soundly that I couldn’t bring myself to disturb you.”

“I
appreciate it. I’m sure you have things to do before you have to go to work.
Let me at least fix you some breakfast.”

I
started to get up, to only have him stop me.

“No,
you have another hour before your alarm so stay in bed. I’ll grab something on
my way to work and check in with you after I get there. Just lay back down.
I’ll be out of here within the next few minutes.”

“I
really don’t mind. It’s the least I can do after you slept here all night.”

”No,
it’s all right. I’ll be fine,” he assured me as he fit the covers back over me.

“Okay,
I won’t argue with you this early in the morning. I just want you to know that
I feel like you’re trying to run away from me.”

“I’m
not doing this to get away from you. Far from it. You don’t owe me anything,
but I do have to get to work. ”

He
was uncomfortable and this was rushing things. I hardly knew this man, even if I
wanted him to stay with me a little longer. I needed to back up and give him
the distance that he seemed to need. I had to remember our agreement to not
move too fast while in this predicament with Jason.

He
gave me a chaste kiss before leaving the room. I fell asleep before he even let
himself out.

I
woke back up at six forty-five and forced open my eyes. It seemed as if I had
just talked to Conrad. I made up the bed and headed toward the shower as I
hummed. I had plenty of time to get ready and even had enough time to get my
favorite coffee on my way to the warehouse.

I
got to work before anyone else. I had already made regular coffee for the crew
when I heard the door swing open.

“Wow,
did we wake up on the right side of someone’s bed this morning?” Parker asked when
he saw my smile.

“Yes,
except it was in my own bed, thank you.”

I
kept telling myself to be less anxious about Conrad leaving so quickly. It was
too soon to analyze our relationship.

“Well,
it’s nice to see you sparkling this early in the morning. Did someone get you
this way?”

I
smiled and ignored him as I went to the conference room to make some calls.

By
the time I made my calls and drank half of my coffee, I heard the crew come in
the door. I headed off in search of Parker after I started a second pot of
coffee. I found him in my office with his feet on my desk. I sat down across
from him and stared sternly at his feet. He quickly slid them back to the floor,
while the disgruntled look stayed on his face. I patiently waited as he
finished his call.

“Yes,
I understand and I’ll call you back this afternoon.”

He
hung up and slumped further in the chair.

“I’m
guessing that was bad news. Go ahead and throw it at me while I’m still in a
good mood.”

I
kept sipping my coffee, refusing for him to take away my pleasant morning.

“We
don’t have the equipment to bring the new dock parts in plus our permit didn’t
go through,” he said as he rubbed his face with both hands.

“Why
do we need a permit?”

“We’re
making structural changes on an old building, so we have to get everything
approved. When the improvements are made it’ll be inspected to make sure we
followed code. That includes the support that was damaged. Before you ask, the
other problem is that the driver hauling our supplies had to take a few
personal days off.”

He
leaned back in my chair and started rocking, he looked quite perplexed.

“Can
we get someone else to deliver the supplies?”

“Because
of the size of the door, frame, metal plate and the equipment to install it, we
need a tractor trailer to deliver it all. The only one they have in service is
owned by the driver and goes home with him. I have been told that he hurt his
back and has to be in bed for a few days. We either have to wait for him to get
better or find another company to deliver the same goods. Either way, we only
have one day of work left before needing those supplies to be on the dock,” he
said without taking a single breath.

“Okay,
we’ll see if someone can deliver it tomorrow and if not we’ll just concentrate
on tearing down the whole dock in the spare time we have.”

I
swallowed the last bit of my now cold coffee.

“With
the way things are going, we’ll have the dock torn down in a day and a half
then still not have the truck here.”

“We
can call a few of the companies that come here to see if they are available to
haul the items already ordered. We can also talk to Ramirez about our options
for the next few days if we can’t get anything here on time.”

I
threw my empty cup away and reached for my rolodex.

“I
knew there was a reason I work so well with you.”
 

He
ruffled my hair before walking out the door to see Ramirez.

I
got into my warm chair and kept flipping threw my contacts until I got to the
one I needed. Almost an hour later and I was looking for Parker again. I had
gotten a driver who could pick up the supplies and deliver them back to us by six
o’clock tomorrow night. The permits were the next on my list to conquer.

I
found Parker passing in front of the coffee station.

“I
think I have a way into the permits office. Chastity use to date this guy. He’s
second in command and she happens to still have his phone number. She’ll call
him this afternoon to see what the hold up is on the permits we already applied
for. She’ll call us later to let us know what happens.”

“I
don’t know if I should be happy or jealous.” Parker said.

Chastity
would sweet-talk her friend into handling our little problem. She had done this
kind of thing before and it always worked.

“I
can tell what you’re thinking. Yes, she can get us what we need and no jealousy
is needed.”