Total pages in book: 167
Estimated words: 164838 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 824(@200wpm)___ 659(@250wpm)___ 549(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 164838 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 824(@200wpm)___ 659(@250wpm)___ 549(@300wpm)
I was not that type of guy.
I didn’t get off on bossing women around, outside or inside the bedroom. I wanted a partnership, a friendship, a forever after. Yet…the mere idea of having her drop to her knees because I asked her to?
I bit my fist and whacked the back of my head against the wall.
She is your neighbour.
She is suffering from trauma.
She is not kneeling for anyone.
Dropping to her haunches by a spinach plant, she plucked off a few leaves. She laughed a little as Peng leaped into the overgrown beds, attacking a row of beans strung up with string. Already those two were inseparable. I couldn’t picture her without him now.
My fingers shook as I texted her again.
Me: It seems my role as your protector has been taken by something orange and fluffy.
She continued to fill a small basket with greenery and a couple of carrots before standing upright. Sighing, she pulled her phone from a dress pocket and scanned my last message.
She didn’t move for a while, then glanced around the garden, most likely still searching for my cameras. At least those weren’t on her property. I hadn’t technically broken any law with them. Then again, some rule probably stated a neighbour couldn’t use his own security system to spy on someone else.
She let Peng run amok in her veggie garden as she tapped her phone.
Mine finally chirped.
Lori: He’s definitely keeping the nightmares at bay. Have a good work trip. Thanks for the gift.
Dumping her phone in her harvesting basket, she marched up the two steps of her back deck.
I blinked at her cool tone.
My heart twisted. I’d handled that wrong, didn’t I? Had I made her self-conscious? What was I supposed to do? Leave my shift and go over there? Haul her over my shoulder and carry her to bed—to hell with her mental health and all the consequences?
No way.
I was doing this for her, not for me.
I’d bought her a masturbation aid so she could reclaim the pieces she said she needed to claim by herself. No man required. It wasn’t up to me to give that back to her. She had to take it back for herself.
So why did I feel so wretched?
Why did an icy emptiness creep through me as all signs of the sexy tease who’d lain in the grass stiffened into shyness as she darted inside?
I wished I had a camera in her kitchen.
I wished I had audio to make sure she was okay.
I wished I could go over there, but I’d doubled down on my lie that I was away and now had to keep my distance.
“Shit. Shit. Shit.”
Turning off my phone, I jammed my glasses back into place and stalked from the ward.
* * * * *
Eleven p.m.
Another long day from hell thanks to a couple of emergencies and a surgery complication by the trainee anaesthetist. Luckily, it’d all been handled, but now I was exhausted and in desperate need of a shower, food, and sleep.
At least I’d sent X on a trip, so I wouldn’t have to go over to Sailor’s house in the middle of the night like the last time I’d pulled a long stint.
And if she has another nightmare?
What are you going to do? Not go?
Scratching my five o’clock shadow that’d grown in, I pushed that question away. Obviously, I wouldn’t be able to leave her alone if she had another setback. I’d go to her and make up some excuse of coming home early, but right now, as Zander, I was free from responsibilities.
So why, why, did my feet change direction and head toward Sailor’s front door instead of mine? Why did I knock when most people would be in bed?
I stood with my heart drumming, waiting for her to open the door.
I forced my exhausted brain to come up with an excuse as to why I’d found myself on her doorstep. I’d ask about Peng. I’d discuss the bloody weather if it came down to it. I just had to see her in person after her performance in the garden and cold shoulder via text.
Two minutes passed and her door remained stubbornly closed. Checking my phone to make sure she hadn’t messaged me as X, I knocked again.
And waited.
And waited.
And when it became awkward and weird—especially to anyone peering at me behind their curtains—I turned, jammed my hands into my slacks pockets, and stalked back to my place.
* 27 *
Sailor
Imprisoned By Orgasms
FUNNY HOW HUMANS WERE WIRED.
For most of the day, I almost felt like my normal self. I made a nice summery dinner with a fresh garden salad and chicken kiev from the freezer. I used some scrap material from my market stall decorations and sewed a few toys for Peng to wallop around the house.
I surfed online for concepts of a country-inspired but modern living room to prepare for the next stage of my renovation. I even managed to turn off all the lights and walk up the stairs like a normal person instead of bolting up them like I was escaping the realms of hell.