by Tia Siren
I nodded.
“Thanks, Martha.”
I waited to call Jenna until after Martha drove off to pick up our children from school. I had no idea where she was, but I needed to find her fast. She answered on the second ring.
“Hello?”
“Where are you?” I barked out. “Don’t come back to your house. Just tell me where you are.”
“What’s going on?” Jenna asked, alarm filling her voice. “You never call me on my phone. I’m just about to drop my mom off back at her retirement community in Lone Tree.”
“Leon is here,” I said, and a heavy silence followed. “I found him outside your house while you were gone. He was trying to find you.”
“Oh my god,” she said. “The restraining order. It must’ve—”
“That’s why he was here,” I said. “Drive straight to the police station. Bring your mother if you have too. I’ll meet you there.”
“What are you going to do? There’s nothing we can do, is there?”
“You can file a stalking complaint. You’ll get a temporary restraining order from the police before seeing a judge. Just meet me there.”
“Okay. I will.”
Jenna pulled into the parking lot a few minutes after I arrived. I half expected her mother to be tagging along, but the passenger seat was empty.
“I haven’t told her what’s going on yet,” she said when I looked at her in confusion. “Leon won’t mess with her, because he knows she’ll call the cops the second she sees him. He’s afraid of her.” Her lips curved up into a bitter smile. “Which is ironic because my mother is frail compared to me.”
I took ahold of Jenna’s hand. “Everything will be fine,” I assured her. I pulled her in the direction we needed to go. “We’ll talk to my boss about this. He’ll give you the direction you need.”
“What about Owen?” Jenna asked, clutching my hand tightly. “Where is he?”
“Martha will watch him until I get back,” I said.
An hour later, Jenna stepped out of the station to call her mother. Her face was pulled tight and visibly pale from the ordeal. Gone was her cheerful spark. A cold fear had taken its place.
“She means a lot to you,” Marcus said, coming to stand next to me by the window, from which I was watching her in the parking lot. “I’ve never seen you worked up over someone before besides Owen. Not even your ex-wife.”
I shifted uncomfortably at the observation. “It’s different this time is all.”
“Either way, I hope she gets some peace out of this situation. She lives next to you, so she should rest easy.”
He clapped me on the shoulder briefly before returning to his office. I gathered my wallet and keys from where I had tossed them on the desk. I chatted briefly with a few coworkers before going out to the parking lot.
“So, they’ll hand him the restraining order, right?” Jenna asked, chewing on the pad of her thumb nervously.
“When they find him, yes,” I said, noting the frantic look in her eyes. “Come in my truck. Your car will be fine here for a few days. I’ll make sure of it.”
Jenna didn’t argue. She sat rigidly in utter silence as we drove back to my house. I let Jenna inside before checking around her house for any signs of Leon. Nothing. Bob came across the street when I locked Jenna’s front door.
“He drove by once an hour ago,” Bob said. “He’s a bit agitated too from what I saw. You got her over to the police station, right?”
I rubbed at my face in exhaustion. “Yes, and he’ll be even more agitated after that. Thanks for watching Owen, too. Is he okay?”
“Perfectly fine,” he replied. “Outside playing with Julie. We’ll keep him over too until things settle down.”
“Thank you. I’ll call later to wish him a good night.”
I found Jenna sitting on the edge of my bed, playing with her fingertips absently. I sat down next to her, wrapped an arm around her petite shoulders, and tugged her into me. She fell against me without a fight.
“Everything will be fine,” I said. “I can promise you that.”
“I hope so,” she said glumly. “I can’t ever seem to escape him.”
“You will,” I said, rubbing her shoulders. “Even if I have to do something about it, you will get away from him.”
Chapter Seventeen
Jenna
I dreamed of Leon. Not the Leon I had come to known over the past year, the Leon who turned red with rage and raised his fists to make a point. No, this was the Leon I had fallen in love with when I’d met him the year before, the sweet and charming Leon who had even won my parents over until the bruises started to appear, until he took control of my social media accounts and phone.
I woke in a cold sweat sometime in the middle of the night. Moonlight and shadows danced across the walls. Something wasn’t right. I could feel it in the balmy air. I sat up to push away the blankets that were tangled around my legs. Derek’s bedroom window was open. I could see the flutter of his curtains in the late-night breeze. All the lights were off.
Disappointment swelled in me. Of course the lights are off. He works at night. Still, I couldn’t shake off the unease growing inside me. Wiping away the sweat that gathered on my forehead, I walked barefoot across the freshly polished floorboards and into the dark hallway. Parched from the heat, I made my way down the groaning staircase to the kitchen. The hum of the fridge greeted me. My hand trailed across the cool kitchen counter as I reached for a glass in the cupboard next to the sink.
“Jenna.”
I whirled around at the sound of Leon’s voice cutting through the darkness. Moonlight danced over the sharp features of his clean-shaven face. A grin tugged at his lips as he moved gracefully through the dark shadows of the kitchen.
Fear rooted me to the kitchen floor. My heart lodged itself in my throat, thudding there frantically. I couldn’t scream. I couldn’t do anything. No matter how much I told my legs to run, to get away, they remained motionless.
He approached me as silently as a shadow. He was dressed in his usual attire of a nice button-up shirt that he needed to be dry cleaned and ironed. His blond-colored locks were styled perfectly. Everything about him demanded authority, and I was utterly powerless against it.
“Did you honestly think you could hide from me?” he asked a bit coyly. The thought seemed to amuse him given the chuckle in his chest, but I knew better. It was a warning of things to come.
I tried to swallow the bulge in my throat. Scream, Jenna. Do something. I opened my mouth, but long fingers pinched my lips shut painfully. Leon towered above me with a dark scowl now crossing his face.
“Don’t scream,” he warned, tracing my lips with a fingertip. I couldn’t stop trembling. “Who’s going to hear you? The guy next door isn’t even here. No one is going to hear you scream.”
Tears filled my eyes. “Leon, please,” I mumbled. I tried to pry his fingers away from my lips. “You’re hurting me. Stop.”
His fingers only pinched harder. Something flashed in his eyes.
“You aren’t going to hurt like you hurt me,” he said calmly before pressing his lips hard against mine in a bruising kiss.
My stomach churned violently. I thrashed desperately in the circle of his arms to get away, but nothing I did phased him. He only grew stronger each time I struggled to get away, and eventually he had me pinned me down to the floor. I screamed when Leon leaned forward to press his lips against the side of my neck.
“You’re mine, and only mine!” he growled into my ear, his hips digging into my pelvis painfully. “No one will ever have you like I will. Trust me on that.”
“Jenna!”
Strong hands gripped my shoulders. The dream folded away instantly, along with the pressure of Leon’s body pressed against mine. I was tangled up in a blanket with warm sunshine playing on my skin.
“Jenna.”
Relief surged through me at the sound of Derek’s concerned voice. I opened my eyes to find him kneeling beside
me on the bed, a concerned frown spread across his face. It was just a dream. Just a horrible dream. I let out a trembling breath while Derek helped me sit up.
“What happened?” I asked shakily.
“I don’t know,” Derek said, helping me tug the sheets away from my legs. “I went downstairs while you were sleeping to start coffee. That’s when I heard you screaming.”
I took in the white walls of Derek’s bedroom while I willed my heart to slow down. A cold sweat dripped down the sides of my cheeks.
“I-I had a bad dream,” I said, wiping the sweat away with the back of my hand. “That’s the first one I’ve had in a long time.”
“It sounded like you were being attacked.”
Derek rose from the bed, his hand resting at his right hip. That was when I caught sight of the hilt of the gun he had drawn on me the day I’d fallen off the roof. My stomach knotted uneasily as he placed it back on the bed stand.
“I called a few coworkers this morning,” Derek said. “They found him staying at a hotel on the other side of the city.”
My throat tightened. “So he knows about the restraining order now?”
“Yes. If he comes anywhere near here again, he’ll find his place in jail. I can guarantee that.”
I played with the sheets anxiously. Even if Leon obeyed this restraining order, that still meant I had to find somewhere else to go. I couldn’t stay in the house knowing Leon had been trying to find a way in. If Derek wouldn’t have caught him… A shiver went up my spine just thinking about it.
“What is it?” Derek asked. The mattress shifted as he crawled back onto the bed to sit next to me. “You appear to be in deep thought over there.”
“I have to move,” I said. “I can’t stay in this neighborhood now.”
Derek stiffened. I turned to look at him, but his gaze was fixated on the bedroom window that faced mine.
“You can’t keep running away from him,” he said eventually. “You have to deal with this in a way that will make it clear you aren’t backing down, or else he’ll just keep coming after you.”
Those words chilled me to the core, because I knew they were true. Leon didn’t give up easily on anything. Once he got an idea in his head, that was it. Nothing could persuade his mind.
“That’s my point,” I said. “He’ll keep coming after me because he thinks I’m his. That’s how Leon works.”
“That’s how all abusers work,” Derek said sharply. “I’ve dealt with guys like Leon for a long time, and believe it or not, there are people who are worse than Leon.” He trailed a hand through his hair with an agitated sigh. “There comes a day in their lives where they find something else to be fixated on. You just have to keep away from him until then, unfortunately. There really is only so much the courts can do besides tell him to stay away for certain amounts of time.”
“It’s just a piece of paper,” I said, thinking of the restraining order folded neatly in my wallet downstairs. It was just an inanimate object telling a person what to do. “He probably threw it in the trash the second those cops walked out of his hotel room. He did it with the other one.”
The only reason Leon didn’t get a chance to see me after what had happened that night at the bar was because I had packed a bag in a hurry before his parents had bailed him out. I’d been on a plane before he could even figure out what had happened. I reached up to comb my fingers through my hair anxiously. How did he even find me? I had done everything the shelter and police had told me to do back in California. No one knew where I was besides my mother.
“I don’t even know how he found me,” I said. “He figured it out somehow.”
“Hey.” I glanced over my shoulder when Derek touched my bare shoulder with his hand. My eyes slipped closed briefly at the gentle touch. “Everything will be fine. I promise.”
I shook my head at him. “You don’t want this drama, Derek. You have enough of it with your ex-wife already, and we aren’t even together.”
“Let me be the judge of what I can handle,” he said, cupping my chin firmly in the palm of his hand. “For now, just trust me while I figure some things out. Okay?”
“Okay.”
He leaned in to kiss me. Just the briefest touch of Derek’s lips against mine melted away the fear that coated every inch of me. I reached up to trace my fingers across the bristles of his cheeks while our tongues danced lazily. A hazy warmth filled me as Derek’s arms surrounded me in a strong embrace a second later to lay me back against the pillows.
Nothing could ever taint the feeling of Derek’s body hovering over mine, his soft skin and strong muscles pressed to mine.
“I want something different this time. You okay with that?” He licked at my mouth, his eyes filled with dark desire.
I couldn’t refuse him anything. “Of course. Just don’t hurt me.”
He chuckled and moved to his knees, pulling is shirt over his head before he got back up. “Take off your clothes, Jenna. Get on your hands and knees for me. I want to feel you come from behind.” He pulled down his pants and gave me a smile that left me fully assured that things were different this time.
I undressed quickly as he watched me patiently. “So beautiful. Don’t be shy. We’ve done this before.” He smiled and climbed back on the bed.
I turned and pressed my hands to the bed, arching my back as he reached for me and ran his hands over my sides, squeezing the top of my ass in the process of touching everywhere.
I groaned and pressed back against him as he nudged my entrance with the thick head of his cock. “Yes, please,” I mumbled and closed my eyes, imagining him still standing there, his body everything I wanted pressed deep inside mine.
He chuckled and ran his strong hands up to my shoulders, gripping them tightly as he pressed into me. We shared a long groan, and I gripped the sheets tightly as he pulled out of me and pressed back in.
“You’re still so tight,” he whispered against the back of my shoulder as he leaned over me, diving in deeper that time.
I cried out, and he paused. “No. I’m good. It’s just a lot.” I panted softly and pressed back, offering myself to him as he reached up and caressed my breasts with one hand.
His lips were soft against the side of my neck, and he rolled his hips forward, fucking me so much deeper than I thought possible. My stomach tightened as electricity shot from my center, racing through my upper body and leaving me locked in depravity.
“That’s it, Jenna. Take everything you need from me, baby.”
I rocked against him, massaging his thick shaft with my body and giving myself over to the intensity of our position. He moved back and gripped my ass hard as he lifted up and pressed fully inside me.
The deep pulsing of his cock between my legs had the world spinning. “Fuck. I’m so close, and we just started. It’s the position.”
“We can change it if you want.” I pressed my forehead to the bed as he worked me a little more, his hands shaking, his grunts low and beautifully erotic.
“I need to. I want to see you when I come.” He moved back, and I turned, lying down on my back and welcoming him into my arms as he pressed himself flush against me and drove his cock to the hilt inside me.
I groaned and gripped his strong shoulders as he brushed my hair back and leaned down for a long, demanding kiss. I kept my legs wrapped around his taut waist as the headboard beat against the wall.
“Look at me.” He pulled back and rocked against me as pleasure budded in my stomach again. Was it possible to come twice during sex? Fuck. I was going to find out if it was.
Derek’s eyes burned into me. I looked up at him. His jaw was clenched, and face was contorted in sheer pleasure as he locked eyes with me.
This wasn’t like other times. This was a marking. I recognized that possessive look lingering in Derek’s eyes before they slipped closed against the pleasure wracking his body. My hands wandered down to grip at the firmness of his ass as I urged him to give me more, to fuck me harder. Each pou
nding thrust brought me closer and closer to the edge.
“Derek.” I moaned loudly and pulled him down for a long kiss, letting my moans get lost in his mouth as he pumped in and out of me, leaving me riding high.
He went rigid as a board and let out a mangled gasp before collapsing on the bed next to me. I closed my eyes and let out a long sigh, fully sated by him. The fear that he would walk away without a word raced through me, but I forced it out. This time would be different. It had to be.
One of his hands reached out to gently massage my inner thigh. I forced down that uneasy feeling and glanced over at him, his beautiful body stretched out and flush, his cock wet and still twitching. We can’t keep doing this. The realization hit me hard. The line between casual sex was now blurred, and I had no idea if Derek realized that yet.
“I have to go into the station today,” Derek said once he caught his breath. “Check emails and things like that.” He turned to look at me. “Will you be okay here alone?”
“I have to go back to my house,” I said. “I need to shower, get clothes, and take care of things over there.”
Derek’s face tightened into an uneasy frown. “I don’t know if that—”
“I know Leon’s patterns better than anyone,” I said, sitting up to rub at the chill on my skin. “He won’t be back today. I promise. He doesn’t want me to figure things out.”
“I’ll have a car drive by every hour,” Derek said a bit warily. “Keep the doors locked, though, until I get back.”
I waited on the front porch until Derek had cleared every room. He kissed me on the forehead briefly before I stepped inside to lock the front door. I sank against it the second I heard Derek’s truck roar down the street.
I was falling for him in middle of a shitty situation. I rubbed at my eyes tiredly. Derek didn’t need all this drama. He had made it clear from the start that he didn’t want a committed relationship, but things had shifted. I’d felt that shift when Derek had reached out wordlessly to hold me in the middle of the night.
The warmth of the sunlight filtered through the small glass window above the door. It warmed a patch of my cold skin.