by Kylie Walker
“I still think it’s sweet. Look at him. You know how many other opportunities he must have today...yet here he is, picking up trash and playing with two of the meanest little boys I’ve ever met...just to be close to you.”
Chloe looked over then. What she saw made her heart swell to at least twice its original size. One of the twins had something in his hands. It looked like a big nest. The other twin and Derek were gently placing eggs inside of it. When they finished, Derek put one of the boys on his shoulders and the little boy...who usually had too much energy to stand in one spot for more than a minute, was gently placing the nest back into the tree. “That son of a bitch,” she muttered.
Lexi laughed and said, “Why, because he’s showing you his human side?”
Chloe didn’t answer her friend. She didn’t have to. They both knew that she was right.
Derek held true to his word once again. He spent the entire day either working or playing with the boys. He’d even had lunch with them under the tree they’d found the nest in. It was obvious to see on their little faces how much they appreciated his attention. Chloe tried to keep her attention on task, but it was hard.
While he moved, bending up and down picking things up or stretching across the monkey bars as he painted them, each muscle in his torso would ripple underneath that t-shirt he was wearing and make her fingers tingle with the longing to touch him. By the end of the day she was more sexually frustrated than she ever remembered being in her life. As they were packing things up she felt someone at her elbow and looked up to see him standing there.
“Thank you for suggesting this,” he said. “I had a great day.”
He was covered in sweat and dirt and a big swipe of yellow paint that one of the boys had swiped across his chest. Chloe had never seen him look so appealing. She smiled, trying to conceal the unadulterated lust that she was feeling inside.
“You did a good job. You should get some kind of bonus for keeping those crazy boys in check.”
He smiled; a genuinely happy smile and Chloe had to mentally hold herself back. “It was fun playing with them. I don’t get much of a chance to be around kids. They made me feel like a kid again myself. It was nice to take a break from being a grown-up for a while.”
“Well again, thanks for coming,” she said. “I’m sorry again about what I said when you got here.”
“It wasn’t your words so much that troubled me,” he said, with a serious look, but he couldn’t maintain it as he said, “When you threw me up against the car I was a little bit afraid.”
Chloe had to laugh. When she stopped laughing she said, “Sorry about that...”
“Don’t be sorry,” he said, “It was hot, the biggest thrill I’ve had in a while.”
Chloe felt her face start going hot and she knew she was blushing. Shit! She didn’t blush! Jesus, this guy turns her into a simpering school girl. She looked over where Lexi and Brett stood alongside his pick-up and she said, “I guess I should go. Lexi and her guy are waiting.”
“Sure...hey Chloe?”
“Yeah?”
“I understand if you’d rather not...since you haven’t called me, I’ve had to assume you decided dating me wasn’t something you were interested in...but I was thinking about going to see a movie tonight. I was wondering if you’d like to go.”
Say no...say no...say no... “Yeah, a movie sounds good,” she said. “Where should I meet you?”
He grinned, “Meet me? You won’t let me pick you up?”
She let herself fleetingly recall what he said about how many resources he had if he wanted to stalk her. Not telling him where she lived did not make her any safer if he was a threat. “Oh, okay. Yeah, you can pick me up. I live at 622 Ocean Drive number four.”
His smile broadened and he said, “Great, I’ll be there at seven.”
She watched him ruffle one of the twin’s hair and shadow box with the other one on the way to his car and wondered when the aliens had taken over her body and began to control her words and impulses.
Chapter 17
Derek knocked on the door right at seven p.m. Chloe was glad that Lexi was already gone. Her friend was already giving her a hard time because it was becoming more and more obvious that she was having feelings for this guy. It wouldn’t be such a novelty for any other woman, but Lexi had known Chloe for two years, and Derek was the first man she’d seen her friend show any interest in.
She took a deep breath and smoothed down her hair before pulling open the door.
God Damn he was gorgeous. He was wearing a white shirt that buttoned up the front. The sleeves were rolled up to the elbows and the top two buttons were undone, leaving just a tiny peek-a-boo look at his chest. His jeans probably cost as much as she makes in a month but Chloe could plainly see by the way they fit his sexy hips and thighs that they were well worth it.
“Hi,” he said with a smile.
“Hey,” she said. She had her purse and keys in hand. He glanced down at them, getting the hint that he wasn’t invited in and said, “Are you ready?”
“Yep.” She locked the door behind them and then shivered as his hand once again found the small of her back and he led her over to the SUV he’d been driving earlier in the day. He opened her door and helped her up inside and she took three deep breaths and let them out slowly before he made it around to his side and got in.
“At the risk of sounding like a nerd here, have you seen the new Planet of the Apes movie?” Chloe laughed, she couldn’t help it. This man was gorgeous, he was rich and successful and obviously intelligent. Rise of the Planet of the Apes was the last movie that she would have expected him to want to see.
“You’re laughing at me?” He said in a mock wounded voice.
“No, I’m not, really. I just...I mean I would never have imagined...”
“That I’m human?” he said.
He said it so seriously that Chloe wasn’t sure what to say. He was absolutely right, just as Lexi had been when she said it at the park. Him being human was not a good thing for Chloe; it made her want him that much more.
“Let’s start over,” she said. “I would love to see Rise of the Planet of the Apes, thank you.”
“You’re a terrible liar,” he said with another grin, “But I’m going to pretend you’re serious because I really want to see it.”
They drove through the city towards the movie theatre and he said, “Just so you’re not surprised next time, I asked Liz to let me know when the next project day was happening. I really enjoyed that today.”
“Good, Liz can use all the help she can get. You did a good job.”
“Tell me something though, why is it called Hannah’s heart? Liz didn’t want her own name on it?”
“Hannah was her daughter,” Chloe said, sadly.
“Was? She died?”
“Yeah. She was killed three years ago. She was only twenty-three.”
“Awful, poor Liz. Did you know her?”
“No. It was before I came here. Liz talks about her a lot though. She sounds like someone I would have liked to know.”
“What happened to her?”
“Her husband killed her,”
Chloe said. Her stomach was suddenly churning and she didn’t want to go on. If she didn’t though Derek would wonder why. “He beat her to death with his bare hands.” She looked at Derek when she said that. He winced and looked like he would be sick.
They were both quiet for a while after that and when he finally spoke he said, “I can’t even imagine how you could profess to love someone and then do that to them. It’s more criminal to me than a random beating. To hurt someone who trusts you not to is despicable.”
Chloe surprised them both by reaching over and taking his hand into hers. She wound her fingers through his and squeezed his hand. Without knowing it, he had said exactly what she needed him to.
Derek held her hand on the way into the movie and instead of feeling nervous or tense about it, it made her feel safe and that was
a strange, new feeling for her. Her entire life, even before Jessie, she had feared men. When she was a teenager she went out of her way to look frumpy and as unattractive as she possibly could, hoping that men wouldn’t notice her. Back then, they rarely did...except for the one at home that she couldn’t get to leave her alone. The scars on her back were reminders of what a man who professed to love her would do as far as she had been concerned her entire life.
It was why she hadn’t left the first time Jesse hit her...or the second. She wasn’t even aware that it could be any different. When the old man tired of picking on her, he would beat up her mother sometimes. He never touched Daphne though and that made Chloe resent her. Neither Daphne nor her mother ever tried to stop him from hurting her and that made her hate them. She glanced over at Derek while he waited for her to take her seat before he took his and she told herself for the first time in a very long time that maybe caring about someone and trusting someone didn’t have to hurt.
They watched the movie and when it was over Chloe had to admit that he’d made a great choice. She had laughed and cried and the whole time, even in the dark the only move that Derek had made was to hold her hand.
As they left the theatre he asked, “Okay, so what did you think?”
“James Franco is really hot,” she said with a laugh. Derek laughed and before he opened the car door for her he took her chin in his hand and looked into her eyes, “Human,” he said, “I like that.” Chloe braced herself for a kiss, but it didn’t come. She hated to admit it, but she was disappointed.
When he went around and got in he said, “Are you hungry?”
“I could eat,” she said.
“You like pizza?”
“Who doesn’t?”
He smiled again and started the car. He drove to a cute little pizza parlor downtown. The place was crowded but they found a table in the back near the arcade games where a little girl and two boys that looked to be her older brothers were playing a shooting game.
“So what do you like on your pizza?” he asked her.
“Anchovies,” she said.
He wrinkled his nose and said, “Okay...”
Chloe laughed, “Not really. I just wanted to see if you would object.”
He surprised her, sliding into the booth next to her and slipping an arm around her waist. He pulled her in close and said, “If you don’t believe anything else about me, believe this...I would eat anchovies as long as it meant being able to spend the evening with you.” He kissed her on the forehead then and left her sitting there tingling all over and stunned.
When he came back to the table he had a pitcher of beer and one of water with lemons floating on top. “I didn’t know what you wanted to drink,” he told her. She was so touched that he’d gotten the water just for her that even had she wanted a beer, she would have drank it.
As she poured herself a glass of the water she said, “Can I ask you a question?”
“Anything,” he said.
“I never saw you at the club before that first night I danced for you, and you seem more than willing to never go back...what were you doing there that night?”
He smiled and scooted back in his seat.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“I was just getting an arms-length away in case you construed what I was about to say as me being a stalker. I didn’t want to get slammed into the wall...”
“Ha ha smart ass, answer the question.”
“I have a colleague who is...I have no idea how to put this nicely...he’s a pervert, quite simply, I’m not going to make excuses for him. I will say that otherwise he’s a nice guy...”
“Okay, no excuses for the pervert,” Chloe told him. “Go on.”
“Well, he managed to get a membership to Roxi’s club without his wife finding out...”
“Oh great, a married pervert.”
Derek looked embarrassed and said, “Please don’t judge me by the company I keep.”
“I’ll do my best. The rest of the story...?”
“So, he would come into work and tell me about all these women he saw there and he kept begging me to go with him...I declined for over a month.”
“But then you couldn’t resist?”
“Something like that,” he said. He took out his phone and he pulled up a picture on the screen. He turned it in her direction and she was looking at a photograph of herself. She was wearing a black, one piece lace leotard that pushed her boobs up really high. It was the first and last time she wore that outfit, it had been really uncomfortable. In the photo, she was standing with her back to the pole, maybe just getting ready to start her set. She had her eyes closed as she sometimes does...undoubtedly wishing away the pervert at the table with his dick in his hand.
She shivered...now she was wondering how many other freaks had photographs of her on their phones.
“Chloe?” Derek said her name softly and she realized that she had been silent for a really long time. He put the phone down and said, “I’m sorry. Are you okay?”
“Yeah...I’m...shit! What kind of freak takes a picture of a woman with her eyes closed? And you...? What the hell are you doing with that on your phone?”
“He sent it to me one night. He was trying to get me to come out and party with him. He knew that once I got a look at you, I’d agree. He assured me that it was the only picture he took...”
“Oh I’m sure he wouldn’t lie, not an upstanding citizen like him!”
“You’re right. His morals are sketchy at best. I’m sorry. I’ll delete the picture right now.”
“I still don’t understand why you have it. What is it about me that is so different than the other women there that made him “know” seeing me would make you want to come into the club?”
“He and I have been friends since college. He knows my type. Obviously he was right. It brought me into the club and once I saw you, Chloe, I had to know you.”
Chloe’s hands were shaking. She suddenly felt like she’d been violated again. That wasn’t even to mention the fact that the last thing a woman hiding from a violent, homicidal ex-boyfriend needs is her picture floating around. She looked at Derek’s face. He looked genuinely remorseful and the truth was none of it was really his fault. He didn’t take the picture, he didn’t know that she was hiding out and he’d just told her the truth about something that he never had to admit.
“Do me a favor?” she asked him.
“Anything,” he said.
“Make sure your creepy friend deleted that picture too.”
“Already done,” he said.
“Thank you.”
“Chloe?”
“Yeah.”
“Can I ask you a question now?”
“Sure.”
“Will you please not hold how we met against me? I’d really like to see you again. Please don’t think I’m a creep because I met you in a strip club.”
Chloe was looking at him like he had two heads. Where on earth had this man come from? She was the one who worked in a strip club and therefore in her mind, she was the one who might have a reason to fear him holding where they met against her. He thought so differently than every other man she had ever known.
She smiled at him and said, “I’ll do my best.”
That night she did something that for her was huge...she gave him her phone number. He still didn’t assume anything had changed though and for that he got even more points in her mind. When Derek dropped her off at home it was once again obvious that he wasn’t going to be invited in. He didn’t act offended or try and twist her arm into letting him come inside. What he did do was take her face in his hands and after seeing she wasn’t going to resist, he kissed her. He tipped her head up and his down and their lips met, soft, full and warm. Chloe let hers part and Derek slipped his tongue into her hot, willing mouth. He found her tongue and they let them tangle, dancing in and out of each other’s mouths until neither of them were able to breathe.
When they finall
y broke the kiss and came up for air, Chloe’s head was spinning.
“Good night, Chloe,” he whispered in a husky voice. Chloe didn’t find hers until he was halfway back to his car.
When she finally did, she barely recognized it as she said, “Good night, Derek.”
Chapter 18
Chloe woke up Sunday morning with a smile on her face. She couldn’t get that kiss out of her head. Was that wrong? She wished that she knew. She had come this far by trusting no one, but some days she had to wonder if that was any way for her to live the rest of her life. After that kiss, she was prone to answer that with a resounding “No.” She reached down and took out her journal and her pen. After sitting there, looking at the blank page for a few seconds she began to write:
June 9, 2011
So I gave in to my desires last night and I let Derek kiss me. I know that I’ve said over and over that wasn’t going to happen...not just with him, but with anyone. I’m twenty-four years old and I’ve been given no reason to believe that there are men in the world that want to do anything but hurt me. I read books and I watch movies and I see the gentle exchanges between men and women and sometimes I believe that they’re the anomaly. Okay, most of the time I think that...but not last night.
Last night I let myself believe that Derek was one of those anomalies’. I didn’t have so much as an inkling of fear in my gut when he touched me...I welcomed it as a matter of fact. I have to wonder if that’s foolishness on my part. Am I only setting myself up for failure here...for more pain? Then there is the photo. Derek’s creepy friend took a picture of me at work. What if Jesse sees it? What if someone he knows sees it and tells him? What kind of stupid chances am I really taking here with my life? I woke up this morning feeling all warm and fuzzy inside, and now as I’m writing this I can once again feel the fear oozing its way through my veins. Will I ever not be afraid? I guess that’s the million dollar question.
Chloe took her run on the beach and then spent the rest of her Sunday relaxing at home. She didn’t answer the phone when Derek called. He left a message saying that he just wanted to tell her again what a great day and evening he’d had the day before. He didn’t call back again and he didn’t show up on her doorstep. He was pursuing her gently and he seemed to understand that she needed him to take his time.