“Correct,” Betty said reluctantly. “I guess you’re right. There is no way to prove his involvement, is there?”
“Not unless he took money out of your account,” I said.
“He wouldn’t take my mother’s money,” Chloe said quietly. “He’s too smart to know that would tip the police off. He changed the passwords just to aggravate my mother.”
“He succeeded,” Betty said. She fanned herself moodily with her large sun hat while a waitress stopped by to refill our water. “Perhaps the restraining order will scare him off again? He didn’t like jail the first time around.”
“He won’t stop,” Chloe said. She traced the rim of her water glass before scooting her chair back suddenly. “Excuse me. I have to go to the bathroom.”
I reached out to touch her hot forearm, but Chloe tugged her arm back. The gesture stung more than I wanted to think about. She never pulled back from me. It was me always pulling away from her. I watched her petite frame in her simple white dress navigate through the tables on the patio to the restaurant doors.
“Forgive my daughter,” Betty said, also watching her with a sad smile. “She has a tendency to get into these moods that take her down. It’s better to give her some space to think.”
“She has a lot to deal with,” I said a bit coolly. I had no problem with Betty. She was involved in Chloe’s life in all the right ways, but I got the impression she wanted to treat the situation with a magic wand. “Mrs. Johnson, I have to be honest with you. This isn’t a situation you can fix by using every legal weapon you know. Things like that don’t stop men like Luke.”
“I’m aware of that.” Her face squinted up into a pained expression. “What can you do when your child is in danger? You’re a parent.” She looked at me intently. “What would you do if your child called you in the middle of the night from the hospital with a concussion and two broken ribs?”
I closed Betty’s laptop with a resigned sigh. “I’d do everything I could to protect my son,” I said, and scooted the computer toward her. “I understand where you are coming from as a parent, but I am coming from a law-enforcement prospective. I’ve dealt with cases like this. Chloe is doing everything she can do to get away. That’s all you can do.”
“And what exactly is your relationship with my daughter, Mr. Mason?”
“Excuse me?”
The question threw me off. I knew Betty was well aware that Chloe and I had a more-than-friendly relationship, but I didn’t expect the question to be asked.
Betty smiled at me knowingly.
“I can see that there is something going on,” she said, folding her hands in front of her. “I didn’t approve at first because Chloe has a habit of picking men who are not the greatest for her. She’s always had these fantasies in her head. I tried to discourage her from being around you, but here we are.”
I eyed her warily. “I mean this respectfully, but what is your point behind all of that?”
“I can see that you care more than what you’re probably aware of, and it’s messing with my daughter’s already troubled head. That is my point.”
“I respect Chloe,” I said, torn between defending myself and accepting that observation. “I have tried telling her to go to school, to get a different job, but she—”
“Won’t do it,” Betty finished for me in a resolute tone. “I imagine she won’t do anything without a fight, but you have to agree with me: She’s too young to be settling down to just watch your son at night.”
I had a feeling where this conversation was going to lead. I sipped at my water while Betty watched me from underneath the rim of her sun hat.
“I don’t mean to be overbearing,” she said. “I just worry that my daughter will find herself stuck in another situation she can’t get out of. She’s a smart girl. She is capable of whatever she decides to do with her life.”
“She is very smart,” I agreed. “However, Chloe’s an adult. She’ll do what she wants to do despite what I say, or what you say. Obviously.”
To my surprise, Betty burst into amused laughter.
“You’re right about that,” she said. “She’s proven me wrong at every turn of her life since day one.” She patted me on the back of the hand with damp fingers. “Just promise me that you will convince her to think about her options.”
Even if it means leaving me. I read that last unspoken sentiment in Betty’s gaze. I nodded wordlessly before getting up from the table to go search for Chloe.
“Excuse me,” I said. “I have to use the restroom as well.”
I stepped past several tables of older couples who were lunching together. Their warm laughter sounded harsh compared to the conversation still replaying in the back of my head. I spotted Chloe’s slender figure at the bar, nursing a glass of red wine.
“I’m sorry I left you with her,” she said, a pained look crossing her face. “My mother… God, I love her, but she’s overbearing sometimes.”
“That’s an understatement,” I said. I ordered a whiskey when the bartender breezed by us.
Chloe arched a knowing eyebrow. “Did she corner you about being a man and letting me go?”
The first sip of whiskey burned my throat, but I let out a relieved sigh. I sat down on the barstool next to Chloe with a grimace.
“Somewhat,” I said. “I do agree with her on a few things though.”
“Like what?” Chloe sipped her wine.
“About you going to college,” I said, leveling a stern look at her when she glanced away from me. “What is holding you back from that?”
Tracing the rim of her wine glass, Chloe stared down at the contents of her glass for a long time. A soft breeze fluttered the long strands of her hair whenever someone opened the patio doors. I waited patiently for her to answer.
“I just never felt smart enough to go to college,” she said, refusing to look up at me. “I like to paint and draw. Does that really require a college degree?”
I didn’t buy it. There was something else that turned her away from the idea of going back, and I had no intention of being the reason why she didn’t go back.
“Did Luke ruin that for you?” I asked quietly.
Chloe didn’t answer, and nor did she get the chance too. The patio door opened, followed by the sound of Betty calling out our names.
“Don’t drink so much wine,” she scolded Chloe, eyeing the glass in her hand. “Alcohol makes you do irrational things.”
As soon as Betty turned her back to head back outside, Chloe downed the rest of her wine in one gulp. I couldn’t help it. Laughter escaped my lips at the sight of Chloe shooting her mother a dirty look.
Two hours later, we drove back to the city to pick up Darren from school. He chatted happily with Chloe about what he had learned at school, and it gave me plenty of time to admire the woman sitting in the seat next to me. The long strands of her hair were curly and flying about her face freely. She smiled whenever she turned around to talk to Darren. She truly was a beautiful woman inside and out. Something in my chest clenched at that observation.
While I got ready for work, I heard Darren start up his Xbox despite having told him to start on his homework. My bedroom door opened a minute later.
“I told him only ten minutes,” Chloe said, closing the door behind her. “I just wanted to thank you for everything you’ve done over the past couple of days.” She looked down at her feet then. “You didn’t have to help me.”
“I’m here to help,” I said. “It’s going against my nature if I don’t help people.”
The corner of her lips quirked up. “And yet people think you’re an asshole.”
I chuckled at that as she rounded the bed to wrap her arms around me. I relished the feeling of Chloe’s tight body pressing up against mine in all the right ways. Desire skittered through me when she stood on her tiptoes to kiss me. In just a few minutes, I was hard and ready to bury myself in the sweet warmth between Chloe’s legs.
I pulled away briefly. “You s
aid that Darren just started that game downstairs?”
“Yes.” She blinked up at me. “Why?”
Hooking my fingers in the fabric of her dress, I tugged it up over her hips. Her eyes widened in surprise before desire filled them. I used one hand to tug her panties down to her knees before twisting her around to grip the edge of the bed. This position was quickly becoming my favorite because of the depth I could get to inside her and the beautiful view it gave me of her ass.
I opened my fly and pulled out my cock, reaching for her and not thinking twice about making her mine again for the moment. I was falling for her. Sex was an outflow of that emotion. I pressed deep into her tight wetness and gripped her shoulder with one hand while caressing her back and ass with the other.
We both let out stifled moans of pleasure. I set a hard and quick pace, well aware that Darren could pop up at any point. The heat, the tightness…it was hard to concentrate on reaching around to rub at the bundle of wet nerves between Chloe’s legs, but I forced myself to think about her first. She’d come with me fucking her hard and fast from behind, my cock head slamming into her G-spot, but I wanted it to be explosive. She stiffened as I tapped her clit, her back going rigid
“Jake,” she whispered roughly before giving herself over to me. Her fingers buried themselves in the sea of blankets while she dropped her head into them to keep quiet.
The sweet muscles of her pussy clenched tightly around me as she bounced backward, her ass jiggling beautifully. She pressed her face to the bed and let out a long scream as she tucked her hips and massaged me with her body. The spasm that wracked Chloe’s frame was intense, breathtaking. She let out a muffled groan into the bedsheets before I let myself find release as well. It was over just as it began, but a sated feeling washed over me. I savored the feeling of Chloe for a moment longer before pulling back. Brushing the hair from her neck tenderly, I leaned down to press a kiss against the salty and flushed skin there.
“You’re so sexy, Chloe. I love the way you open up for me. I fit perfectly inside you, baby.” I kissed her skin again and squeezed her prefect ass before standing up. Realization rolled over me in thick waves.
I couldn’t give Chloe up no matter how hard I tried. It was just damn impossible, and for that brief second, I understood exactly why Luke didn’t want to let go of her. I didn’t want to let go of her either.
Chapter Nineteen
Chloe
The heat of summer gave way too much cooler temperatures throughout the following week. “It’s the change of seasons,” Jake had told me one evening when I’d complained of the abrupt change. “It happens usually over a matter of days. You’ll see the trees change too. When you see snow on the mountains, you know fall and winter are close.”
I stared up at the yellow-and-orange-tinged trees that lined the street. A few of them had fallen already to the cracked sidewalks. The sunlight still felt warm, but a noticeable crispness clung to the air when I stepped out of Jake’s house to let him get some sleep for the day.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?”
I started at the sound of Erika’s voice right behind me. Her cheeks were flushed a pretty pink, and she wore a light track suit and sneakers. Her dark hair was pushed back by a hairband.
“It is,” I said.
Erika adjusted the zipper of her jacket. “The colors will get more vibrant over the next month or so. Some Halloweens we walk around in a sweater. Other times we are bundled up in our costumes. You’ll see.”
She smiled, but I couldn’t find it in me to return the smile. I hadn’t even thought of staying long enough to be around for Halloween. I dimly remembered Darren telling Jake the other day that he wanted to be a ninja for Halloween.
“How are you holding up?” Erika asked. She smiled empathetically when I looked back at her. “I know it’s been a week since anyone has seen him around. That has to be eating at you.”
I swallowed the unpleasant feeling in the back of my throat. I didn’t want to think about it. No one, not even Jake, seemed to know where Luke had gone after being served those papers. The only sense of comfort I took was that people knew who to look for if I went missing. It was a cold and horrible sense of comfort, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that Luke was lurking somewhere close despite Jake’s efforts to keep me protected.
“A little,” I admitted, sighing. “It’s the not knowing where he is that is really bothering me. If I knew he was in California, I’d be okay.”
“Do you think the restraining order coupled with the police car spooked him?”
“No.” I considered it for a moment. “Maybe it did. He isn’t the type who’d do good in prison, so he’ll keep his distance until I can get a permanent restraining order.”
“My ex was the same way,” Erika said. Her gazed focused on something down the street that I couldn’t see. “I tried everything I could think off to get away. I changed my number. I moved. I went to court several times. Nothing ever seemed to work. He always came back angrier than the previous times.”
“What finally made him go away?” I asked.
She looked back at me with a haunted gaze. “A car accident of all things. A drunk driver hit him one night when he was driving home from work. That’s what I read at least.” Erika smiled thinly. “His family was devastated by it. They never believed their son was capable of bruises and broken bones.”
“Luke’s family doesn’t either,” I said, and bitterness toward the situation tore through me. “I was always the liar. They stood in court to tell the judge I just wanted my things that Luke had bought, so I was making up the entire story. Even after I was in the hospital with a concussion and two broken ribs, they still defended him.”
“It makes them feel invincible when they have people, even their own family members, to believe them. That’s part of it.” Erika reached over to grasp my hand in her cold one. “Just keep trying to live your life as much as you can. That’s all you can really do is rebuild and keep going.”
“It’s easier said than done.” I sighed out and spotted the realtor coming down the street in her minivan. “I have to meet with the realtor, so if—”
“Realtor?”
I stopped at the sound of Erika’s sharp voice. She gave me a long, hard look that instantly reminded me of my mother’s whenever I did something she didn’t approve of.
“You can’t keep running away,” she said. Then she added knowingly, “Or are you running away for a different reason?”
I looked away to hide the turmoil of emotions in me.
“I know that you and Jake are”— Erika paused for a moment to search for the right word— “more than friends. There is something there that is real. I’ve seen it in the way Jake has looked after you even before you realized it.”
“It doesn’t matter though,” I said, tears stinging my eyes. “I have to go. Luke will keep coming by here now that he knows I’m here. I can’t risk putting Darren in the line of danger either.”
“That is Jake’s job to protect his son, and he will if he feels Darren is threatened.”
The realtor pulled up the driveway. She stepped out from behind the wheel to give me a cheerful wave.
“Just think about what you're doing,” Erika said sagely. “I know Jake has a hard exterior, but no one is blind to the fact that he feels something for you. I wouldn’t run away from that.”
She gave my hand one last squeeze before heading down the sidewalk. I wiped at the tears in my eyes out of aggravation, because Erika was right. I didn’t know what to think of Jake, or the terms of our relationship, and I hated the feeling of depending on him for protection, but I couldn’t pick my life up and run wherever the wind blew.
Darren would be devastated. My heart clenched just thinking of that sweet, blond-hair boy who loved to talk about his rock collections and shoot Nerf guns with Jake when he was done with homework.
I walked up the driveway to where the realtor was busy fumbling with a camera. She looked up at me through t
he thick curls of her hair.
“The house looks wonderful, Chloe,” she said excitedly. “The maintained yard, flowers, and you fixed things that needed to be fixed.”
“My neighbor fixed them,” I said, twisting my hands in front of me nervously. “Look, April, I know my mom sent you out here to put the house on the market, but I’m going to stay here.”
April stiffened visibly. “You are?”
“Yes,” I said, nodding. “I thought leaving would be the best thing, but one of my neighbors pointed out that I had to stay and rebuild my life. I realized that she’s right. I can’t keep running whenever things go wrong.”
“Your mother is going to be upset,” April said, lowering her camera to the ground. “She was very firm on this house being sold within a week.”
“I know, but she’ll get used to the idea.” I held out a hand for April to shake. “Thank you for everything you have done. I appreciate the help.”
April took a hold of my hand slowly and gave it a brief squeeze. She hesitated in the driveway, waiting for me to change my mind, but when I didn’t call her back, she climbed into her van. I caught a glimpse of her on the phone before the van disappeared down the street.
I set my phone inside on the hallway table, because I knew my mother would be calling to demand an explanation. Closing the front door, I crossed over my yard to Jake’s front door to clean up the kitchen from the chaos of the morning. I washed a few cereal bowls before making my way up the stairs as quietly as possible check on Jake’s sleeping figure sprawled out on the unmade bed.
He slept on, oblivious to me standing alongside him. The morning light fluttered through the tree leaves outside, leaving patterns on Jake’s face. A sign of complete trust. My heart leapt at the thought. He didn’t even wake when I came in and out of the house. For an ex-Navy SEAL, that said a lot.
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