3. CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER TWO

Quinlan

Chills creep up my spine on my walk home.

This isn’t the end of winter weather. Not the soft wind that licks at my exposed nape.

This is deeper than that.

I’m being watched. Followed.

The feeling is familiar, though it’s never been as intense.

Unease has caused my skin to prickle over the years. More so after I moved to the city. When I’d hang around at Maeve’s. Went grocery shopping. Even at home.

Whenever I looked around, I saw nothing. Everyone’s been minding their own business. No neighbor peeked from their window into my apartment.

No sleep and all coffee made Quinlan a dull girl, I figured. I’d laugh at how silly I was being. How I’d freak out over nothing.

This, I can’t laugh it off. Can’t shake it off.

It only gets worse, more demanding.

Heaviness in the pit of my stomach. A sharp burning sensation at my back. My pulse skyrockets.

Something is wrong. So wrong.

My eyes narrow at the man in a dark suit and slumped shoulders who heads my way. His head is bowed while he talks on his phone. He’s not watching me.

The woman with a high, auburn ponytail comes up behind him. She jogs on the sidewalk, sidestepping us both, disappearing behind me. She isn’t it, either.

There’s no monster at my back, otherwise the people at my front would’ve warned me.

Right?

Right.

A look behind my back and I breathe easier. The street is empty, besides the woman who sprints, disappearing in the distance.

I’m fine. It’s a good neighborhood. A few more blocks and I’ll be home.

Five more minutes go on like this. Of me hyping myself. Convincing myself I’m perfectly safe here.

And failing.

It should’ve helped by now. My wild imagination should’ve calmed its fucking tits. This isn’t like me, this hugging my middle. This hurried pace.

Nothing ever scares me anymore. I’m a strong, independent woman. I’ve been living on my own and providing for myself for the last three years. Have recently signed a major contract with a renowned company.

Me. I did it.

No one gets to scare me. No one has the right to back me into a corner.

Other than Rex. But he’s harmless. He’s a wounded beast, my older half-brother. His mom died when he was a teenager, then our—

I shake my head. Another moment that I think about my younger brother, and I’ll cry.

No time for that. The present moment, that’s what I need to focus on. On this horrible, ominous feeling of being watched. Of being the sole focus of a stranger’s undivided, bone-chilling attention.

A soft tapping sound of shoes walking the pavement reaches behind me.

Oh, shit. Now I know I’m not crazy.

Whoever it is, they’re done hiding. They’re here.

Screw them.

Screw them for messing with my perfectly perfect day. Screw them for fucking with me. Rex is the only one who’s allowed to do that. He’s family. He has mitigating circumstances. Like our dead brother and how I failed to save him eighteen years ago.

The person behind me isn’t Rex.

He’s a rude, stalking asshole, and I’m going to tell him exactly that.

I come to a full stop. Put my hands on my hips. Roll my shoulders back.

On the outside, I might look tired and overworked. My soul isn’t exhausted, though. It’s ready to fight. Ready tell whoever this is they can go suck a cock.

I’m not a victim.

Not waiting a second longer, I spin on my heel. I’m already glowering at whoever I might find there, stalking me. Ready to kick them in the nuts in case they get too close.

I will, I most absolutely—

What the hell?

The man in the charcoal gray suit who’s prowling toward me isn’t a creep. Doesn’t wield a knife or a cloth with chloroform clutched in his fist.

He’s simply there. Staring at me with the most beautiful sapphire blue eyes I’ve ever seen. Even in the dark, I can tell they glow.

He narrows them, curious and intense, as he starts walking in my direction. I have to look up to keep gazing at him as he invades my personal space. This tall man who’s about six-foot-three.

Damn him, he’s even more beautiful up close. More dangerous.

His brown hair is cut close on the sides, longer and organized on top. His jaw is all sharp edges. His cheeks are a work of highlights and shadows beneath a dark scruff.

And his mouth. It’s the most dangerous part of him. The man smirks, and yet there’s nothing reassuring about it. The way his lips curve. He’s wicked. Devious.

Then they move. “Can I help you?”

Only when he talks do I realize he’s stopped right in front of me. That I’m still scowling and my hands are pinned to my waist. That the heat of his body bleeds into mine.

The fragrance of his cologne carries to me. It smells expensive, like his suit. The hint of spice is enough to make me lose my resolve.

As if he counted on it to make me weak for him.

Asshole.

“I asked…” His hand rises between us, fingers long and manly. Warm, I notice, when he brushes a strand of my hair behind my ear. His touch is calculated. Cold. A contrast to the supposedly kind gesture. “Can I help you?”

He touches me as if he knows me. As if he’s familiar with my body, or at least wanted to.

A predator. That’s what he is. His thousand-dollar suit, expensive haircut and smooth voice are a veneer. A trap. And I, for whatever reason, am his prey.

I’m a strong, independent woman. I am.

I wrap my hand around his wrist, needing to yank his hand away from my face.

Big mistake.

A pang of electricity shoots through me from where our bodies are connected. I gasp as it burns me down to my core.

We don’t move, and I feel his pulse beneath my fingertips. Strong. Commanding.

Delicious.

I have to bite down the inner part of my bottom lip to stifle a groan.

“Darling?” His voice jolts me back to the present moment.

He’s been stalking me.

“I’m not your darling.” I remove his hand from my face. Take a step back, to a place where air seeps into my lungs. Where my brain can function. “I’m not your anything.” My low hiss doesn’t deter him.

He inches toward me, crowding my space again.

This isn’t how I’m going to die. I refuse to be hypnotized by a gorgeous man, a predator. I refuse to leave my family because this stalker is so good at his mind games.

“Stay back.” I ball my hands into fists, lifting them between us, pushing at his rock-hard chest. “I took self-defense classes in college. Leave me alone.”

“Or else?” He cocks a dark eyebrow at me. “You’ll punch me for walking down the street? I had no idea strolling was a punishable offense.”

He simply did that. Walk down the street. He didn’t do anything other than ask if he could help me. He also did more. He touched me in a way my one and only boyfriend from junior high ever touched me. And even then, it never felt like this.

I shouldn’t like this.

I’m tormented over this.

The man gets off on my inner war. His sapphire blue eyes twinkle.

Then, ever-so-slowly, his smirk transforms into a soft smile.

A fake one.

He’s trying to prove that he’s harmless. Trying to make me fall for it.

Why?

The empty street is the perfect setup for him to do whatever he wants with me. My self-defense classes would be worthless against a man his size.

In two seconds flat, he could drag me into the nearest alley, rape and kill me. He’d put his large hand over my mouth, silence my screams. I could kick him in the balls all I want, nothing would work.

So why does he care about disarming me when he’s just standing there?

At my frown, his sexy smirk returns.

Sexy? It was wicked a second ago. It was, but his fingers are back on my cheek. His thumb lights the nerve endings on my skin with every possessive stroke.

“And I should know.” His voice sounds velvety and deep.

“Know what?” I whisper-growl, pissed mostly at myself.

Rex would have a field day if he ever found out about this. That I’m leaning in to a stranger’s touch. Standing here, still as a statue, instead of hightailing it home.

“What a punishable offense is.” The man slides his hand lower. His fingers are at my chin, tipping my face up. Silencing me with one commanding gesture. “Since I’m a lawyer. It’s my job to know that.”

A short, incredulous laugh bursts out of me.

Of course, lawyers can do terrible, terrible things. They’re human just like the rest of us. But would anyone announce he’s a lawyer before he’s going to rape and murder a woman? Sounds ridiculous.

I laugh harder.

“What?” The question isn’t an indignant one. His eyes glint. He’s as amused as I am. “What’s so funny?”

“You won’t kill me,” I blurt out, then clasp a hand over my mouth.

His smirk widens. “No, darling, I won’t.”

He didn’t say I won’t do any other things . Didn’t ask why I thought the worst of him.

He’s just amused, that’s all. And harmless.

As panty melting as this man is, I can’t stay here and chat.

In a few weeks—depending on how demanding the BLF gig turns out to be—I might meet him again. I’d smile and ask him what he was doing out here, if he lives anywhere nearby.

Hopefully, he’d call me darling again. Since he’s not a murderer, I think I might like it.

“Okay, then, since murdering me is off the table.” Reluctantly, I pull away from him. “I’ll get going. Bye.”

Neither of us moves.

“I have work to do,” I remind myself. Out loud.

“What do you do for a living?” The question is quiet, meant only for me.

“Web designer.” The answer flows from me. He’s safe. He won’t use it against me. And I… I kind of want to tell him. “I have my own business, so I don’t have time for this. So…got to go. See you around.”

Something flashes across his features, wiping off the humor in his eyes. He’s changing in front of me, his expression shifting. Hard lines and sharp edges all over, as if he’d never smiled at me. Ticking jaw and serious eyes.

I’m frozen in place and he’s the only one with the power to free me. It’s pathetic to ask for his permission. I do that anyway. “You’re supposed to say something like I’ll be seeing you, stranger.”

“It’s late,” he says instead. “Let me walk you home.”

Let me walk you home.

Five words. Five seemingly harmless words.

Except they’re spoken from his mouth. His lips.

He’s asking me to walk me home. Not demanding. In a bossy sort of way, true, but still. He gives me an out.

I could let him walk me home. What’s the worst that could happen? He’ll see where I live? And do what with it? He can’t come inside the building without a code. He can’t break into my apartment without a key.

No one can. There hasn’t been a break-in for the past three years I’ve rented my apartment there. Even Rex approved of me living in The West Loop neighborhood exactly for that reason. It’s safe.

I should just say yes and start walking. Instead, I’m here, lingering. Cocking my head to the side, offering the stranger a teasing smile.

“You care about my safety?”

What the hell’s wrong with me?

The man doesn’t think there’s anything wrong. His gaze is just as curious. Just as intense. “Yes. I do.”

“You’re a terrible liar.” My nervous giggle should embarrass me. It only draws the stranger closer. “You don’t care. You just want to find out where I live, stalker.”

His face is stony. Reminds me of a sculpture.

No man should be this beautiful. No one.

“Is that a yes?”

My stomach ties up in knots. It doesn’t seem like he’d let this go. I don’t want him to let this go.

“Yes.” I swallow around the lump in my throat. Around the heavy meaning behind my answer. “It’s a yes.”

The man’s lips twitch. Then the smirk and twinkle are back. His mouth opens to say something.

If he asked me to go home with him right now, I would.

I can’t.

“This way.” I turn and start heading in the direction of my home.

The man falls into step next to me. A minute or two of easy silence stretches between us as we walk past cute storefronts, crossing over into my neighborhood.

“You always attack strangers on the street?” His light tone is full of suggestions. Sexy ones.

I twist my head up to him. Nothing scary or predatory about him now. The intensity from before could’ve been a figment of my imagination for all I know. Maybe it was.

We cross the road. “Only creeps who call me darling.”

“So, let me get this straight.” He casually rests his hand on my lower back and pulls me toward him, steering me away from a delivery guy who almost runs into me. “ You stopped in the middle of the sidewalk. You turned my way. Scoffed at me. You had that cute hands-on-your-hips thing going on. All I did was ask you what’s wrong. How am I the creep here?”

His hand fits nicely on the curve of my back. So nicely that I don’t bother recoiling from his touch once the threat of the delivery guy has cleared.

“Yes. You’ve been following me,” I taunt him. I interrogate him. Doesn’t matter how hot he is. He’s still basically a stranger. “I heard you walking behind me. That’s why I stopped.”

“I wasn’t following you.” I feel his heated gaze on my skin. When I look up, I see him staring. “I was on my way home.”

It’s hard to believe a man wearing such expensive clothes would walk home. He has to have a car. Maybe even a driver.

Questioning his honesty would be the right thing to do.

Then there’s his hand on my back. The warmth of it turns me into a foolish, wanting girl.

“Where’s home?” My voice is hoarse. Snap the fuck out of it . I give myself a mental shake, clearing my throat.

His lips tick higher at the sound. At my obvious embarrassment. Great, now my cheeks are blazing. Now he’s closer, his hand sliding to my waist.

“A few blocks up the road.” He jerks his chin in that direction. No address. No neighborhood.

“Oh, there .” I manage a smile. A teasing response. “Nothing vague about there .”

“Curious little thing.” His eyes darken.

He called me… Sigh . Did he really have to do it in that voice?

A voice I’m falling for. I can’t stop looking at him. I’m not worried I might stumble on another person or bust my foot on a fire hydrant. This man won’t let anything happen to me.

Anything other than himself. He ’s happened to me.

His fingers apply the slightest pressure on my skin. His eyes are evil again.

How does he do that?

“I am.” I’m back to fishing for information. He’s a predator, I can’t afford to forget that. “I thought maybe I could walk you home.”

“You care about my safety?” he repeats my question to me.

Flirting. That’s what he does. He isn’t evading. He…flirts. Another green flag.

Compared to his thousand red ones.

“Exactly.” Feeling more comfortable, I lift my fists to my chest. Take two, three punches in the air. “Anyone comes anywhere near you, I’ll kick their butts.”

At that, mystery man lets out a low laugh. “You’d do that for me?”

“Yes.”

He makes a low voice at the back of his throat. It’s on the tip of my tongue to continue our back and forth. Dare him to let me walk him home and fight off anyone who’d come near him.

“Oh.” My eyebrows furl. How disappointing. We’ve made it to my apartment building. “This is me.”

“Yes, it is.”

Ice latches itself around my heart, freezing me down to my bone.

Or it could be the fact that the man’s hand no longer warms the small of my back. He’s returned it to his side, and I’m cold. It’s physical.

I’m not worried about his strange statement, like he knew I lived here.

He won’t do anything to hurt me. He could’ve and he hasn’t.

“Well, then,” he says.

I turn to face him. Is it possible to get used to a predator? To be disarmed this easily? If it is, this man is a pro at it.

I want him to come home with me.

Stupid. And impossible. There’s no time for this. Not even for a goodnight kiss. A relationship, a date, a one-night stand, they’re off the table.

There’s a lot riding on the projects I have yet to finish. On the major contract with BLF Capital.

My parents’ medical bills and insurance. My financial security. A little extra for Rex if he ever got laid off.

It’s irresponsible to risk any of it for him. For this beautiful, mysterious, incredibly hot man.

Unless he insists.

He doesn’t. Well, then, hanging in the air between us. He doesn’t say another word.

“You’re going, right?” My heart shouldn’t pinch at this. It does, anyway.

“I am.” His fingers curl around the side of my neck. He backs me up into a dark corner, pushing me to the space where my building’s front door and the building itself meet.

An onlooker could think the stranger and I are lovers. A man in a suit towering over a woman with her lips parted. He’s grabbing her neck as if he has the right to. His face is angled so low that they almost kiss.

To me, it feels like I’m drowning. Suffocating. Being forced to stare into two precious sapphires that have lost all their spark. Only cruelty remains in them. Only threats to do the worst things to me.

I don’t hate it. I’m fucked in the head to want this. To agree to this. I really am.

“Doesn’t look like you’re going,” I mumble, pressing both hands to his firm chest. I need to pull him close. I need him to go away. “Having second thoughts? Already?”

“Second thoughts?”

“Uh…” Me and my stupid mouth. Ugh. I should’ve just told him to leave . Instead, here I am. Flirting. Awkwardly so. “About me being your bodyguard.”

“That.” His lips pinch into a fine line while his eyes roam over every available inch on my face. The man’s gaze skates lower to my collarbone, my heaving breasts. Then he drags them up to meet my gaze. “I appreciate the offer, darling, but I’m good. If I want anyone dead, I’m capable of getting the job done myself.”

“Ha!” I bark out a nervous laugh. He’s kidding, right? It’s a part of our banter. “Good one. You’re funny.”

“We’ll find that out soon enough,” he whispers, his voice harsh. Barely audible.

I gulp. His grip around my neck tightens, as if he’s trying to memorize that part of me.

He’s kidding, I have to remind myself of that. He’s a funny man with a dark side.

He won’t kill anyone, least of all me.

But he’ll touch me. He is touching me. Hard muscles pressed to my soft curves. He’s even harder between his legs, and I can’t breathe with how much I want him.

His forehead is a hair’s breadth from mine.

This is it. Work is meaningless. Life is an inconsequential series of events.

There’s only him and his hands pressing my jaw. Angling my head to the side. And—

“Do you like cronuts?” It’s either this question or I let him kiss me.

I have no time for kissing a man.

“Do I what?” Amused again. His thumb is on my bottom lip, tugging it down.

“Cronuts, you know? The love child of croissant and a donut,” I’m blabbering. The man and his slow smirk do that to me. I also have to get these words out, or I’ll give in to him. I’m so close. “A fluffy donut. Delicious.”

“Can’t say I’ve tried one. I’m not big on sweets. Unless…” His thumb scorches my tongue as he dips it into my mouth. He doesn’t have to say unless what. Unless it’s me. “Why do you ask?”

“There’s a place.” I’m breathless as he wets my lips with my own saliva. “A really great, awesome place.” I sigh, to my shame, and the man’s eyes turn to hot coals. “Where they serve them. We could go, once my schedule frees up.”

“We could?” he coaxes, his thumb running along my lips rendering me stupid. Totally, completely stupid. “You’d go with a stalking creep?”

“My half-brother is the manager there. If you misbehave, he can—”

The stranger’s face changes into something unrecognizable. Neither amused nor intense.

Furious.

His molars gnash so hard I can hear it. Nostrils flare.

He’s mad. Real mad. His anger is red paint—it’s blood —and it’s everywhere. I can practically taste metal on my tongue. Feel the air vibrating around us.

“Hey, are you okay?” I reach up to stroke his cheek. He winces, but doesn’t pull back. “Did I do something wrong?”

“No, darling. You could never.”

The man releases me into the wall. Takes one, two, three steps back.

My knees are weak. I don’t let it show. Don’t give any sign that he’s hurt me. I straighten my back and revert to the woman I was a few minutes ago.

Instead of pouting, I glower at him. “Can you at least tell me what happened?”

“No.” He tugs on the knot of his tie, readjusting it, then running a hand along his jaw. Twisting his features into a more effable expression. To smirking at me. To his mask. “Not yet. I will, though. Soon. I’ll see you around, neighbor.”

I don’t like people being cryptic. Or quiet. I hate loaded silences so bad. I’ve had enough of those for a lifetime.

“If you plan on keeping up this stalking act, don’t you think you at least owe me your name?”

A huff of a laugh escapes him. This one doesn’t sound fake. “I do.”

“Well?”

Just because he agrees with me, doesn’t mean I’ll get my answer, apparently.

Sapphire Eyes turns from me, slipping into the night.

Taking his name and a few of my heartbeats with him.