“Do you have any idea how long I’ve loved you?” I blurted, not even realizing I’d been thinking that until the words are out.
A smile tugged on his lips. “Not as long as I have loved you. Why did we wait so long?”
I shook my head, pressing my lips against his chest. It was ten by now and we should both be out, but I couldn’t care less.
Routines were nice, but… This was nicer.
And concerning my work… I’d just make up a lie later. Maybe I’d pretend I’d been hanging over the toilet bowl all morning, throwing up, being unable to call in.
“What do you wanna do today?” I asked, resting my hand on his chest and my chin on top of that.
He pushed up a little, his eyes widening in panic. “You have to work, don’t you? And I should fill the fridge before hitting a gym.”
It was something he often did, and usually we didn’t let those things slide when being together, but… “I can be your gym today.”
He grinned, drawing me closer until he could press a kiss to my lips. “Aren’t you a cheeky one?”
I smiled, inhaling deeply. This was exactly how a day should be. “When you go back to base, I’m going to miss you.”
He cocked his head, shaking it. “You’ll be fine, because I’ll be driving back every Friday night to spend the weekend with you, girl.”
Oh, that was a promise I liked.
A lot.
“Well, then I promise to call you every night and not miss you too much.”
Dim wagged his brows. “I have my own room now, so you can show me all the goodness, and I can show you all of mine.”
God, was love always this easy, this perfect? Because being with Dim was like I’d never been with anyone else, as if fate finally had given me exactly what I needed.
The key turning in my front door lock caused me to stiffen.
Instantly Dim sat up. “Who has a key to your apartment?”
I licked my lips. “You and I, no one else. Even the landlord would have to break in. It’s the rules here.”
Which could mean only one thing… “Your stalker? I changed one of the cameras yesterday, and I bet he knows your routines enough to guess you’d be out. He’s probably here to fix it.”
All the warm glow I’d been feeling this morning vanished in an instant. “Cameras?” I echoed, and he paled.
“Fuck.”
Combing his hand through his dark strands, he got up. “I forgot about the one in the kitchen. didn’t turn it away because I figured it would be too obvious he was caught then, and I needed the police to see it, but when you came home and kissed me, I just forgot all about it. I’m so sorry.”
I touched my throat. “Camera? In the kitchen?” Where he’d taken me last night, had spread me out naked?
God, I wanted to throw up.
“You call the police, I’m gonna grab our intruder,” he ordered, slipping his sweats over.
I searched for my phone, not finding it, and picked up his instead.
With trembling hands, I dialed, listening to the ringing until someone picked up. Even before the bored voice announced name and title, I whispered, “There’s someone in my apartment. The stalker actually has copied my key.”
And that was the moment tears started streaming down my cheeks. “Are you the chick this guy has been calling about for the last two days?”
I dropped onto my bed while Dim carefully opened my door. “He’s inside my apartment. I need someone to come over, please,” I whispered.
“Gimme your address and we’ll have someone over. Lock yourself in, Ma’am, and don’t try anything funny.”
How in the world did a person sound bored while someone else was fearing for their life? “My army boyfriend is going after him,” I replied, and that seemed to jolt the officer into action.
“What? No, don’t let anyone get hurt. It will not do you or your boyfriend any good.”
I told him my address and then said, “You should have thought about that before ignoring my panic.” I hung up after that, my heart thumping as I tried to hear noises in my apartment.
It struck me then, that maybe I shouldn’t have let Dim go. Yes, he was a soldier, and yes, he had experience, but honestly, a stalker was a whole new level of crazy, and mine had proven that.
Deciding to distract myself, I searched around for my phone, eventually finding it under the bed, remembering that it had toppled off the nightstand when we’d gotten active in here last night.
I powered it up, then instantly got notifications about messages, and the moment I opened some of them, my stomach dropped again.
There was a picture of me, half asleep, but I couldn’t say where it had been taken, couldn’t remember ever having seen those surroundings, then I got a clip, and at first, I didn’t know what it was until I heard myself moaning, begging, and realized I was watching my own pussy clench.
Throwing open the window, I threw up out of it, retching until nothing else was coming up.
I didn’t know when the pervert had gotten this intimate footage of me, but it made me realize that maybe, just maybe, there’d been a reason I had felt as horny as I had yesterday and that made me want to throw up right away again.
Dim
I inched my way toward the bathroom, knowing exactly where I’d find the guy. He was in there, touching a few of Maddie’s things before turning around as if searching for something.
I grabbed him from behind and put him in a chokehold, knowing exactly how I had to incapacitate him.
He struggled, kicking against the bathtub and then the toilet, but eventually he stopped. I knew it took only a matter of seconds until the brain was lacking oxygen and shutting down.
I dragged him out into the
