Page 13 of Hidden Obsession

Chapter Six

Mason leftthe black bag full of Cleo’s things in the trunk of his car. She had vetoed all her underwear, stating she wouldn’t wear anything the scumbag who was trying to scare her had touched. She was putting on a brave face, but she was frightened and upset, and he didn’t blame her. Emme and Shane had taken her back to the office earlier while he stayed and dealt with the police. They had filed a report and had people dusting for prints, but unfortunately in a place with the crime rate Miami had, it was low on the list of priorities.

It was a sad but true fact that MPD was overstretched and underpaid, with drug dealers, murderers, gangs, and other heinous crimes taking priority. He got it, but it meant he and Alliance were on their own with finding Cleo’s stalker. He had passed his card to the lead detective who had promised to share information with him, probably happy for someone else to solve the case for him.

However, the stalker had escalated fast. It worried him. Most stalkers started with the small stuff—late-night calls or hang-ups, the victim feeling as if they were being followed, but he had talked to Cleo, and she’d had nothing like that happen. Fuck, he probably had more hang-ups than she did.

Walking across the carpark toward the office, he saw Alex standing way back as animal control removed the venomous snakes. That was something else he could get Alex to follow up on. “Hey, Alex, got a second?”

Alex turned to look at him, his forehead beaded with sweat and Mason had a distinct feeling it wasn’t the Miami sun that had caused it. Alex seemed to have a deep-rooted fear of snakes, almost as bad as Cleo’s. “Yeah, sure. What do you need?” He kept an eye on the car and didn’t seem to want to turn his back on the perceived threat.

“Can you look into all the places you can buy this breed of snake? It can’t be easy to get hold of them, even illegally. There might be some chatter you can find.” It may well be a dead-end, but it was a start.

“Sure, I’ll get right on it.” Alex nodded before moving toward Alliance’s front doors. Mason watched as the snakes that could very well have put Cleo in the hospital—or worse—were taken away.

Moving inside, he saw her desk was empty and walked toward his office. He wanted to touch base with a friend of his who was a profiler and see if he could run a quick profile on the stalker. He took a detour when he heard giggling coming from Emme’s office. Female’s giggling, and Cleo’s voice stood out. It was melodic, and sexy, and shot desire straight to his dick when he’d first heard it. It was even worse now he had her face and the feel of her sexy body pressed against his to imagine with it.

Knocking on the half-open door, he pushed it fully open when Emme called for him to come in, prompting the four women standing around the computer to burst out laughing.

“I feel like I walked in on something I shouldn’t have.” Mason was more terrified of the four women who turned in his direction than he was of a psycho wielding gunman.

“Cleo was doing some online shopping.” Mercy walked toward him, a look of mischief on her face he didn’t quite understand. “You should go help her.”

With that Mercy, Caitlin, and Emme exited the room as if the hounds of hell were after them. He watched the door close and heard a barrage of laughter moving down the hall.

He turned back to Cleo, who was blushing crimson. It wasn’t a look he had seen on her before, but he liked it, he liked it a fucking lot. “What just happened?” He moved closer as he looked at the door then back to her.

“They’re idiots.” Cleo minimized the screen she was on before he got to see it.

“Sounded like you were having fun,” he said as she stood, and he noticed the way her green flowery dress swooshed around her toned thighs as she stood.

“We were, kind of…” Distracted, Cleo moved around him, her breasts brushing his chest.

Mason snaked out an arm, grasping her around the waist and hauling her closer to him. Her body pressed to his front. ”Why are you blushing?” His voice was soft; he wanted to feel her skin against his lips but fought the urge. He heard her breath hitch at the position that almost mimicked the one from last night.

“Caitlin told a rude joke.” Cleo’s answer was breathy, and his dick twitched.

“Yeah? Want to share it?” He was close to her neck as he took in her scent.

“I, uh can’t remember it.” Cleo pulled away, practically running for the door.

Mason watched her go and turned back to the computer. Taking a seat, he shook the mouse to wake the screen and maximized the display from the bottom. A popular website with a lingerie covered model popped up. Mason felt his lips curl into a grin as he realized what they had been looking at. Cleo needed new underwear and didn’t that make his dick go from the semi-erect state it always seemed to be in around Cleo to rock fucking hard.

Moving the mouse, he saw the basket showed nine items and he couldn’t resist. He was going to hell, but he didn’t give a flying fuck at that moment.

Clicking on the basket icon, a list of the things she wanted to purchase. He almost swallowed his tongue when he saw a dark red lace teddy, black lace thongs, satin demi-cup bra’s—whatever the fuck they were—and the pale green silk slip with black lace on the breasts. Jesus Fucking Christ!

The instant visceral image of Cleo in that lingerie was more than he could take. That she might be wearing something like that now made him want to club her over the head and drag her to his office and find out. Of course, he would never do that, but fuck if he didn’t want to.

Deciding that now was as good a time as any to loosen little Miss. Darwin up, he quickly set up an account and purchased the items in the basket before forwarding the email receipt to her private email.

He closed the screen and walked back to his office, stopping to talk to Shane on the way. He wondered how long it would take before she saw the order confirmation email. Mason didn’t have to wait long. She banged on Shane’s door, moments after he and Shane had finished discussing what happened with the MPD.

“Yes?” Shane called, and Mason bit back the smirk when she entered.

“Can I talk to Mason a second please?” Her voice came through gritted teeth. Cleo was rattled, and he liked it way better than Cleo frightened.

Shane motioned Mason away. “Yes, we were done anyway.”