AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My brows sweep up. “I thought you said we were done talking about that, but tell me more.”
She laughs, taking another swig of her wine as she shakes her head. “Not like that, silly boy. You’ve been taking up my time because I’ve been working with my dad and the others on the stalker case.”
“I’m still not convinced he’s a stalker.” I lean forward, propping my elbows on my knees with my drink held in both hands. “Have you learned anything new? As I said, they told me they’d keep me in the loop, but I haven’t been getting much information.”
“That really is because there’s not much to report so far. There’s been more activity online, but the guy is smart. New accounts keep cropping up, all routed through different countries, and he has all sorts of countermeasures in place to keep us from tracking him. Our guys have assured us that they’ll find him, but it’s going to take time.”
Her gaze bounces from one of my eyes to the other, and she seems uncertain about what she’s about to tell me but says it anyway. “He’s pissed that you haven’t been seen and you’ve slowed down so much on posting on your own account. It also looks like he knows you’re the one who’s been doing stuff for the band and Emma, but since your personal accounts have been quiet, he’s now accusing them of monopolizing your time.”
I snort. “That’s because I haven’t had anything to post about other than basic updates about my coffee or shoes or whatever.”
She laughs, relaxing again as she sits back. “It’s probably for the best. Dad and I both think the guy is still watching you closely, and since he seems to know you haven’t been out, he must still be around. The more he posts about how you haven’t been posting, the greater our chances of finding him.”
“Can’t we just coax him out somehow and arrest him? I don’t mind being used as bait.”
“Believe it or not, I pitched that idea, but we’ll have to wait before we do it even if I can get it past the parents. There’s nothing really to arrest him for just yet. Maybe harassment, but even that’s a stretch. To be honest, I don’t even know if we have enough for a restraining order. All the guy has done is spew some bile online and maybe sent a picture of us kissing, which doesn’t even prove that he was definitely there. Someone could’ve sent it to him, or he even could’ve hacked into the city systems. We just don’t know yet, and the laws around this kind of thing aren’t exactly designed to protect victims before anything has really happened.”
“Fuck. So what do we do?”
“The only thing we can, which is wait out the situation and stay out of sight for now. If he can’t get to you, nothing can happen to you.”
“Which also means we’ll never have enough for a restraining order or an arrest.” I curse again. “It’s kind of a catch-22, isn’t it? I need to be out there for him to do something to give us enough to go on to be able to take action against him, but if I go out there, he needs to do something to me to give us enough to take action. In the meantime, all I can do is to keep sitting on my ass?”
She reaches out, resting her hand on my forearm. “I understand your frustration. Trust me. It’s double-edged for me because at the same time I’m just sitting on my ass, I’m also coming up dry on trying to find the guy. It makes me feel useless and helpless, and those aren’t things I’m good at.”
Before I can even think about it, I put my hand over hers on my arm. “You’re not useless, Liv. We’re both a little helpless in this situation, which sucks, but it won’t last forever.”
Her blue eyes lift slowly, locking in place when they reach mine. They’re so clear that it’s like staring at the purest sapphires, but there’s too much pain in them. It’s obvious that this whole situation is really bothering her—possibly even more than it’s bothering me. I’m not feeling guilty or useless or like I’m bad at my job because of it, but she is. It adds a whole different dimension to being stuck in the hotel when all you have is time to dwell on how you’re failing to bring it to an end.
“Drink up,” I say finally, looking away from her and withdrawing my hand as I stand up and motion for her to give me her glass. “I’ll get us refills. I know you don’t really like drinking, but it looks like you need another one, and I just so happen to have more.”
She gets up too, still sipping on her drink as she follows me to the minibar with the ice bucket on top of it. Turning away from her, I add a few more cubes to my empty glass, fill it up, then grab some more ice for her.
As I turn back to drop it in her glass, she’s standing right behind me, much closer than I expected her to be. She blinks in surprise like she didn’t realize how close she got either, but then her eyes drop to my lips, and I lose all sense of reason. Because I know she’s thinking about that kiss. The kiss I haven’t been able to stop thinking about either. The kiss I swore to myself I’d never do again.
Yet I find myself forgetting all those promises as I reach for the glass in her hand, pulling it out of her grip and setting it down on the minibar without looking away from her. When she glances back up at my eyes, I go for it.
“I’m going to kiss you now.” I murmur the warning. “If you don’t want me to, this is the time to say it.”
By the time the sentence is finished, my lips are so close to hers that I can feel her breath ghosting across my skin. She’s breathing fast, her gaze pinned on mine, but she doesn’t say no. She doesn’t say anything, doesn’t push me away, doesn’t move.
Instead, as I lower my head and seal my lips over hers, she winds her arms around my neck and pulls me closer, her lips parting to give me full access before she starts kissing me back. While she’s stark naked underneath that robe.Shit. If I’m not careful, this is going to escalate way too much, way too fast.
I don’t usually care about that kind of thing, but this is Olivia. Something inside me is demanding that I take care of her, and even if it kills me, that’s what I’m going to do.
17
OLIVIA
We’re kissing. Forrealreal this time. It’s not just an impulsive thing. I saw him doing that thing guys do where they look at your lips and back up at your eyes and everything. I don’t even know if he knew he was doing it, but he certainly noticed when I did it back.
This time he’s kissing me because he wants to, and I’m kissing him back because I want to. It’s different than it was before, and I’m not quite sure what that means, but I do know it feels too good to stop.
Once again, it’s an entirely different experience with him than it was with the couple of other guys that I’ve kissed. The fact that we’re alone and it wasn’t entirely unexpected this time just seems to add to how much his kiss consumes me. It makes me want so much more than just a kiss, and it seems to be doing the same for him.
He wraps his arms around me and holds me tight, almost possessively, his tongue delving into my mouth as he slides one of his hands to the back of my neck. I expected him to go down instead, to grab my butt instead of my neck, but since his other hand is just about between my shoulder blades as he holds me to him, he’s staying well above the border.
It’s definitely not where I want him touching me, but considering my lack of experience, it’s probably good that he didn’t go straight for the gold. As he keeps kissing me, his lips alternating between hard and soft, urgent and playful, my breasts seem to grow heavy, and my nipples turn into hard little peaks that are more sensitive than they’ve ever been before.
