AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Stop being ridiculous. I’ll walk you home.”
“Oh, no!” Pepper said with a firm shake of her head.
“Come on, Pepper. You can’t walk home alone at this late hour. That weirdo is still running around town. Simon says they don’t know who it is.”
“I’m fine,” she argued. “I live three blocks from here. I don’t need you to walk me home.”
“It would make me feel better if I did.”
Pepper smirked and planted her hands on her hips. “The only thing you’re going to feel is disappointment. You’re not getting any more sex out of me, Grant. Not if you put up my mini-blinds, not if you walk me home, not if you buy me a drink and butter me up with compliments. It happened. It’s over. Good night.”
Grant watched as Pepper spun on her heel and marched off into the darkness. He frowned as he watched her go. He didn’t like the idea of her walking home alone and not just because he was trying to work her. She’d already been a victim of the peeper once. What if that pervert was out there right now, watching her?
To make himself feel better, he was going to make sure she got home safely. She just didn’t need to know about it.
Pepper didn’t turn around. She didn’t want to look behind her and see that smug, sexy face of Grant’s watching her walk away.
It was bad enough that she was walking with an extra swish in her step in case he was watching her ass.
Originally, she’d hoped that she could catch a ride home with someone, but leaving early put the kibosh on that. Even though she wasn’t thrilled about the walk home, she couldn’t let him walk with her. Her resistance was wearing thin where he was concerned. After a stiff drink and a light dinner, she could get talked into something she would later regret. She might sleep with him again, or worse, let him into her house.
She paused on the sidewalk for a moment to pull out her pepper spray, and then continued on and across the street toward Pizza Palace. Once the lights of the restaurant faded and Pepper was deep into the darker residential section of Daisy Drive, she felt herself stepping a little faster down the street.
She wished Sheriff Todd would hurry up and catch the peeper so she didn’t feel uncomfortable in her hometown anymore. With her mini-blinds hung in the kitchen, she’d put the unpleasant incident behind her, but Grant was right: He could be out there right now, creeping through the bushes. Watching her walk home.
Pepper glanced over her shoulder once, secretly hoping that maybe Grant was behind her, but the sidewalk was empty and dark. Of all the times he would listen to her . . .
A loud snap of a twig in the yard beside her sent a surge of panic through her. She jumped, her eyes searching the darkness but not seeing any movement. “It’s probably just a raccoon,” she told herself, and started walking double time down the street.
She hated that for the second time in a week, she was fearfully dashing through her own neighborhood. If they ever got that peeper, she was going to give him a sharp tap to the twig and berries.
Up ahead was the intersection with Second Avenue and the streetlights there would be brighter. She was almost to her house. No sweat.
“Pepper?”
She felt someone’s hand brush her shoulder, and reacting instantly, Pepper lifted her pepper spray and pressed the nozzle.
It sent a long stream at the dark figure, which backed away and screamed.
“Jesus, Pepper,” the man moaned through clenched teeth. “What’s wrong with you?”
The slumped figure stumbled back into a yard and the porch light illuminated Grant’s bright red, tear-streaked face. He had her scarf in his hand. She must have dropped it. Now he did, letting the fabric slip through his fingers as he fell to his knees. He curled into a ball, groaning, and then whipped his shirt off to rub the material into his eyes.
“Don’t rub, it makes it worse!” Pepper shoved her spray back in her purse and ran up to his side. “You dumbass,” she said, crouching down. “Why the hell are you following me?”
“I wanted you to be safe.” He rolled onto his back and buried the heels of his hands into his eye sockets. “Apparently you don’t need my help.”
“I told you that.”
“Can we argue about how you’re always right after we flush my eyes?”
Pepper looked around, but she couldn’t exactly use someone’s hose in the middle of the night. It was too far to go back to the bar. That left her one regrettable choice. “Yeah, let’s go.”
She helped hoist Grant back to his feet and led him down the street to her front porch. His eyes were puffy and swollen shut. If there was any time she had to let Grant into her house, this was it. He wouldn’t be able to see how bad it was.
Grant stumbled across her hardwood floors to the kitchen. She leaned him over the sink and spent several minutes flushing his eyes with cool water. That seemed to help.
“Stay here, I’m going to get some milk.”
