As I moved to prepare her drinks, I couldn’t help but glance around the coffee shop. It had been like this all day—bustling, chaotic, alive. The familiar buzz of chatter mixed with the hiss of the espresso machine and the clatter of mugs as Ma’am Jeena and I rushed to keep up with the flood of customers.
It wasn’t just any day, though. It was Saturday, the last weekend in October. Halloween was right around the corner, and one could feel it in the air. Not just outside, with the crisp, cool wind that carried the scent of burning leaves, but in here too. The shop was decked out in fake cobwebs, black and orange streamers, and little paper pumpkins that dangled from the ceiling. Even the menu had taken a spooky turn—pumpkin spice lattes, caramel apple ciders, toffee nut mochas, and cinnamon spiced hot chocolates were flying out the door faster than we could make them.
I handed the woman her drinks and pastries, offering a polite smile before turning to the customer with an empty table. The frequent cry of ‘I haven’t gotten my orders. I’ve been here for five minutes. Can you hurry up please. Jeeeena, where’s my order?’ didn’t seem to be shrinking any time soon, and the phone was ringing off the hook with people calling in for deliveries. Itwas like everyone in town had suddenly woken up to the fact that Halloween was in six days and decided to celebrate with a caffeine rush.
For once, I actually felt the spirit of it all. Usually, Halloween came and went without much notice from me, but this year it was different. I could feel the excitement bubbling around me, and for the first time, I didn’t mind being caught in the middle of it. Maybe it was the sight of little kids running past the shop in their skeleton costumes, or the way the cold wind carried the scent of bonfires through the street. Or maybe it was because, for once, I had something to distract me—something that made the chaos feel manageable.
Him.
Just thinking about it made me blush. Wednesday night, I agreed with the package he came with, and nearly started reconsidering on Thursday morning. And after my friends had left, he had come two hours later and bent me over my living room furniture to spank me till I was red for waving him off as a psycho to my friends.
My pussy had throbbed with need after the spanking, and he’d taken it as a bright, colourful sign that I was over the soreness and wanted to get laid. Theon had wrapped a gentle fist around my wrists and put them behind me, using them as anchor as he slid his way in and out, telling me how good I was, how insanely hard I made him without even moving, how nice I was taking him, and orgasm-inducing filthy words that made my eyes roll hard.
All that had been good until he remembered how scared I’d been when I thought Blake was dead, so he’d spanked me again while he fucked me, threatening to kill anyone who messed with me in cold blood. And gosh, that wasn’t supposed to make me climax, but it did. The possessive tone of that man had made me come when he threatened to slit anyone’s throat withoutlooking back. Death, threats or murder wasn’t arousing, but from him...it was much more than that.
I was becoming sick in the head just like he said I would, and to know what and who I was actually dealing with, I talked to him yesterday.
I’d slept nuzzled in his arms last night and woken up to Ma’am Jeena’s pleading on the phone. Before we slept, I’d ask him to tell me bits about himself, and of course, he didn’t have a lot to say. Only that he grew up alone, and when he was eighteen, he came to South Highland to see a man, but then he saw me.
Theon said I was walking with an older man which I easily pictured was my father, and something had caught his eyes for the first time. He’d followed us secretly with the knowledge that he might not see me again, and all that time, he admitted that, “I didn’t know what I was doing until I saw you walk into your house. I’d snapped out of it and went my way, but the image of you plagued my thoughts ever since. Until I moved to South Highland and got myself enrolled in your school.”
So yes, he didn’t see me fall from the sky with shredded wings and immediately fall in love. I’d been walking with my dad in the neighbourhood and he changed town and school because of that.
I was terrified of anyone who wasn’t afraid of him. But thinking through, Theon rarely graced the public with his presence. If they pointed a gun at everyone in the town and asked if Theon had been sighted by them before, they’d all be dead.
But the discussion had ended when I trailed his scar with my finger and asked what happened. He’d distracted me by saying my fingertips were giving him tingles and tingles were making him hard.
A part of me had wondered if he got it from the cliff fall. I wanted to ask him about it, to know how he survived the fall. Who saved him, and what had happened after.
But out of fear that he might not be ready to discuss it, hence pushing me away, I decided not to press him and asked about the lone leaf tattoo instead. He only replied,isn’t it obvious?Then said nothing. Whatever that meant, I didn’t know.
Getting to know and understand him might not be easy, but I was ready to take the step. With fear? Absolutely. But would I give up and have him call me a chicken? Definitely not.
“Ainsley,” Ma'am Jeena called.
I gave her a hold on sign and finished my call. “Yes, we’ll have it delivered very soon. Thank you.” Scribbling the rest of the address on the paper, I looked up to catch her walking to me.
“Attend to the table in the Nile Corner.”
I nodded and handed her the paper for the delivery, immediately rushing to the Nile Corn—
My steps slowed, my heart pounding so hard it echoed in my ears. Heat rushed through me, starting at the base of my neck and spreading like wildfire. Butterflies—genuine, maddening butterflies—filled my stomach as I saw who the customer was.
Theon.
He was sitting there, behind the table in the Nile Corner, his legs slightly apart, completely unbothered. No hoodie today. No attempt at hiding himself or blending in. He was justthere, exposed and effortlessly drawing eyes—myeyes. His dark hair was messy, but not in the careless way most people wore theirs. No, with him, it looked deliberate, like even his imperfections were crafted to make him look more beautiful.
I swallowed hard, my throat suddenly dry. How could he look so...perfect? So untouchable? His eyes locked onto mine, I stopped breathing. The heat in his gaze burned with that possessive look he always gave me. His eyes moved over me,slowly, as if he was memorising every inch, and God, it made him look...hotter, if that was even possible.
A sharp jolt snapped me out of my daze as a man bumped into me with his shoulder, muttering an apology as he walked past. I blinked, inhaling deeply, trying to steady my racing heart.Get it the fuck together, girl.
I straightened up and continued walking towards Theon, but his gaze hadn’t shifted, hadn’t blinked once. It was fixed on me, burning into me, drawing me in without saying a word. Every step closer made my pulse quicken, and I cursed myself for reacting like this, but I couldn’t help it. He had that effect, and he knew it.
“May I know what you want, Stranger?” I brought out a notepad from my pocket.
“You. Is that on the menu?” he asked, looking serious.
I inhaled, thinking, trying not to break the act as well. “Well, if that was on the menu, I would have been ordered more than ten times by different men.”
