"Pack a bag while I fix the door," he said, unable to control his words. He wanted her with him.
"What?"
Clay took a breath because he recognized that tone and it meant he was one word away from pissing her off so badly that she would refuse to listen to anything else he had to say.
He put his hands on her waist and moved her back so that there was a little space between them. "I'm going to be blunt right now and it's probably going to piss you off," he said. "But you scared the shit out of me with that call this morning. You even said the cops didn't want you to be alone. I could stay here with you, but it would be smarter and safer if you stayed with me."
Dylan frowned and he couldn't quite read her expression. She seemed annoyed but also pensive.
"What are you thinking?" he asked.
"I'm trying to figure out if I want to yell at you first for acting like a caveman and telling me what to do or hug you for being so concerned with my safety."
"As long as you don't try to wring my neck while you hug me," he said. "I'll take the hug."
Dylan sighed. "I'm going to take the offer of a place to stay because I was going to ask you anyway. Whoever this guy is, he has been following me and sending me messages and I'm not sure I could sleep here."
"Wait, what?" Clay asked. "Is this the same guy who called the other night? He’s been following you? How long has this been going on?”
"A couple of weeks, I think. I mostly ignored the texts, thinking it would de-escalate the situation if I just didn’t respond. I wasn’t sure they were from the same guy until today. His voice was the same." Dylan answered, scrubbing her bare face with her hands. "At first, I told him to stop contacting me. When he didn't, I blocked his number. Then, a couple of days later, I'm pretty sure the same man contacted me from a different number. I did the same thing. The next day, new number, same guy. So, I stopped responding and immediately started blocking him after the first message. I'm not sure how he's getting all these new numbers, but within twelve to twenty-four hours, he's messaging me again."
"Why didn't you change your number?" Clay asked.
Dylan frowned at him. "I was hoping he'd stop. There was only the one phone call, he mostly texted me. It was easier to ignore him than change my number."
"That's ridiculous," he said.
"When was the last time you changed your phone number?" she asked him.
He stopped talking because he'd never changed his cell phone number after he started paying for his own in his early twenties.
She gave him an arch look. "Yeah, that's what I thought. It's a huge pain in the ass. But it's obvious that I'm going to have to do that now," she said with a sigh. "He's escalating and ignoring him isn't going to do anything to stop that."
"I’m glad you finally realized that."
He shouldn't have said anything because she blinked and then frowned at him.
"Back to my point," she said. "We are dating and sleeping together, but you do not get to step in and start telling me what to do and expecting me to fall in line. I've been on my own for a long time now and I don't need anyone to run my life."
She was right. She'd been on her own, completely, since she was twenty-two. Her parents had died that year and she had no siblings. As much as his mom and sister annoyed him, he couldn't imagine not having them around to annoy him or bug him about stuff.
Except maybe when they were cockblocking.
"You're right," he admitted. "And you were right when you said I was acting like a caveman. I mean, I'm a troll. Primitive is my fallback position, not just from a male standpoint, but from a species one as well." He sighed. "But I have no right to act like that. Instead, I'm going to try again."
She narrowed her eyes as he took both of her hands in his.
"I'm really worried about your safety, Dylan. Will you please come stay with me until the situation is resolved?"
She groaned and let her head fall back. "Oh, your mom and sister taught you way too well."
He grinned at her. "Damn right. I figured out pretty damn quick that my life would be a lot easier if I apologized when I fucked up."
"Well, it worked," Dylan said. "Come meet my neighbor before she brains you with that bat and then I'll go pack while you get to work fixing my door."
Clay followed her to the porch where her neighbor stood, the bat now at her side with the tip resting on the porch.
"Sylvie Falk, this is Clay Dugan, my boyfriend," Dylan said.
