"I feel... safe," she says. "I feel like nothing bad can touch me when you're here."
I kiss her forehead. "Nothing bad is going to touch you. I promise."
"But you—" She glances down, where my cock is tenting out against the towel, impossible to hide.
"This wasn't about me." I smooth her hair back from her face. "Right now, I need to check the security perimeter."
"And then?"
I lean down, brush my lips against her ear. "And then I'm going to do that again. And again. Until you can't remember what you were afraid of."
She shivers. "I'm going to hold you to that."
"I'm counting on it."
I help her back into her shorts, pressing one more kiss to her hip before I pull them up. She's wobbly, unsteady, so I keep an arm around her waist as I guide her out of the bathroom.
I grab a pair of sweats from my drawer, pull them on. "Sit. I'll make food."
She settles onto my bed, watching me move around the room. Her cheeks are still flushed, her lips swollen, her hair a mess. She pulls on my old hoodie, drowning in it with a happy sigh.
She looks thoroughly debauched.
She looks like mine.
When see her curled up on my bed, wearing my oversized hoodie that she must have grabbed from the chair, looking soft and satisfied andhappy…I know I'm already lost.
I pull on a t-shirt, and watch her on my bed, drowsy and satisfied. I want to climb in next to her, hold her, forget about everything outside these walls.
My phone buzzes.
Perimeter alert. Front gate.
I'm across the room in two seconds, pulling up the camera feed. Diamond sits up, the softness draining from her face.
"What is it?"
"Stay here."
"Cesar?"
"Stay here."
I grab my gun from the nightstand drawer and move through the house, checking every window, every door. The camera shows the front gate, closed and locked. Nothing visible. But something triggered the sensor.
I go outside.
The late afternoon sun is weak, the wind cold off the ocean. I approach the gate with my weapon drawn, scanning the treeline, the road, every shadow that could hide a threat.
That's when I see it.
A note, tucked into the gate's iron bars. Plain white paper, folded once.
I pull it free with two fingers. Unfold it.
I know you're in there, Diamond. He can't protect you forever.
My blood goes cold.
