Page 16 of Hidden Obsession

Lust surged, but before she could make much of it, Mason changed the mood again and threw her an onion ring, making her giggle. Belly stuffed, Cleo leaned in her chair as the soft sea breeze played with her hair, admiring the couples dancing nearby.

“You want dessert?”

Cleo rolled her eyes. “If I have another bite, I won’t fit into this dress anymore.”

Mason winked at her. “Well, if that happens, please, please, please, don’t hesitate to take it off. And it would be my pleasure to help you remove it.” His wink said it all.

Licking her lips, she only smiled at him, taking another sip of her drink to steady her racing heart.

His eyes remained on her, almost burning over her skin until he broke eye contact to look at the people milling around them. “I feel like I’m dominating the conversation here.”

Cleo winced and toyed with her glass, knowing she was evading a bit. ”I don’t have anything interesting to say about my life.”

The way Mason remained silent, only arching an eyebrow, made her realize he didn’t believe her. Biting her lip, she sighed. “I don’t like thinking about my past, Mason. I’ve told people before and saw the change in their eyes. Believe me when I say you should focus on the woman I am, not the circumstances around how I got here.”

“Circumstances?”

Her brows turned into a frown. “Why do I get the feeling you won’t let it go?”

“Because you’re a very intelligent woman?”

Her chuckle was more sarcastic than she intended. “No one thought I was intelligent where I came from. As I said, I’m from Arizona, but what I’ve never told anyone is that my family was, well, still is, part of a cult.”

Her heart pounded in her ribcage when she said the words, part ashamed, part fearful what Mason would think of her. Unable to maintain eye contact, she stared through the opening of the restaurant’s fence, her eyes on the flickering light over the waves.

“My parents aren’t educated. We lived in trailer parks most of my life, and not nice trailer parks. My mom was a hairdresser, my dad…” She hesitated a second. “At his best, he was a decent mechanic. Despair is fertile soil for scammers, and they fell prey to a man named Jeffrey Spears. He arrived at the trailer park where we lived and slowly started acting like some sort of messiah, professing he could help the people there. He spread money and his version of the gospel all over the place, and slowly gained a hold over the people. I was young, but something deep inside me told me to stay as far away as possible from him. It was slow, but after a few years, Spears controlled trailer park. I was nearly sixteen by then.”

Cleo wasn’t sure if she should continue and couldn’t bring herself to look and see Mason’s expression. She finally lifted her head when a warm hand rested on top of hers. Mason looked at her as if she was the center of his universe. There wasn’t pity or judgment on his face, instead it was the expression he wore when he was analyzing a case, trying to understand it inside and out. “I know what you’re thinking, Mason.”

“Is that so?”

“You think my past has something to do with the stalker. I can tell you right now it’s impossible. Nobody knows I’m in Florida. And anyway, it’s been a lot of years since I left.”

Mason nodded. “It crossed my mind. But you have me riveted. I sense something exciting happens in the next part of your story.”

Cleo warmed a little, the corners of her mouth going up. “If you like action movies, you could say that. Spears didn’t focus on the children, because they couldn’t be used for profit. Indeed, he asked his followers to remove us from school because it wasn’t worth it, that we’d learn more by working for him doing cleaning and yard work. I hated my life. I loved school and missed my friends. My parents neglected me, and I was tired of being hungry and poor. But what was for me outside? So I stayed. I thought I was safe until I saw something change in Spears’ behavior toward me.”

Mason exhaled sharply, his hand squeezing hers and she continued.

“I knew something was brewing, and as I said, I didn’t want anything to do with him. What spurred me to make a move was when I saw how he started looking at me, and people started whispering when I passed by. Something had changed, and I decided I wasn’t going to stay and find out what it was. So, in the middle of the night, I packed my backpack, stole the few dollars my parents had left, and disappeared.” Cleo felt guilty at not telling him the whole truth. She knew exactly what Spears wanted from her, but she wasn’t ready to tell Mason the rest yet.

Mason whistled. “You have guts. You were only a teenager. Where did you go?”

“I remembered we’d visited my paternal grandmother in Mesa a few years before Spears arrived. I managed to get there and searched for her. It took a few days, but I found her.”

Remembering her grandmother opening the door, and the immediate recognition as she pulled her into her arms, made her choke up all over again. “I told her everything as she listened, feeding me, comforting me. We cried—her for her son, and me for my parents and my lost dreams. I stayed with her, hidden in her apartment for a long time until I got my bearings. She taught me to read her tarot cards. It was our bonding moment, I guess.”

“Did anyone try to find you? The police?”

Cleo shook her head. “I doubt they would have involved the police because that would mean they’d enter the trailer park, and Spears would never allow that. I was more scared that my father would contact his mother and ask questions. But it never happened.”

“What did you do?”

“My grandmother is an amazing woman, she helped me build my confidence, and even though she didn’t know anything about it, she found an online secretarial course. That kept me busy, and also gave me hope I’d eventually get a decent job, be self-sufficient. Once I completed my course and had my diploma, my grandmother pushed me to leave the state, get as far away as possible and start over, have the fresh start I deserved, away from the threat of Spears finding me. She offered me a bus ticket to Houston, which was a lot of money for her, and gave me her tarot cards, saying they would bring me luck and sent me away and my new life began.”

Now a tear rolled down her cheek. It had been a long time since she’d felt so vulnerable in front of anybody. Mason didn’t say anything, instead he stood and pulled her to her feet before leading her to the dance floor.

He pulled her into his embrace and started to sway with her. The music was low and the melody smooth and sexy as their bodies touched.