“Eat. Then finish your shift and go home.”
I start to get to my feet. “But Tolyan—”
He vanishes through the door. I jump up, run after him and burst out through the same door.
But no matter how many times I scan the hall, I can’t find him. He’s already gone.
Chapter Five
Angelika
When the shift is over, I leave, the half-eaten sandwich wrapped carefully in my bag. I heave a sigh. Fatigue weighs me down, like an anvil chained to my ankle. It’s so unfair. I was so close to asking. Only if Tolyan hadn’t received that text—or whatever it was that he got.
He called me little fawn before he vanished. It’s probably a good thing. Fawns are cute. You want to aww over them and keep them safe. Only a huge, world-class asshole would want to hurt such a nice animal, and Tolyan isn’t one.
At least…I don’t think he is.
I pull my car out of the lot and make a circle…then almost scream when I spot the familiar figure of Tolyan tipping a valet and getting into a black sedan. I stop my car and start to open the door to get out and run to him, but change my mind when I see there won’t be enough time.
He’s already pulling into traffic. I should just follow and talk to him whenever he stops. I know it’s late, and he’s probably tired, but I feel like if I don’t ask him before the day’s over, it’s never going to happen.
He isn’t driving too fast. I follow right behind him. He’s going in the opposite direction from my place. Maybe he lives on the other side of town. But he was on the jogging trail this morning—near my place. He could’ve been staying with a friend last night or something. Anyway, getting a minute to talk with him is more important than worrying about where he’s heading. We aren’t going into some dangerous section of the city, from the looks of it.
Sometime later, we’re in a residential area with lots of houses and lawn. Definitely upper middle class. Maybe he owns one of the houses with a big yard for his dogs.
He parks his car in front of a house in a cul-de-sac. He gets out. I park mine, but as I start to open the door, some cautious instinct—the one that’s kept me alive all these years—sends a chill down my spine. Things aren’t right.
He’s pulling on gloves as he moves toward the house. Who does that when they get home?
But that isn’t all. No dog barks. Sections of the lawn look flat and crushed, like something heavy rolled over it recently. A mailbox is knocked over, too. Tolyan seems so precise that I can’t imagine him leaving his home in this kind of condition. Maybe he’s here to see a girlfriend, although my gut disagrees. He couldn’t ignore the growl from my belly. He wouldn’t ignore a mailbox on the ground if this were his girlfriend’s home.
Not only that, he didn’t park his car in the garage or even in front of it. He put his car on the curb like a guest who’s here for a quick visit. The house is lit on the top floor and the living room. A cat darts across the window with the curtains pulled back.
He moves toward the door, his gait loose and steady. Not a walk of a man coming home after a long day. More like a lion stalking an impala that’s foolish enough to be away from its herd.
Whose house is this, then?
He doesn’t glance in my direction, even though the headlights have been on all this time. He’s behaving like it’s no big deal. Or maybe he’s faking nonchalance. After all, you have to pretend like nothing’s wrong to make people believe it themselves.
When he slips into the house, I kill the engine. Then I hold my breath and wait.
Chapter Six
Tolyan
The little fawn followed.
But then, I knew she would, even before I left the hotel. She didn’t try to hide or be less obvious that she has unresolved business with me. Beyond the coffee she bought me out of so-called gratitude. Even while she was eating her sandwich, she kept glancing at me from time to time, waiting for a good moment to spit out the words circling in her head. It’s so, so easy to read her innocent eyes.
They might not have remained so innocent or trusting if she’d known what was going through my mind as I watched her eat the sandwich that would’ve taken me three bites to finish. She opened her mouth wide and went for big bites, but simply couldn’t manage it. And every time a little bit of the white horseradish sauce got on those pink lips, her little tongue emerged to lick it.
And I thought about that mouth opening over my cock, taking it in. How wet and hot and sweet it’d feel. Would it be tight, since her mouth is so small? Would she work her tongue over the head, licking the precum like she did with the sauce? Her hair would undoubtedly be warm and silky as my fingers glided through, as I used it to hold her. What noise would she make as I thrust into her mouth? Would her whiskey eyes soften? Would she be shocked if I ordered her to fuck her pussy with her fingers and use her thumb on her clit?
When she climaxed with her fingers inside her pussy and my cock buried deep in her mouth, I’d come, too. And watch what I gave her coat those lips…
But no, she didn’t know any of that. Which is why she ran after me when I left the room to deal with a minor problem involving a drunken idiot. And that’s why she followed me here.
It would have been so easy to lose her. She’s a rank amateur, after all. An old part of me, one that used to enjoy showing off, whispered that it would be easy to lose a tail as unskilled as her, but I ignored it. No need to be cruel.