Two of the masked men stand by the door, as if guarding it while the third sits across from me. My heart is pounding out of my chest and everything in me screams to run, but I’m afraid a sudden movement might set the men off. For now, the safest course of action is to try as hard as I can to remain calm and let this play out. Just moments ago I was hoping Jesse wouldn’t find me, and now I’m wishing he would hurry up and get his ass here.

“Makayla,” says the man across from me. His voice is distorted by some device inside the goat mask, just like the man’s voice in the stairwell. “I can’t reveal who I am without risk of endangering myself and my associates,” he says, gesturing to the two men by the door who slightly incline their heads. “But we are not here to hurt you.”

I feel a slight hint of relief, but I’m not ready to believe them. Not yet.

“I wanted to wait until I had more information, but I don’t know if I will have time to learn more,” says the masked man. “But someone you trust wants you dead. My friends and I are part of an order. It was founded by fans of the show and we never wanted anyone to get hurt. At least most of us didn’t. Then money started coming from somewhere and our order splintered.”

I shake my head, not understanding. “Order? None of this makes sense. Why would someone want to hurt me?”

“Like I said. I don’t know as much as I would like. I only know that word has circulated within the order about a hefty reward for your death, and some of the information provided to aid any who would make an attempt on you is too sensitive to come from an outside source.” He stands abruptly, motioning to to the two men by the door to unlock it. “Be careful, Miss. Pierson. This is the last time I will contact you.”

I sit in stunned silence as the three men silently file out of the café. My head is spinning and it has nothing to do with the wine I drank earlier, which is all but gone from my system. It all feels so unreal, like one of the plotlines from Stalked. I keep expecting to hear “cut” called from the shadows and turn to see the crew getting ready for the next shot. But it’s just me, the empty café, and the dark street beyond.

Someone I trust? That’s a relatively small group of people. I can’t even think of what sort of sensitive information there is about me to give away. I guess my address or my schedule might qualify, but it’s not as if a determined paparazzi couldn’t figure either of those out. I bury my face in my hands, trying to clear my mind, to get a reprieve from the constant stream of doubts and questions that have been bouncing around my skull since I first saw the stalker in the gold mask. I laugh a little humorlessly. Actually, the mental strain really only began to be too much when Jesse came back into my life. I think I could handle the threats more easily than I can handle his broad, beautiful…

I blink a few times, sighing and standing. The past two days have been bizarre, and the last hour has been stranger still, but it’s not like me to sit and wallow or feel sorry for myself. I’m going to do the smart thing. The logical thing. Someone wants to hurt me, so I’m going to go back to the bodyguard I’m paying a small fortune for. I’m going to be as mature as I can about the fact that he’s deadly attractive and doing all kinds of things to my emotions. I’ll either figure it out or I won’t, but the most important thing for me to do is get somewhere safe. I’m a big girl. I’ll figure out the rest.

I step outside just as someone big crashes into me, squeezing me to his body.

“Kay,” Jesse says, relief clear in his voice. He wraps a protective arm around my back and leads me down the street, eyes hard with determination.

I cling to him, not proud of how good it feels to be back within his protective circle, but accepting it for once. I squeeze him tight. “We have to get out of here,” I whisper, still not confident those three masked men really had my best interests at heart.

“I know,” he growls.

A taxi slowly pulls onto the street ahead. Jesse tries to hail it, and when it seems clear the taxi isn’t stopping, he motions for me to stay put and jogs into the street, pulling out his gun. My breath catches. What the hell is he doing?

The taxi screeches to a halt. He moves to the driver’s window, leans down, and says something in quick, clipped tones. I see the driver nodding furiously and then he gets out of the car. Jesse hands him a card and claps him on the back before shoving him toward the sidewalk. He waves me toward the car.

I approach hesitantly. “You’re just stealing his car?”

“I’m borrowing it. Get in.”

I take the door handle and sit in the passenger seat. “What if he calls the cops?”

“Then he won’t get the money I promised him.”

“Oh,” I say quietly. “But what if--”

“What the fuck were you thinking?” he snaps, throwing the car in reverse and turning us around so that we’re driving away from his apartment.

“I was overwhelmed and embarrassed,” I say. “I just wanted some space to think and I knew you wouldn’t let me.”

“Do you have any idea how dangerous that was?”

The way he’s talking to me like a child irks me, but I notice the blood on his face and the way his breathing is pained. He’s also holding his left arm a little tentatively. “What happened to you?” I ask.

“Nothing.”

“It looks like nothing happened pretty hard, then.”

He licks his lips, ignoring my sarcastic tone. “You said we had to get out of there. Did something happen?”

I cross my arms. “Nothing happened.”

He glares at me briefly before looking back to the road. “One of the stalkers was waiting for me in the stairwell when I came after you. I knew him.”

“He wasn’t wearing a mask?”

“He was. At first.”

“Who was he?”

“Someone I thought died a long time ago.” He shakes his head, twisting his hands on the steering wheel and squeezing until his knuckles go white. “I left him there. Everything that happened to him was because of me.”

“I don’t understand…” I say.

He sighs. “It’s nothing you need to worry about.”

I touch his thigh, regretting the decision when I feel how warm and perfectly hard it is. “You don’t have to put up walls around me.”

He huffs a laugh. “You sound like the army shrink they used to make me see.”

“I’m serious, Jesse.”

“Yeah, well, I can take care of myself. The only thing I’m concerned with right now is keeping you safe.”

“And those flashbacks you have are good for keeping me safe?” I ask carefully.

His jaw flexes. “I have pills for them.”

“Do they work?”

“Some.”

“You can talk to me. I’m not here to judge you. Whatever you had to do over there couldn’t have been easy, but it’s not your fault. Soldiers have orders. You had to follow them.”

“Not my fault?” he asks. I sense a tinge of anger in his voice that makes me pull my hand back, suddenly anxious. He looks like he’s about to say more but he just shakes his head, eyes still locked on the road ahead. “You couldn’t understand.”

“Try me.”

He glares at me and I can see he’s going somewhere mentally, calling up old ghosts that he would rather leave dormant. “The thing that sticks is the guilt. In the moment, it’s just about the mission. People become targets. Objectives. When you’re over there, it all feels so vital, like if you don’t eliminate the target, our way of life back home will be over in an instant. But then I came back and realized most people hardly pay it a passing thought. All the shit I did to protect the country… how much of it mattered? And if it didn’t matter, how can I justify it?”

I frown. I’ve never been the most patriotic person, but hearing his side of it breaks my heart. I feel guilty for being one of those people and never really thinking much about the soldiers fighting to protect us. “You’re protecting that innocence,” I say. “Think about it. If people had to be aware that their freedom was so fragile, it wouldn’t feel like freedom at all. The fact that people are able to go weeks, months, or even years without really thinking about it means you were doing your job. It was worth it.”

He says nothing, but I can see something subtle change in his face. I don’t know if it’s relief or comfort, but he doesn’t speak again until we park in a dark field in the middle of nowhere.

“Where are we?” I ask.

“Nowhere special. But we need to wait out the night at least. It probably won’t make a difference, but I’d rather be cautious.” His eyes flick to me, and I realize he only wants to be cautious for my sake. Jesse is not the cautious type, and I’m touched by how much he’s willing to act outside his normal impulses to keep me safe. He may just be doing his job, but part of me feels like it’s more than that.

Where are we going to sleep?” I ask, stepping out of the car and looking around. We’re parked at the bottom of a smooth slope of grass. There’s a chain-link fence at the top of the hill and a narrow dirt path winding its way up to where we’re parked, but our view is otherwise made up of rolling grass and a speckling of trees. It’s beautiful, and I can see so many stars in the sky that I find myself staring. I never find much reason to get away from the city, and it’s amazing how quickly I can forget what the sky looks like away from all the lights.

He gestures to the ground, smirking.

“It’s freezing out here,” I say, clutching my arms to my side.

“Here,” he says, sliding his jacket around my shoulders and rubbing some warmth into my arms.

I close my eyes, leaning into him. We sit silently for a while before I speak. “Don’t freak out…” I say carefully. Jesse tenses beside me. “But three men in goat masks talked to me when I was waiting in that coffee shop.”

“What did they do?” he growls.

“Nothing. It was strange. They just wanted to tell me something. They said someone I trust is feeding information to the people who want to hurt me.”

“Someone you trust?” he asks. “How long is that list?”

“Not long. My stepfather, Kennedy… you.”

“Don’t tell them anything from now on. Not where we’re going, our plans. Nothing. Okay?”

I smirk. “So I should still trust you?”

“You can always trust me.”

I want to believe that. I really do. But the echo of his betrayal still haunts me. “I’m sorry I ran,” I say.

His hands pause for a moment before he starts to rub my arms again. He’s behind me and his hot breath tickles my ear as he speaks. “Me too.”

His tone tells me he doesn’t mean he’s sorry I ran. He’s sorry he ran… all those years ago. Tears well in my eyes. So what if he’s sorry? Does it change what he did?

Yes, it does.

I already read his journal and I know he was only trying to protect me to begin with. Hearing him apologize melts away some of the last remnants of the anger I held toward him.

“What happens if you get involved with a client?” I ask, turning to face him.

He takes me in calmly with his eyes. “Bad things,” he says, voice full of hunger.

I put a hand on his broad chest, letting my fingers slide down slowly, tracing long, delicate lines on his skin. He sucks in a slow breath.

“Maybe I want you to do bad things to me,” I breathe.

His hands weave through my hair and his mouth crashes against mine. A roaring sound makes me jump back, looking to the sky in confusion and panic. He holds me tight as we watch the underbelly of a jumbo jet as it takes off from somewhere just on the other side of the hill. It crawls past our heads, impossibly slow for something so large.

“You brought us to an airport… like we used to,” I say.

He smirks. “Call me sentimental.”

I bite my lip, kissing him again and pulling his shirt over his head. He lowers me softly to the grass, kissing my mouth and my neck, pulling my shirt up. I let him take it off me, lifting my shoulders to allow him to unhook my bra next. He props himself up on one arm, still kissing me greedily as he uses his free hand to unbutton my pants and start pushing them down. I help him, lifting my ass and shimmying out of my pants and panties. He yanks his pants down and I catch a glimpse of his perfectly sculpted body cast in sharp relief by the moonlight.

I see his cock for a brief moment before he crushes his body into mine. I have a split second to marvel at how large it is. He kisses his way down my chest and finds my nipple, sucking and kissing every inch of me. I arch my back, already feeling a building of pressure between my legs. I’ve anticipated this for so long. I’ve feared it and dreamed of it. Now it’s happening, and all I can do is give in to the desire.

I realize with a start that he’s kissed his way down my body and his beautiful features are poised over my belly. I suck in a breath of surprise at the rush of pleasure that shoots through me when he licks a playful circle around the sensitive skin of my belly button, and then trails kisses down the smooth flesh above my mound. His touch is electric. It’s fire and ice all mixed together as his hot mouth burns my skin leaving an echo of icy shock in its wake. My body is alive like I’ve never felt as each kiss sends jolts of pleasure pulsing through my body. I grip the grass tight, barely feeling the way it tickles my bare back, feeling like I need to grab onto something or I might lose myself in the moment. I want to be here, to be present. I want to relish in every second of it because the thread connecting us is frighteningly strong, but the same power of attraction could repel us just as easily. It’s exhilarating and terrifying.

He’s about to reach my throbbing clit with his lips. He lingers, letting the heat of his mouth sink deep into the skin just above my slit. He pulls back and I suck in a breath, anticipating the explosion of pleasure when he finds my waiting heat, but instead he tortures me by kissing the inside of my thigh. His rough palm grasps my leg, lifting it so that he can reach every inch of the sensitive skin. I press the back of my head into the ground, gritting my teeth. It feels so good. I lift my head to look down at him and feel a fresh surge of excitement. He’s holding my leg with one hand under my ankle and the other beneath my knee. His smoldering eyes regard me with a heart-stopping intensity as he kisses a path down the soft flesh of one leg before licking his way up the other.

My breathing comes in heaving gasps and I clench my teeth, feeling such a powerful need that I think it might actually tear me apart at the seams. When his lips finally encircles my clit, a lusty moan spills from my lips and I press myself up into him, squeezing my eyes shut, reeling from the intensity.

I’ve been with men before. Sex has never felt like this, even all those years ago with Jesse. It’s only been a few short seconds of his mouth on my clit and I know with crushing certainty that he just ruined sex for me with any other man. Nothing will ever touch this feeling. Nothing will come close to drawing this much pleasure out of just a single touch.

I lose track of time, giving myself over to the blinding waves of ecstasy his mouth is igniting. His tongue is everywhere--flicking against my clit as he sucks the sensitive bit of flesh, circling my entrance before plunging it inside me. He works my pussy over in a way tht has me rocking my hips into him while desperately gasping his name. The men who’ve gone down on me in the past were tentative at best. Like it was more of a chore, or a means to an end than something derived pleasure. Jesse? He attacks my pussy like it’s the most delicious thing he’s ever tasted. Like it’s the most precious thing in the world and it’s his job to pay tribute to it. He pays attention to every detail, making note of my every response and using that knowledge to hone in on how to further drive my pleasure

He’s a fucking pussy eating god.

I never want it to stop, but I can only hold back the tidal wave that is my orgasm for so long. His attention turns solely to my clit, working me into a breathless frenzy. He alternates between delicate, fluttering licks of his tongue and hard pressing swipes that have my toes curling. When his fingers glide into my entrance I clench around them as the first wave of release washes over me. He moves his fingers in a steady rhythm, drawing me close and closer to the edge. I’m so primed that when he sucks my clit between his lips and curls his fingers inside me, my orgasm rushes up and over, stealing my breath as I cry out, cumming harder than I ever have.

“Oh my God,” I gasp as my orgasm continues to roll through me in waves. I’ve never been loud in bed, but Jesse has made me a moaning, screaming mess and I can’t find it in myself to care. I dig my hands into his silky hair, not knowing if I’m trying to hold him closer or pull him away as I quiver, absolutely floored by the torrent of sensations ripping through me.

When my orgasm finally subsides, I realize with a mixture of fear and excitement that it’s not over. I’m completely wiped out, but with every passing second I look at his gorgeous face and hard body and the scrumptiously large cock throbbing between his legs… well, let’s just say I make a quick recovery.

I reach down and wrap my fingers around his cock, biting my lip and looking into his eyes. “Do you have a condom?” I ask.

He reaches to his discarded pants and fishes out a metallic wrapper, expertly opening it and sliding it onto his cock in seconds. I try not to dwell on why he’s so good at that, or the fact that he was carrying one around. It’s not hard to shift my focus when he presses himself against me, straining the walls of my core with his thickness.

My eyebrows draw together and my mouth opens in a silent “O.” There’s a brief moment of tension and then he’s seated inside me, filling me so completely that I wonder how I ever lived without him. I wrap my legs around his back, holding him to me. I grip the hard, corded muscles of his arms as he holds himself up over me and glides himself in and out of my slick heat. He moves slowly at first, almost reverently. I get lost watching his face, the way it almost looks as if he’s frowning, but his lips are slightly parted, and his downcast eyes take in their fill of my naked body.

His pace increases with a relentless certainty, never wavering, always getting just a little faster with each thrust. I become transfixed by it, the precision of it, and the way it creates a suspense, a question of how long he can keep up the increasing pace, like listening to a master singer hit higher and higher notes, knowing it can’t go on forever but reveling in the anticipation.

He pounds into me, face drawn in a mask of passion. I squeeze his arms, nails digging into his smooth, hard skin. I look up at him, the perfect outline of his body silhouetted against a blanket of stars above us. Being with him feels so primal and so right, like if I could only hold on to this moment, it would breathe the life back into my world, giving back the meaning that has been missing since he left.

His pace reaches a fever pitch and I can feel myself clenching around him in the telltale sign that I’m about to cum. Our eyes meet and the fervent look in his is my undoing. My orgasm seems never ending… and when he groans as he finds his own release, I shudder. I feel the warmth of his cum through the condom and am racked with another hit of pleasure. I practically melt into the ground as Jesse falls to his elbows and buries his head into the crook of my neck.

I don’t know what this means for us, whether it was just release or something deeper. I don’t know if Jesse felt the same bond and connection I did, but if I can trust my heart, I know he did. The sensation of something real and tangible linking us together was unmistakable.

But a single question burns in my mind with painful heat: What if he leaves again?