Huck

“I’m going to go take a shower,” Arin said, cracking my office door just enough so that she could stick her head through. “Want to come join me?”

Fuck, I wanted to so badly. But I’d gotten a text from the security guard who had accompanied Arin on her walk, and the message said he needed to talk to me.

“I’ll meet you in there. I’ve got to finish something real quick.”

“Don’t take too long.” She smiled and shut the door.

From the monitor, I watched her go into my apartment and put something in the fridge. Then, she went into the bathroom and began taking her clothes off. Once she stepped in the shower, I called the security guard in.

“Tell me what happened,” I said in Thai as he moved to the front of my desk.

He rested his hands on the wooden edge and shifted his weight between both legs. “She went to the mail shop by the market. At the counter, she said something to the guy, and he handed her a key. She used it to unlock one of the mailboxes and took out an envelope. She opened it and pocketed whatever was inside.”

“What do you mean, whatever was inside? What the fuck was inside of it?”

“I’m not sure, sir. I didn’t go in the store with her.”

I ground my teeth together and leaned into the desk to get closer to him because I didn’t think I’d heard him right. “You…what?”

He broke eye contact, looking at his hands, which were now gripping the desk the same way mine were. “I’m sorry, sir. She asked me to wait outside. The store didn’t have anyone in it. I didn’t think it would be a problem.”

“You didn’t think it would be a problem?” Screaming at the guard wouldn’t change what had happened. The only thing that would change was that he’d never escort Arin again. No one took orders from her. I was the boss. They only took orders from me. “Finish,” I barked in Thai.

“I can’t be sure, but what she took out of the envelope looked like a passport. It was navy; I know that much.”

“Anything else?”

He shook his head.

“See yourself out.”

I turned toward the computer screen and watched Arin stand under the center spray, her head tilted back as the water poured over her head.

Arin, stop fucking confusing me.

Just when things got good, she’d throw me off again and make me question how much she could be trusted. She knew the guard would report back to me. She knew she could tell me anything. It wasn’t like I was keeping her here against her will or that I’d try to stop her from leaving.

So, why the hell hadn’t she mentioned this before her shower? Was she doing this on purpose? Did she have some other agenda that I didn’t know about?

I had to know.

And I had to know now.

I got up from my chair and went into my apartment, heading to the fridge first to see what she had put inside of it. There were four large tab tim in a bag along with a full basket of vegetables on the counter. She’d gotten dinner, like she’d said she would, and it happened to be my favorite kind of fish. I wondered if she’d remembered that or if it was just a coincidence.

I walked down the hall to my room, and as I entered the bathroom, she said, “Finally.”

I peeled my shirt off and dropped it on the floor.

“I thought you were going to ditch me.”

“Nah.” I left my jeans and boots right beside the T-shirt and joined her under the stream. “When I tell you I’m going to do something, you can expect it.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means, I stand by my word.” My hands ran up her sides, and my thumbs grazed her nipples, continuing upward until I reached her neck. I gently pressed on her throat, and then I slid to the back of her head and cupped it. “How was your walk?”

“It was short.” She traced circles across my abs. “I got us some food from the market. When I get out of the shower, I’m going to figure out how to cook it.”

She hadn’t cooked the whole time she’d been here. There was no reason for her to start now. She wasn’t familiar with Thai food, the sauces, or vegetables we ate. I didn’t mind doing it, and I liked knowing I was the reason she was putting on the pounds her body needed.

Just a few more, and she’d be the perfect size.

I held her head steady and pressed my body against hers. “Tell me about the mail store, Arin.”

“You’re not serious.”

“Do I sound like I’m kidding?”

“What do you want to know?” She slid out of my grip, grabbed the shampoo, and moved to the other side of the shower to the handheld stream.

“What were you doing there?”

She squirted some into her hands and rubbed it into her hair. “Do I get any privacy at all? I’m living in your apartment. I’m working in your office. I have a man follow me everywhere I go. And, now, I can’t even go into a store without being asked what I’m doing in there.” Her hands dropped from her head as she reached for the sprayer. “What hurts me the most is, once again, you think I was up to something shady, and that’s the only reason you’re asking me all these questions.”

I shifted away from the water and stepped closer to her. “Answer the question, Arin.”

I didn’t need to justify my reasoning. I wanted to know what the fuck she was up to, and I had every right to ask while she was living under my roof.

“I was there to get my passport. Are you happy now? Did you get everything you wanted out of me?”

Not even close.

“Why did you have it sent there?”

She rinsed the shampoo out of her hair before she said, “The paperwork asked for an address. Given what goes on here, I thought it would be more appropriate to use the store than a brothel.”

This was the first time she’d gone to the store, so she had to have coordinated all of this online because she still hadn’t made a call from her phone.

“You rented a box?”

“This is unbelievable.”

She tried walking out of the shower, and I stopped her.

“Answer me.”

“Or what? You’re going to kick me out? You’re going to stop paying me? What’s the threat, Huck? Because I feel like I should be the one threatening you for putting me through this every time I do something without getting your approval first.”

“Arin—”

“I wish you’d just trust me.” Her voice turned so soft.

I wanted to fucking trust her. I was really starting to care about her in a way that I hadn’t felt about any other girl, and I hated that I had to question her every time she returned home. But, goddamn it, she made this so much harder than it needed to be.

We stood in silence.

Then, slowly, her arms lifted, and she crossed them over her chest to block my view of her tits. “I didn’t rent a box,” she said. “I asked the gentleman for my mail. He’d put it in a box because it was priority, and it had come from the embassy. So, I got my passport, stuck it in my pocket, and left.” Her arms dropped. There wasn’t any anger or frustration on her face. She looked completely defeated. “What else do you want from me?”

I didn’t understand why she hadn’t used the address to my apartment or why she’d asked the security guard to wait outside. But, according to her, it was about privacy, and that was something I wouldn’t ever understand.

“Were you going to tell me?”

“Yes,” she whispered. “I was going to wait and see how I felt in the morning.”

“Why?”

“Because I love waking up next to you. Every morning, it feels better and better. And I wanted to put off this conversation for as long as possible because, now that I have my passport, there’s no reason for me to stay here anymore.”

Fuck.

She was right.

I reached forward, grabbed her, and pulled her against my naked body. The feel of her immediately caused my cock to harden and my balls to tighten. “I’m the reason.”

She looked up at me. “Yes, but neither of us has said that out loud yet.”

“We just need time together.”

“I want that, too.”

She felt incredible in my hands. Her skin was smooth and soft and silky, and it rubbed against my roughness. This goddamn girl was always testing me. Yet she could always justify it.

“I want to know something,” she said, her fingers tracing the snakes on my shoulders. “I think, after all this, I’ve earned myself an answer.”

“Yeah?” I laughed. I took the soap off the shelf and squirted some in my hands before I began massaging it over her body. “What do you want to know?”

“Why do you love snakes?”

That was her favorite question. I’d expected it.

I’d heard it so many fucking times already.

Maybe it was time to give her a response.

I soaped down her neck and over her chest and held each tit in my hand. “I grew up with snakes, had them as pets. My dad loved them. I guess you could say he felt comfortable around them. Over the years, I grew more attached to them. I learned all about their behavior and studied them, so I started my own collection.”

She took my hands off her to look at them. Then, she inspected my arms and chest and sides until she reached my cock. “So, you wanted to cover yourself in them, too?”

“They’re a part of me, Arin.”

She nodded, although I knew she didn’t get it.

“There’s one other thing.” She pulled us under the stream and kept her hands on my shoulders. “I know I’m not the only one you saved, but how many others have lived with you in your apartment?”

I searched her eyes and saw what she was really asking. “No, they stayed in a room in the brothel until I sent them away.” I pulled my hand out of hers and placed it on her cheek to emphasize the answer she really wanted to hear. “I didn’t fuck any of them.”

Her body relaxed a little. “Where did they go?”

I didn’t want to talk about this. It was part of my past that never needed to be discussed.

“Huck, please answer me.”

I took a breath and moved her head back, so her face was tilted toward me. “I helped them get back home. That’s what we did with every girl we bought. We got them identification, we gave them money, and we transported them. Whatever it took, however much it cost—we made it happen. We gave them a second chance.”

I’d said more than enough. But everything I’d said was the truth.

“You don’t help them anymore?”

“No.”

“Why?”

“You’re not getting that answer.”

“Okay.” Her hands dropped to my abs again, and she ran her fingers to my balls and back up. “Well then, will you answer a different one?”

I felt the knife start to jab into my throat. It had been a while since I felt it. I’d needed the break, and now, it was stabbing me worse than ever. “What?”

“Who’s we?”

The tip of the knife pierced my Adam’s apple and twisted in a circle until there wasn’t any air left in my body.

Motherfucker.

“Someone who’s no longer in my life,” I told her.

“Huck—”

“Not another word, Arin.”

I pulled her head back even more, and I lost myself in her neck, kissing across her throat and down to her tits, sucking one of her nipples into my mouth.

I couldn’t talk about Jack.

Not now.

Not fucking ever.

So, I lifted her from the shower, and I carried her to my bed where I ravaged her cunt until her moans were the only noise inside my head.