Abigail

My monster doesn’t come for me all week. I’m having fun all the same, planning the barbeque and dancing until my feet ache at Diva’s on Thursday night.

I only check my phone once when I get home, but when I do, there’s a single message waiting for me.

It makes my heart soar.

Soon.

That’s all it says.

I get ready on Saturday morning with high spirits and a smile on my face. I style my hair in curls with Sarah’s help and slip on my beautiful new dress, only sighing once in the mirror at the pity he won’t get to see me like this.

And then I go.

Lauren and the girls are already on Castle Green when I get there. The wine is flowing freely, the smell of charcoal is in the air and the weather is holding.

Everything is great.

Jack takes great pleasure in introducing me to all the people I’ve yet to meet from the other office. I shake hands and smile and struggle to assign names to faces, scouting the crowds for any clients I should be recognising but haven’t yet met.

“Stop bloody working,” Lauren giggles in my ear as I’ve introduced myself to the fifth person at the salad table in a row. “Kick back, get drunk, have fun.”

“You’re such a slacker,” I tell her, and stick my tongue out.

“No,” she says. “You’re such a bloody professional. You’re giving the rest of us a bad name.” She nudges me in good humour.

She has got a point. For all the enjoyment I’ve come to find in the position I grabbed hold of during my crazy relocation effort, I’m beginning to think it’s time for more of a challenge.

It amazes me that I feel ready. Hell, it amazes me that I’m back up from my knees with my head held high.

Because of him.

I crush that thought.

Not just because of him.

Because of Lauren, and Kelly, and Jack. Because of Sarah. Because of stupid nights at Divas and learning to enjoy phone calls home again.

Because of me, too.

I’m chowing down on a burger when my skin prickles, happily tipsy enough on two large glasses of white that I brush the sensation off as nothing.

I convince myself I’m imagining things when I catch a glimpse of a familiar silhouette weaving through the crowd at the raffle table.

No.

It can’t be.

But it is.

Kelly’s voice shrieks in my ear before Lauren’s. “You didn’t say you were bringing him!”

I turn to stare blankly, even though my heart is thumping.

She points to a huddle of clients by the bandstand. “There. Look.”

I don’t see a thing, until I do.

And there he is. Large as life at my work barbeque. Looking thoroughly at odds with everyone else here, even though he’s wearing a tux.

He’s wearing a fucking tux.

Fuck.

He looks fucking magnificent.

Better than magnificent.

He looks like a perfect nightmare. Darker than I’ve ever seen him, even in the glaring sun.

“You could knock me over with a feather,” Kelly says. “That man is fucking delicious.”

“He really is,” I tell her, and then I grin. “Hung like a donkey, too.”

I leave them with open mouths as I abandon my burger on a trestle table and head straight for the beast himself.

He meets me halfway, as though this is the most natural thing in the world.

“What are you doing here?” I whisper-hiss, before he can even speak.

“I said soon,” he tells me. “This is soon.”

“And this is my work barbeque.” I can’t hide the smile. “Technically for employees, suppliers and clients only.”

My tummy flutters as he leans over and presses his lips to my ear. I love the sound of his breath.

“And technically I’m a client. I ordered some filing cabinets, you can check the records.”

My eyes widen and his are laughing.

“You’re a client?! Of Office Express?!”

“Like I said, you can check the records.”

He lets out a low laugh as I grab my phone from my handbag. My fingers are shaking with a strange jittery excitement as I call up my work login.

Filing cabinets… Malvern… past ninety days…

I get a few hits. Names I recognise. A few clients I’ve seen today already.

And then him.

I know it.

Scott Brothers Logistics. Enigma business park, Malvern. I call up the order details. Leo Scott. Managing Director.

No. Fucking. Way.

My mouth drops open.

“That night…” I begin and he smirks.

“I told you I found one of your shoes under a truck. I omitted the fact that it was my truck. I thought I’d keep that little detail to myself.”

“I came looking…”

“And you found me. You just didn’t know it. I was right there, I drove past you on your way back to the car park.”

“And you followed me,” I finish.

“Yes,” he says. “And how the pieces fit so snugly together when they all come into view.”

“That was your building…” I whisper. “You grabbed me by your own building.”

“And deleted the security footage after. I enjoyed watching that back, I can tell you.”

The wine makes me heady. My legs feel like jelly. “Leo Scott.”

“Pleased to meet you,” he says and holds out his hand. It feels so ridiculous to take it, but I do. I stare at his inked fingers in mine. The rose I recognised on the fuel station counter. “So now you know some of my secrets.” He smirks. “How does it feel to know the monster for real?”

“It’s a good start.” I smile. “I’m kinda digging the unfolding mystery thing.”

“See if you still feel like that when you get more of the picture. You look incredible by the way,” he says, and my cheeks burn. “It’ll be a shame to tear that dress off you later.”

My clit tingles so hard I clench my thighs.

“You’re looking pretty incredible yourself.”

“I can polish up,” he says, and then he lowers his voice. His eyes are dark and dangerous, his brows heavy. “When the band finishes this evening, you will leave. You won’t look for me. You’ll say your goodbyes to your friends and you’ll make your excuses. You’ll leave via the Cathedral walk and head down to the old bridge.”

I’m too horny to hide it. Even my voice is dripping as I speak “And until then?”

My heart jumps as his hand slips into mine. “And until then you introduce me to everyone. Until then we have regular fun like regular people at a summer barbeque.”

“And what shall I introduce you as?” I ask, hardly daring to meet his eyes. “As a client, or…”

My voice trails off when he snakes his hand around my waist and pulls me tight. His palm is hot through the satin.

Hot enough to make me tingle.

So many eyes on me. On us.

So much whispering and gossip and chatter about the sinister looking businessman at my side.

And I love it.

I’ve never been so happy to be on display as I am next to him.

“I think we go with the or, don’t you?” he says.

 

* * *

 

Phoenix

 

I love seeing her like this.

She’s in her element and she doesn’t even know it. She’s a natural as she works the event. Gracious and vivacious as she makes introductions with my hand tight in hers.

I’ve never been so happy to be on public display as I am next to her.

Her dress is a perfect drape of satin. Her hair smells of coconut and hours of styling. Her makeup is flawless even after a greasy burger.

And she’s mine.

Even though there’s a whole fucking jigsaw of secrets still to dust off between us, she’s mine.

I intend to keep it that way.

It’s the first Saturday daytime I’ve spent away from both Cam and work in over a year. Under normal circumstances I wouldn’t be here, not with the business still precariously trading and Cam’s speech intermittent at best.

But these aren’t normal circumstances.

I had to see her like this.

I had to be here to watch her sparkle on her own turf.

I can’t wait to show her the sparkles on mine later.

She gets jittery as the band starts up and evening draws in. She’s pressed tight to my side as we gather at the bandstand. My hand is on her hip and hers is on top, her fingers threaded through mine as she bops her head to the beat.

I should be watching them but I’m watching her.

The set list takes an age. My cock is throbbing for her long before the band are done.

I pull her in front of me between songs and hitch up against her ass as the crowd applauds the musicians on stage.

I feel her breath quicken as she reaches back for me.

“Soon,” I remind her and she nods. She rests her head back against my shoulder and rocks her hips to the beat.

It takes all of my restraint not to drag her behind a trestle table and fuck her until they hear her screams over the music.

I wince at the ache in my balls when I pull away from her and make my exit.

I feel her eyes on me all the way as I retreat into the last of the evening sun.

My truck is waiting in the car park. I take the route I’ve already mapped out, pulling into a short stay space down by the old bridge.

I get out and position myself between two buildings, out of view of the road and invisible until the last minute from the direction she’ll be travelling in.

She’ll walk right past me without a clue, that’s what I count on.

And she does.

I’ve only been waiting twenty minutes when I hear her heels heading in my direction. I’m ready for her as she turns the corner and carries on down the street none the wiser.

She doesn’t even have time to squeak when I snatch her. Her legs barely flail before I bundle her straight up and into my backseat.

“No questions,” I snap, before I close the door. “You ask me where we’re going and I’ll hurt you, understand?”

Her eyes are wide as she nods at me.

I slam the door and jump up into the driver’s seat. I’m pushing the speed limit as I head out onto the Worcester road with my pretty little piece of bait on the backseat.

“Don’t fucking look at me,” I snarl as I catch her gaze in the rearview. She drops back down onto the seat. “Don’t look outside, either. You’ll go wherever I say we’re fucking going and you’ll keep your mouth fucking closed.”

I wonder if she’s still scared of me. I wonder if I’m still bad enough to be her monster in the night.

I’ll make it so.

I take a scenic route until the sunlight starts to fade. It’s well into dusk by the time I pull up outside my house.

I give her no indication that I live here, just drag her from the backseat and keep a solid grip on her.

She’s shaky as we cross the road and take the track up toward the beacon. Her breath is raspy as we reach the top and still I keep on shunting her ahead.

My black swan stares in wonder at the vista down below just as soon as she can see it. She edges closer to the bank to admire the sparkling lights of a sleepy town.

I’d let her admire them a while longer if the beast wasn’t burning in my belly.

She flinches as my voice cuts out loud. Her eyes are wild and wide as she glances back over her shoulder.

“Run,” I bark. “Now.”

She sucks in breath and takes off on her heels without so much as a question.

She’s frantic but slow, her skirt in her hands as she dashes across the uneven ground to clear some distance.

I wait.

Watch until she’s got a decent head start. Until she’s far away on the path ahead and the sun is finally thinking about dipping under the horizon.

And then I let out the beast.