Even though I was exhausted, I wasn’t ready to sleep yet. I reached out to catch Anthony’s arm before he walked out the door, and he twisted round.
“What is it?”
I pulled him down onto the bed, letting my towel fall away, and climbed on top of him.
“I’m not done with you yet,” I murmured, and planted a kiss on his lips. He was still soft and warm from the shower, and he felt good underneath me. Strong, safe. Worry flickered over his face, but he placed his hands on my bare hips and let his eyes drift down my body.
“I can’t say no to you when you’re like this,” he replied softly, running a hand up my back and leaving tingles in his wake.
“Noted,” I nodded, and then kissed him again. This time, the kiss was less chaste, less sweet. His tongue found its way into my mouth, and his hands cupped my breasts and pinched at the nipples. Before I knew what was happening, he was inside me again, and I was riding him for all I was worth -the only sounds I could hear were of our skin connecting, our breath growing heavier, and the traffic outside, distant and muted, as if it was coming from another world.
He finished inside me, his body growing tense beneath my grasp, and I rolled off of him and onto my side. He nestled into me at once, wrapping his body around mine without a moment’s thought, and I snuggled against him. God, he felt good. What was it about this guy?
Before I had a chance to think over anything further, I must have fallen asleep - the madness of the last couple of days having caught up with me. We slept in each other’s arms until it was dark because when I woke up, I reached around for him and found him missing from the bed.
I sat up at once, my heart beating, and then relaxed as soon as I saw him standing over by the window. The curtain was pulled back a couple of inches, and he wasn’t moving a muscle, staring at something I couldn’t see.
“Anthony?” I asked, my voice cracked from sleep. He jumped slightly, then glanced over at me.
“Oh, you’re up,” he commented, not moving from where he stood. “We need to get going, as soon as we can.”
“Is everything okay?” I pulled the covers around myself, suddenly noticing how cold it was.
“Nothing’s wrong right now, but I have a feeling it’s going to be,” he muttered, seemingly to himself.
“I need to call my assistant manager,” I replied without thinking. “She needs to know that I won’t be at the restaurant for a while.”
He tossed me his phone, and it landed on the bed next to me. I looked up at him, and it suddenly became really clear to me how little I knew about this man. I was about to go follow him across the country just because he believed he could keep me safe. Well, he had so far. I guess I would have to play it by ear. And what happened when I was proved wrong? I guessed it was better than sitting in my apartment waiting for someone to kick the door in and finish me off.
I rooted through my bag until I found the scrap of paper with the numbers on it, and dialed Lily.
“Hello?” She sounded confused. “Who is this?”
“Hi, Lily, it’s me,” I replied.
“Why are you calling from a number I don’t recognize?” she asked cautiously. “Everything alright?”
“Everything’s fine, I’m just going out of town for a few days, going to get my head straight,” I explained. “Are you okay to run the restaurant until I get back?”
“Of course.” I could practically see her tossing her hands in the air at the ludicrousness of my question. “You take as much time as you need.”
“Thanks, Lily,” I sighed. “Love you.”
“Love you too. Keep in touch!” she ordered, and then hung up the phone.
“Are you sorted?” Anthony turned to me, and I could see that he looked unnerved - his eyes were wider than normal, and his entire body looked tense.
“Yeah, I’m ready.” I nodded. “Are we leaving?”
“I think we should.” He came over and sat on the bed next to me. “I know this is a lot, but I just want to get you somewhere safe.”
“I know.” I nodded again, and he leaned in to kiss me. For a moment, I forgot about everything we’d been dealing with, and simply lost myself in him. It was becoming distractingly easy to do that of late.
“Okay, let’s get packed, and we can go.” He stood up, and I gathered what little belongings I’d spread out and stuffed them back into the bags.
“What about all that money that you gave the woman at reception?” I asked. “That’s good for a couple of weeks, at least.”
“Yeah, well, it means we can come back here if we need to.” He twirled his key around his finger demonstratively. “And it might throw anyone who’s looking for you off the trail.”
“Who do you think is coming after me?” I asked bluntly, but he deftly avoided the question.
“Have you got everything?” He glanced over his shoulder with his eyebrows raised.
“Got everything.”
“Good. Then let’s go.”
We made our way out of the room, down the stairs, and into his car. I noticed he was doing his best to keep me shielded from the sight of anyone we passed by. I felt like a criminal, even though I’d done nothing wrong, and it was an unpleasant sensation.
As soon as we were out on the road again, I felt my eyes drooping shut. I had never had a life as exciting as this - and not the good kind of exciting either. This was the kind of exciting people paid money to watch over popcorn and soda in the cinema so they didn’t have to live it themselves. I couldn’t say that I blamed them - this was hellish, worse than anything I’d ever imagined. Even with a man who seemed to care about me, and just so happened to be dynamite in bed, life wasn’t easy or fun like this. No, it was hellish, difficult, and pretty fucking terrifying.
I woke from my snooze as we pulled into a gas station, and Anthony quickly topped up the car and went inside. It was still dark out, and I looked around the dim, shadowy space around me fearfully, half-expecting someone to leap out of the dark and drag me away there and then. But no one did, and a few seconds later Anthony re-emerged from the small building. And he was carrying something.
I stretched and craned my neck to see what he had in his hands, but the night was too heavy around us to see before he got into the car.
“Hey,” he murmured softly as if worried that I was still half asleep.
“Hey,” I smiled back, and he handed over what he was holding.
It was a bunch of flowers - small, slightly wilted, but undeniably sweet. I couldn’t help but beam as he placed them carefully in my hands, and I lifted them to my nose to catch a smell. They were peonies, my favorite.
“How did you know?” I joked.
He shrugged “Lucky guess, I suppose. I don’t know where we’ll keep them, but…”
“They can just live on my lap for now,” I suggested, letting them sit on my knees. It felt good to have something comforting and normal, even if it was completely out of the blue.
“You get some more sleep.” He leaned over and caught my chin in his hands, tilting my face so he could look at me. “We’ll be there soon.”
“You want me to drive?” I offered.
“No, you need to catch up on your sleep,” he replied, starting up the car. “Trust me, you’ll probably need it.”