TWO
JACK
I wasn’t moving far but it was still a hassle. Moving always is. The problem with a quiet life is that you tend to accumulate things. An empty house and an empty life were more my style but both those things would invite suspicion. The last thing I needed was anyone starting to wonder about me. They’d find out far more than they needed to know if they began to look. Under every stone is darkness, down there you find a lot of things that only grow in the shadows, things nobody wants to see, things nobody needs to know about, things that would get me locked up for a very long time if they were found out.
So I had stuff. Stuff was normal. Stuff kept everyone thinking good things about me. It was stuff that no one needed. I had ornaments and pictures in frames, I had a perfectly ordinary house full of perfectly ordinary things, things that said nothing about who I really was. And now I had to shift them all.
All of the things I owned were crammed into the truck in front of me. Boxing it all up had taken far too long even with the removal firm helping but at last I was on the move. It felt like a very long drive, the air conditioning doing its best to battle the overwhelming heat of the day as I crawled away from Griffin Street for the last time.
Traffic lightened as the truck headed out of the centre and into the suburbs and I followed, glancing around me at all the other quiet houses, the low fences, the neat lawns. What secrets were hidden behind those doors? Was everyone like me? How many of them were hiding things? I’d learned long ago that no one is what they appear on the surface. Everyone has darkness lurking inside them. I’m only different in that I admit it to myself, I don’t lie and pretend to be all good and pure and all that bullshit.
I’m good at hiding it though. Very good. That’s why I’ve been able to settle into this life for so long, stay out of trouble. That’s why I was able to have a perfectly civil conversation with the removal men when we arrived. None of them knew what I had planned. None of them knew that I’d chosen this house for a reason, a reason that had a lot to do with the cellar under the kitchen, a cellar ready to use.
I had barely stepped out of the car when I saw her. The bright sun meant she was almost entirely in shadow but when I glanced up at the house next door, I saw movement in the upstairs window. A young girl, no more than eighteen. A smile flickered across my lips. Just what I wanted to see. She would give me just what I needed.
I headed inside, pausing on the doorstep to look up again. She was still there. She was watching me. This was going to be easy. Once I was in, I began sending boxes to one room and then another before leaving the men in overalls to get on with their job. I had other things to think about.
Some people might have been excited to be in their new house for the first time but there was something far more exciting for me to mull over. The girl next door.
I headed upstairs and checked in each room, nodding to the man making his way back down for the next box. From the back bedroom, I could see into next door’s garden and there she was, catching my eye and keeping it.
The sight of her took my breath away. Laid on her back with her eyes closed, wearing only a bikini. I was hard in an instant. I stood and stared at her, my eyes moving down her body, taking in the swell of her chest, those flawless tits trapped in stretched fabric that would come off so easily if it was grabbed. One twist of my hand and it would be gone. Then the v between her legs, the triangle of cloth protecting the place my cock yearned to be. It had been only a few seconds of looking at her body but already I wanted her, I needed her, I had to take her. She would be mine. She would be safe from a world that might hurt her. I’d protect her. I’d only hurt her if she deserved it. If she asked for it.
“Where do you want this lot?”
I looked back over my shoulder and there was one of the removals men holding an armful of shirts. “The box split,” he said, a slightly sheepish expression on his face.
“Through there,” I replied. “And be more careful with the rest.”
When he was gone I walked back downstairs, heading into the back garden. I wouldn’t be disturbed out there. I crossed the dying lawn to the fence, leaning over it and taking a closer look at her. She really was beautiful. So innocent she had no idea of the risk of sunbathing in so little with me next door. She had no idea what I was already planning for her, punishment for flaunting her body like that. She looked as if she was asleep but there was only one way to find out.
“Good afternoon,” I said and she bolted upright as if she’d suffered an electric shock.
“Hi,” she said, smiling so sweetly it made my cock throb with need. “Hi. I’m Annabelle. Bella.”
“Good afternoon Annabelle Bella.”
That made her laugh and it was an infectious giggle that warmed my entire being.
“Just Bella.”
“Enjoying the sunshine just Bella?”
“Yep.” She looked like she was going to say something else but then she just froze like a child asked a particularly difficult question by a terrifying teacher. It was something I was used to. A lot of women did that when I looked at them. It was amusing to watch her struggle with herself. I let it last for a few more seconds before ending her torture.
“I’m Jack, Jack Rutherford.”
I held out my hand over the fence and she got up, walking across towards me. Christ, that body. It was lucky she couldn’t see how hard I was, the fence hiding the bulge in my trousers as I let my eyes trail down her and then back up to her eyes in time for her to take my hand. The feel of her skin made every nerve inside me stand on edge, rigid and ready to spring, like electricity had passed between us in that touch. Her skin was so soft, warmed by the sun, with a weak grip in her handshake, a grip that told me she’d submit easily. Perfectly. She wouldn’t fight me. I was almost disappointed by how easy this was going to be.
“Hi Jack,” she said, looking down at my hand, waiting for silent permission to let go. I gripped her fingers for a few more seconds before letting her hand slip free.
“Live with your parents, Bella?”
“No,” her eyes narrowed as she answered. “It’s my house.” She sounded slightly annoyed, a tone of voice that would earn her a spanking if she was under my roof. No one spoke to me without showing respect.
A voice called me from the house. I swore under my breath as they shouted, “Where do you want these, Mr Rutherford?”
“Would you excuse me, Bella?” I asked. “I won’t keep you from your sunbathing any longer.”
“I should really be getting on anyway,” she said. “My book won’t write itself. It was nice to meet you, Mr Rutherford.”
She turned and walked away and I didn’t move until she was inside her house, I couldn’t tear my eyes from that ass of hers as she sashayed, her hips swaying across the lawn to her door. Only when she was out of sight did I twist my head round towards the removals man. It might have looked as if I was paying attention to what he was asking me but my mind was still fixed on her. The image of her in her bikini tormented me. It was the way she’d walked away from me, teasing me, begging me to take her. I would, soon.