Someone attacked Vanessa. I don’t like this one bit. When Darren said she had been hurt, I rushed out the door; he had to try and keep up. Driving to the mall, I was so worried about her. This whole thing was getting out of hand. The notes. The break-in. And now this.

When I entered the bathroom and saw her bruised forehead, the blood matted to her silky blonde hair, I about lost it. The look in her eyes was enough to send me on a one-man rampage to find the person responsible. I have so much pent-up frustration coursing through my system, I can’t stand still

She walks out of the bathroom on Jordan’s arm, and I tense. I just don’t like him, and I definitely don’t like them touching.

I wrap my arms around her as she tells Jordan goodbye, then I help Vanessa walk out the door. We take it slow to my car in the lot. Maxine said the paramedics were adamant about making sure someone monitored her all night, and I plan to do just that. She sits and stares out the window while I drive her through the streets of Palm Beach.

Hyper-aware of her body next to mine, I’m at a loss for what to say. I reach my hand over to her leg and squeeze gently. She turns and smiles.

I know she is probably sick of people asking if she is okay, so I try to lighten the mood.

“You know, if you wanted to stay at the house, you could have just asked.” Our eyes connect, and there’s a shimmer of spark.

“I figured this was the best way to get your attention.”

“Sweetheart, you have had my attention since the moment I first laid eyes on you.” I squeeze her leg and return my hand to the steering wheel. We stop at a red light, and I take a moment to glance at her. I commend her for not crying: she is not a fragile little girl. She is strong, I chuckle when I remember her saying she kicked the guy’s leg and gripped her nails into his wrist.

“What’s so funny?” she asks, glancing sideways at me.

“You’re a pretty badass chick.”

“Oh, is that so?”

“Yeah, I’m proud you fought back.”

“Well, a lot of good it did me.” She raises a hand to touch the bandage on her forehead.

“Are you kidding? Who knows what he could have done if you didn’t attack back?” I focus my attention back on the road and accelerate away from the green light.

“Yeah, I guess,” she mumbles.

“Did he say anything?”

“Nope.” Turning in the seat to look at me, her eyes penetrate my skin, catching it on fire. Something takes over, and I feel feelings I’ve never had before. I’ve never cared before to be around a girl for this long. I know this is the bet and I needed to have a relationship with her, but now I’m actually enjoying it.

I don’t tell her about the letter I received that gave me a warning. No need to stress her out further.

“Listen, I want you to stay with me this week. You have the week off of work to study for finals, right?” I can’t believe these words when I say them; my need to protect her is strong.

When we pull up to the house, I rush around to her side of the car to open her door.

The idea of her staying with me is critical. “Look, don’t answer right away. I just want you to be with me until we catch this jackass.” I grab her hand, helping her out of the Cobra and walking her to the front door.

“Well, you do realize I have a head injury. Probably shouldn’t be making big decisions like that right now anyways.” The sun catches her bright blue eyes. They draw me in as her lips lift up into the most exquisite smile I have ever seen. I stop walking: walking and staring are too difficult to pull off at the same time right now. Like a fish out of water, I stand staring at her.

“Please stay with me.” My mouth waters and I lean in to kiss her. I brush my lips against hers, which makes me lightheaded.

“Come on, lover boy, let’s get inside.” She pulls out of my embrace and we walk the rest of the way to the front door.

When we enter the house, I take her purse from her and set it on the side table.

“Are you hungry?” I ask.

Tony is at the table and his head pops up from his phone when he sees Vanessa enter.

“Whoa, what happened?” We recount the events of the day while I make Vanessa a salad. Out of curiosity, I glance at Tony’s wrist to make sure he doesn’t have her nail marks embedded on his skin. Free and clear: his wrists have no scars.

Taking a seat across from Tony, she nibbles on her food. I give her a comforting glance. “Don’t worry. We’ll catch the son-of-a-bitch.”

“Hell yeah we will,” Tony adds. He rises from the table, tossing his soda into the trash bin.

Vanessa looks back and forth between us and offers her thanks. Tony smiles at Vanessa and walks out of the kitchen as he taps at his phone.

“I figure in a bit I can head to your house and pick up a bag for you,” I say, taking a seat next to her at the table.

She eyes me. “Well, I’m going with you.”

“I can just go.”

“I am not letting you rifle through my things without me there,” she says, drawing out the words to make her point.

“Fair enough.”

I grab her hand on the table and feel a spark of magic ignite my skin. The flame begins at the point of contact and travels through my system. Everything about her is alluring, and I can’t seem to get enough of her.

Vanessa raises her eyebrow and winks. “So, how do you plan on keeping me awake tonight?”

“I have a few ideas.” I wink and a billion images race through my mind rapid-fire. The feeling of being inside her washes over me, making my pants tighter across the inseam.

I get up, grab her finished plate, and toss it into the sink. Then I lead her by the hand back to my car so we can head to her house.

“So, why didn’t we stop by my place first?” She smiles as she buckles her seat belt.

“I really thought I could leave you here and go alone. When we get home tonight, I want you to call your parents again and see if they can find out where Eric is.”

“Okay, and then we can make a plan.”

“Yes, we need a plan.”

We arrive at her house as the sun sets. Walking up the front porch steps, we see a white piece of paper taped to the front door.

“Oh God, I can’t look.” She hides her eyes with a hand.

“I’ll get it.” I grab the paper and crumple it into my hand, then curiosity tugs at me and I open it. The red, scribbled writing makes my temper flare.

Slut,

Leave Trace alone. You are MINE

This person knows my name. I crumple the note back up and shove it into my shorts pocket. The yard and neighborhood are clear. No one’s around. We step inside, and she closes and locks the door before we make our way to her room.

The desk has papers thrown all over it. “What happened here?” I ask, rummaging through the papers.

“Nosy, I was studying.”

“Oh, right. You’re kind of a slob,” I joke with her. She swats my chest and laughs.

A beautiful pink dress hangs from the closet door, and she grabs it. There is a white note attached to it. I am about to protest about there being another note, this time in her room, but she just smiles and hands it to me.

“This is the dress I bought today. I’d almost forgotten about it. Maxine brought it home for me.” I look in her luminous eyes and then read the note. In big bubbly letters, Maxine wrote:

Ness, here is your hot dress,

Love you… Max

She packs a bag while I sit on the bed. She lets me know that she’ll have tons of studying to do while she stays with me. I plan to study, too—just nothing to do with school. A lot to do with her, though.

We arrive back at my place and, after I get her a Tylenol and a glass of water, we head to my room. After we both change into nightclothes, we lie down on my bed. She rests on my chest as I run my hand down her arm and she draws circles into my stomach, making my heart beat faster.

“I noticed today that Jordan didn’t have any scratch marks on his wrists,” she says.

“Yeah, I noticed the same thing about Tony.”

“Me, too.” She begins to run her fingers up and down my chest.

“Should you call your mom now?” I want her to continue her tickling venture along my chest but refocus her attention instead.

“Okay.” She lifts her head, sits up, and reaches for her phone on the nightstand. She dials the numbers and waits.

“Hello, Mom.”

Listening to the conversation, I can hear her mother’s voice become alarmed.

“It’s okay, Mom. I have great friends who are taking care of me.” She gives me a soft smile, and my chest grows heavy. This is only a bet, and in a few weeks I won’t need to be around to protect her, but the more I think about it, the more I want to be.

She hangs up with her mother and turns to me. “She is gonna call Eric’s parents.”

“Good. So, who else? I want to tell you, the other day I followed Jordan.”

“You did? Ooh, we have a spy in our midst.”

“Hardly. He didn’t do anything but lead me to his apartment. And when I got home, I had a note on my front door.” I stand up and head over to my dresser to get the crumpled white note and give it to her.

She reads the note and raises her eyebrows. “So it seems that the universe is trying to keep us apart.”

I edge closer, leaning my head on hers. “Not the universe, sweetheart. No, some egotistical maniac wants to keep us apart.”

“What should we do?” She dips her head down, looking at the letter in her hands.

“Well, I’m not staying away from you. But if you want to stay away from me, I understand.” I try to give her an out: I don’t want to risk her safety just for my own personal needs.

“I feel safe when I’m with you.” Her face lights up as she looks at me with her baby blues.

I lean in and brush my lips across her rosy pink lips. I suck on her lower lip as I hear her whimper. She places her hands against my chest, pushing me away.

“I haven’t told you that, at Sofa Kings the other night, Hailey confronted me in the bathroom.”

My jaw clamps shut when she says this. My irritability tries to rip through me like Bruce Banner when he turns into the Hulk. I want to tear off my shirt and Hulk-smash something.

“What did she say?” I ask, gritting my teeth together. I knew messing around with that hood rat ho would lead to madness.

“She told me to stay away from you.”

There is a knock at the door, and we shrug our shoulders at one another.

“Hey, it’s Tony. Can I come in?” he asks through the door.

“Sure thing.” I am still sitting on the bed facing Vanessa, who holds the note in her hands. We pull away from each other as Tony enters.

“Hey, we are heading to Sofa Kings. Wanna come?”

“No, she has a concussion. I don’t think that’s the type of place she should be right now,” I say, standing from the bed. He turns to leave, and I follow him out into the hallway and shut the bedroom door, holding a finger up to Vanessa to give me a second to talk to him.

“Have you seen Hailey?” I ask, making sure my voice is low enough that Vanessa doesn’t hear.

“No, not really. Is that skank causing problems with you and ‘Vanilla’ in there?” He jabs a finger towards the room where Vanessa sits.

“I don’t know. If you see her, tell her I wanna talk to her.”

“Sure thing, boss man,” he says, raising a hand to his forehead in a salute.

“I’m serious, Tony. Someone attacked her.”

“Didn’t you say it was a man? So I doubt Hailey had anything to do with it. I think you guys are overreacting.” We stand in the hallway just staring at each other. He is a little taller than I am, but I won’t back down. How can he say this?

“Overreacting? Dude, her house was broken into. Someone attacked her. I don’t think we are overreacting about shit.” I raise my voice a little to let him know I’m serious.

He puts his hands up in a surrendering fashion. “Okay, okay. I’ll tell her. Tell Vanessa I hope she feels better. Have you checked with that punk-ass Jordan? Maybe he is pissed you are together and she won’t give it up to him.”

“Yeah, we thought about that.”

“Just think, in a few weeks you can put this whole bad dream behind you.” He laughs.

“What is that supposed to mean?” I can feel veins bulging in my forehead.

“Calm down. Just saying, in a few weeks, the bet will be off, and you won’t have to mess around with her anymore.” Then he puts one hand in the air as if he has just received a divine intervention. “You’re not getting serious with this one, are you?”

I don’t answer, which sends him on a chuckling frenzy. He raises his fist to his mouth and laughs into his closed hand. “Holy shit, you are.” He leaves, laughing down the hallway.

“Hey, Tony!” I call to him.

He turns to look at me. “Yeah?”

“Just let that little slut Hailey know I want to talk to her.” I give him the best mean glare possible.

“Sure.” He’s still laughing as he leaves.

I re-enter my bedroom, wondering how much she has heard, and see her sitting on the bed, perusing the note over and over.

The light is dim in my room so as not to affect her headache. She looks like an angel sitting on my bed. Her long, blonde hair waves across her shoulder and falls across her face. Her body is screaming for me to hold her. I just stare for a while before making my way to her.

Just as she’s about to say something, her phone rings and she raises a finger to me. The call from her mother lasts a few minutes before she hangs up.

“So?” I ask, lying back down on the bed.

She nestles up to my chest. “Eric is visiting friends out of state. That is all they would tell my mother.”

“For how long?”

“My mom said for about a month.”

“Did he ever say anything like he wanted to hunt you down? Or that he would come after you?”

“No. Well, not in so many words.” She drops her head.

“Vanessa, sweetheart, what did he say?” I look down at her, waiting for an answer, then rub my fingers down her arm to let her know she can tell me.

“He told me I would never find anyone better than him and if I ever tried, he would be there.”

“Okay, we need to tell the police.” We reposition ourselves so she is lying on my chest again.

“Okay,” she whimpers.

“How is your head?” I ask, running my fingers over her hair.

“It’s better. Thank you for letting me stay here.”

“Of course. I want you with me always. And I will take you to school all week for finals.”

She breathes a sigh of relief, “Okay.”

My mind starts running on overdrive, trying to put the pieces together. What if Eric’s in town and trying to keep us apart? Well, he doesn’t know who he is dealing with.

“When do you start work for Mr. Roberts?” she asks, breaking me from my thoughts.

“The Monday after school is out. But I would like for you to stay with me until we catch Eric or whoever is doing this.”

“Do you want to work for him this summer?”

“No, not really,” I mumble.

“Why not?”

“I don’t want to work for my father. He wants me to take over one day.”

“And you don’t want to?” She leans closer.

“No.”

“What do you want to do with your life?”

“I’m not sure. However, I know I don’t want to work at his firm. I want to do more with my life,” I say.

“Do something that makes you happy.”

“I’m happy now.” I rub a finger along her cheek. She smiles and leans back into me.

Rising to my feet, I stand at the edge of the bed.