4. Lucy
FOUR
LUCY
I shut the door and rested my forehead against the cool wood trying to steady my crazy heart.
It’d been racing like a horse at the Kentucky Derby since the moment my hot-as-hell neighbor had spoken.
I hadn’t been sure at first, but something about the rough timbre in his voice had felt familiar.
I’d tried to ignore it, but the more we spoke, the more I’d been around him, the more I felt like I was right. I knew exactly who he was.
Victor was Daddy.
Daddy was Victor.
My neighbor! My new freaking neighbor!
I might not have been one hundred percent certain of it while we’d stood by the mailboxes, but by the time he’d tried his first ever pumpkin spice latte, I’d known.
It was him! The man I’d fallen for, the one who had wormed his way under my skin without knowing what he looked like, was my new neighbor.
The idea of him moving next to me as a pure coincidence was too big of a pill to swallow.
It should have freaked me out! Terrified me that the man who paid to talk to me, to watch me get off almost on a nightly basis, had figured out where I lived and moved in next door.
I should have yelled at him or at the very least run away!
But I didn’t.
Instead, I insisted we head to a bookstore and then get coffee only to find ourselves at the equivalent of my favorite place on earth, the Halloween store!
I was sick.
Sick, sick, sick in the head!
I’d told Daddy all about my mask fantasy when we’d discovered we both liked daddy/baby girl play.
And in the store, I was not proud to admit I waited to see something in Victor’s eyes, a tell of some sort that hinted he already knew where I stood when it came to masks.
He might not have given me anything in that moment, but I didn’t miss the way he paid attention to my favorite mask.
The way his eyes kept jumping to the Ghostfaces on the wall.
Then, when I’d pushed him to see what costume he liked most, he’d nipped at my ear, a slight growl to his voice as he told me a schoolgirl or sexy kitten were classics for a reason, I’d about called him out on it. Told him I knew who he was.
But I hadn’t.
“Sick, sick, sick!” I mumbled to myself as I pushed off the door and walked deeper into my apartment. I stopped midway to my office and looked around.
I should have felt violated.
Key word: should.
My stalker, a man who was seriously sick in the head moving in next door, was just a wall away. Why didn’t I feel violated? Why didn’t I feel like the walls were closing in on me? Why wasn’t I drowning in fear instead of deep, guttural arousal?
“Sick, sick, sick,” I whispered to myself again while undoing the scarf around my neck. I couldn’t stop the smile that graced my face as I thought about how he had changed into stuff that would make us match. Make us look like we were together while we were out and about.
It was kinda… sweet.
Cute, really.
I chewed on my bottom lip and veered away from my office. I was going to take the day off and head to my bedroom and read.
He might be crazy and definitely unhinged moving his whole life just a door away from mine, but he had been vulnerable with me. I’d unknowingly peeled back a layer of Daddy I hadn’t expected when he’d shared about his upbringing and his foster brothers.
I kicked off my boots and fell back onto my bed with a groan.
“What is wrong with me?” I sighed and then stilled.
I tossed and turned then rolled around on my bed and stared at the walls. I hurried out of my bedroom and into my office, moving to the one I shared with my stalker neighbor. I pressed my ear to the wall and waited. I could hear footsteps.
Typing. And then… nothing.
I pulled away and frowned.
Could I be wrong?
I hated questioning myself. No! No, I was not going to do this! I knew Victor was Daddy! I could feel it down to my bones. I was great with voices. It always creeped people out how good I was at figuring out whose voice was who in movies or random sound clips.
I lay down on my work bed and stared up at the ceiling I had painstakingly placed glow-in-the-dark stars to when I’d moved into the place.
The sun was starting to set outside. I reached for my phone in my pocket and pulled it out, setting it on silent as I typed out a message and waited to hear the ping on the other side of the wall.
But there was nothing.
I frowned.
Victor’s phone had gone off a couple of times when we’d been together, but he could have easily silenced it the moment he walked into his place just like I had.
Was I putting one and one together and coming up with a billion?
Could I be this wrong all just because I felt a smidge guilty about being so attracted to my sexy, dark, and brooding neighbor?
A man who I hadn’t officially met even though I saw him all over town?
If I thought back, I’d seen him before he moved in a month ago at the gym. But we lived in a small town without a whole lot of options of places you could go. It was the reason Porter’s Gym was as successful as it was. Porter. I wondered if he owned it or one of his many brothers did.
Does it matter? Not about his brothers owning businesses but about Daddy being Victor? No. The answer was quiet but sure. It didn’t matter. It was crazy and stupid and utterly wild, but it only made things a little more interesting.
Because at the end of it, I could only hope this ended in one way.
With him in my bed or me in his.