Chapter 15
Fifteen
You’re giving off hot dog water vibes right now.
—Bernice to Hux
Hux
Creed called twice, and on the third round I finally managed to free the phone from my sweatpants pocket and hit answer. “Yeah?”
“You asleep?”
“Yeah.”
No denying it.
I was fucking wrecked.
I’d only gone to bed what felt like minutes ago.
“It’s noon.”
Okay, so I got six hours.
It didn’t feel like it.
I felt like I was fucking drugged.
“So?” I asked.
“You’re never asleep this late. You’re also usually at work. I have a deer at your door. Come open it for me.”
“I’m not in my apartment above the shop,” I grumbled. “There’s a keypad. Same code as the clubhouse. Gut it and skin it, then hang it up in the freezer to the left. Don’t leave a mess behind. And don’t use any of my knives.”
The words sounded garbled, but I knew that if I didn’t specify, he’d hang it up wherever, and I had a fucking system.
Plus, though I shouldn’t have to specify that grown-ass men needed to clean up after themselves, I felt compelled to tell him anyway.
Men were gross.
And though I’d never known Creed to be super messy, I sure the fuck didn’t want him leaving a mess at my place of business. I could get health coded, and that was the last thing that I needed.
“Ten-four.” Creed paused. “Where are you if you’re not in your apartment?”
“I have a house,” I pointed out.
“That you use only to shower and change clothes,” he pointed out back. “You’re always here.”
I was…until I wasn’t.
The only Bernice fix I got now was seeing her back at my place.
So I’d been staying at my house instead of the apartment above my shop that was brand-new and practically move-in ready.
Though I was only waiting on one thing, and that was the new flooring.
“Bye,” I grumbled and hung up, letting my phone drop to the bed and turning onto my side.
I felt a warm body when I did, and I peeked open one eye to see a wall of supple flesh.
Bernice was on her side, ass toward me, and the only thing covering that perfect, supple ass was a pair of thin boy short panties that showed the lower curve of said ass.
Her skin looked smooth and squeezable.
But my goddamn eyes refused to stay open despite having such a great view.
The next time I opened my eyes, it was to find a foot in my face with lilac-colored toenails and a body practically pressed up against mine.
I was also sweating my ass off.
When I looked down at the rest of my body it was to see Bernice’s heating blanket pressed between us.
Burning up would be an understatement.
I yanked at the blanket between us until I had it free, then tossed it to the other side of the bed.
I tried to sit up, but the woman wrapped around me didn’t want me to move.
So I didn’t, despite burning up.
I also had to piss like a racehorse.
“Bernice.”
She grumbled into my leg.
“Bernice,” I repeated. “I really have to pee.”
She rolled over me, then off the bed.
The view as she did was nothing short of spectacular.
Her panties stretched over her ass, and just the slightest bit of gap happened at the gusset of her panties so that the slightest bit of her pussy lips could be seen.
It had me hard in an instant.
“I’ll hurry,” she promised. “Unless you want to go pee outside.”
Might be the best idea, seeing as I was still burning up and my cock was hard as stone.
Since it was hard to piss through an erect cock, I chose the outside route and did my thing off the back porch’s steps.
By the time I was finished, a small patch of snow had melted, revealing part of the flowerbed.
I turned around to go inside once I’d tucked myself back into my pants and saw the mess of the backyard.
The bears had climbed the fence and ripped her trash cans to shreds.
At least, I thought it was a bear.
I went inside and grabbed my boots and a trash bag from under the kitchen sink—the location of which I only knew because I’d watched where she put them at her old place—and went to clean up.
As I did, I took a good look at the trash can and then the trash and a suspicion started to arise.
There was still plenty of food—something that a hungry bear wouldn’t have left behind.
Not even a raccoon would’ve left this much food behind.
As I looked through the things, I realized that there was a neat stack of something at the corner of the house.
As I got closer, I narrowed my eyes and found myself staring at some old panties and bras.
I knew that they were once Bernice’s because I’d watched her go through a box a few months ago and I’d clocked the bras and panties through her bedroom window.
They were bright pink and had white polka dots on them.
At the time, they’d caught my eye because I’d thought they’d look adorable covering Bernice’s ass.
I picked up the panties, which I realized then were hidden in a way that showed that whoever—and it was a fucking person that had gone through this trash—had done the digging had planned to come back for them.
When I’d come outside last night to check on the trash cans, I must’ve scared them off.
I glared at the gate between Bernice’s backyard and the front.
There were no cameras on the backyard.
That was my mistake.
I’d thought that the backyard would be safe.
Her backyard came up against a couple thousand acres of public land.
And that land was rocky terrain that would be fairly treacherous to navigate. Let alone navigate at night.
I’d have the cameras set up this afternoon, but to do that, I had to get Bernice out of the house.
I finished cleaning up her trash, then secured it in the trash can.
I forced myself to go ahead and throw the panties away, too.
They looked brand new and never worn.
My guess was that she bought them and they probably didn’t fit.
They were way too big and probably were a gift.
But it made me overly angry that someone had bought her something so intimate that wasn’t me…
“Hux?”
I looked up just as I closed the lid of the trash can, making sure it was secure.
“Yeah?”
“I was going to do that.”
“It’s already done.” I shrugged. “You’re dressed.”
She looked down at herself. “It’s cold.”
I should’ve gone back inside so I could see her in her panties and t-shirt a little longer.
In fact, I was kind of kicking myself for not going right back in.
I pushed through the door and kicked my boots off in the plastic tub she had set aside for them and washed my hands.
I didn’t tell her my suspicions—that someone was going through her panties and planned to come back for them.
I did, however, pull my phone out and shoot a text to Thumper, one of the newest members of the Dixie Wardens MC, and asked him to get by here this afternoon to get the cameras set up.
Thumper was a security guy.
He’d been in intelligence in the Army and had all the connections that he could ever want or need.
He had access to the newest technology—through a top-secret government job that he took after leaving the Army—and had done all the security for me at the shop, as well as my house.
He’d also helped me set up some circumspect cameras at Bernice’s place in the front of the house.
Me:
Can you get coverage on Bernice’s backyard today? Should’ve listened to you.
Thumper:
Sure. I can get there in an hour. And there is a reason that I’m the expert and you’re not.
I didn’t bother to agree with him.
I should’ve listened. However, I’d wanted to be at least a little bit in control. I couldn’t very well put cameras inside and out at her place. For one, her brother might figure out that I was obsessed with his sister. And for two, Bernice deserved privacy.
She couldn’t have privacy, though, and still be safe.
I should’ve gotten this step figured out when I’d heard about the serial killer.
A misstep on my part.
Both for not paying attention—I should’ve known about a serial killer seeing as I stalked her for the last five years—and for not fixing an obvious hole after finding out.
“Do you, uh, have to go?”
“No,” I answered. “But I was going to ask if you wanted to go have breakfast with me.”
She blinked.
“And would you also want to go see my new apartment with me?” I found myself asking. “I’m building out the top floor of the warehouse that The Mercantile and my butcher shop occupy.”
It was Saturday.
Usually, I would find myself at work.
However, there was nowhere else I’d rather be but here with her.
Plus, inviting her this way would mean that I’d get her out of the house so Thumper could get everything done. Otherwise, Thumper would have to leave halfway through so she could go home. And I’d have to come up with another day for him to finish up the work.
She crossed her arms over her chest, and it caused her tits to push together in the most flattering of ways.
I could tell she didn’t have a bra on again, too.
If it were up to me, I’d keep her exactly like this to optimize my viewing pleasure for the rest of time.
Skin-tight leggings and a skin-tight long-sleeved tee? No bra? It was my idea of heaven.
Well, just one of them.
There were quite a few ideas in my head when it came to Bernice Daugherty.
“I would love to. Let me go get dressed.”
“Just grab a jacket,” I suggested. “My place is warm enough. And we’ll just grab breakfast at The Mercantile and take it upstairs. We can watch some more of your show.”
Her face was soft, and just the slightest of blushes lit up her cheeks. “Okay, deal.”