Page 37 of H E R

10

Redemption

My fox hasn’t returned. The new floorboards creek beneath my weight from pacing for the last six hours, a warning from the universe that I’m going to fall through any fucking second now. It’s four in the fucking morning, and according to my notations, no one in that trailer works tonight.

So where the fuck is she?

Two fucking times already, I had to stop myself from ravaging her. She was pushing my buttons. She smelled of vodka mixed with her usual citrusy scent. And I wanted to inhale every molecule and bottle it up. I could somewhat see past her working atRibbons, butNym-Pho?

She’s allowed to do whatever the fuck she wants, of course, just as long as no one touches her. Getting onto their guest list is at the top of my list; I want to be there every night she is. Especially when her attire consists of a couple of fucking laces over her skin. Her pussy is just out there for anyone to see. It’s one thing to know that her delicious curves are being gawked at. The new feeling rushes through me, and I can only categorize it as being possessive. I don’t give a shit. They can look, yet touching what is mine is completely unacceptable.

Mine.

It should perturb me that I haven’t questioned what’s been stirring inside since that first day I laid eyes on her. The only obsession I’ve ever had is work. But with Niki, I refuse to be an agreeable alternative. I need to be heronlyone. Noah is already on my shit list, but if she’s under the delusion that they’re an item, I’ve made it my mission to show her otherwise. I can tell he hasn’t had her. Niki isn’t in love with him, and he wants her soul before he takes her body. I mean, I’d readily tell him that’s impossible. But he’ll learn soon enough. My fox will tell him herself.

Noah isn’t in town, he’s doing whatever the fuck it is he does three counties over. Which reminds me, I have to ask Jason for a file on him. It’s a stupid mistake on my behalfto have deterred my attention, no matter how slight, from the man who calls himself Niki’s boyfriend.

Pathetic. Each time I’ve caught him with his hands on her, it takes all my training to focus on restraint. To Niki, he’s family. No matter how displaced her affections toward him are, I have to acknowledge that he’s protected her as much as his pitiful abilities allow him to. I understand why he’s obsessed with her. She’s fucking perfect.

I’m drawn to the way she looked when she found out I was her new neighbor. The thought of her round and perky tits, that’ll just barely fit into my hands, taunts me and my dick jerks in my sweats. Her discomfort was palpable. I can’t get her out of my head–the way her little black shorts were hugging her thick thighs and how they slid up when she walked away.Fuck.

I knew something was off. I keep trying to pluck the image of her wearing nothing but six fucking belt straps over her creamy skin from my mind. I almost lost it that night. I’m pretty surethatwas when I decided I had to be near her.

She wasn’t going to tell me not to enter this trailer lot again. If I listened that first time, it was because her reasoning actually made sense. Niki’s reputation means the world to her; I wasn’t going to fuck with that. But then she asked me to let her walk alone,naked? No. Not a fucking chance, not happening.Ever.

I almost devoured her that night. Her skin,fuck, it’s my very own entrance to the portal of a never-ending paradise. I wanted to wrap her legs around me and slip her thong to the side and pound into her so hard she screams my name in agony and pleasure laced into one damning assurance that she is mine.

Her touch grounded me and then shot me into the sky. I'd turn away from sin if she were an angel sent to deliver me to heaven. And I’d gladly sell my soul to Hades if it meant I’d get to spend an eternity with her in hell.

I barely heard her reproach, an inaudible and bleak attempt to push me away. She struggled with that. I saw it in her eyes then; she couldn’t bear the idea of betraying Noah. He’s too important to her. But not in the way he wants. She doesn’t love him. But shewilllove me…someday.

And this delusional assertion is why I now live here and she can’t tell me to leave.

Ibelong. More or less.

My hope is to be able to keep an eye on her. She’s too devious for her own good, the trouble that woman gets herself into. You’d think she’s searching for it, longing for it. Hertactics are unreputable, but they get the job done, as underhanded as they may be. And her survival skills and will to protect her family are by far unmatched.

I’m still wondering if she truly owns a Tec9. The street camera was down and I couldn’t get footage of her from that night. I know it was her; one look into those big brown eyes and I knew. Matter a fact, I hope shedoesown a few guns. And if she doesn’t, I’ll buy her some. I’d feel a lot more comfortable knowing she’s walking around loaded.

Niki’s presence created a sort of vortex of cataclysmic proportions. It twisted my reality, took over my fucking thoughts and entire being. The disturbance is so intense that it’s entered my system like a plague. Nothing else exists now, just her. Even Max was affected by her. I couldn’t even be mad at him, she’s a force of fucking nature.

I take my phone from the wooden table near the window in direct view to her place and Jason answers on the third ring.

“Do you know what fucking time it is right now?”

“That’s precisely why I called,” I growl. “I need a thorough background on Nikoletta Justice Fox.”

“What you need is a CT scan, because I emailed you her file two weeks ago.”

I had all the basic information. The precinct got her birth year wrong, therefore her age. It’s a fucking mess, so naturally, I didn’t trust the file they had on her. I’d already looked like a total fucking dumbass for assuming she was fifteen and asking to speak to her guardians. I knew keeping my distance wasn’t the correct path to take. If I would’ve pursued her from the start, I wouldn’t have been so clueless. Then again, I thought I was stalking an underage girl, so I guess it can be forgiven.

Jason’s particular skills are far better than any police station, and he’s allowed me a view no one else had on Niki.

Niki witnessed the murder of her parents at the age of fourteen; her brother was only six at the time. Court proceedings placed both kids in child protective services. But when the paperwork wasn’t delivered on time, a letter was sent to the precinct for them to pick up the kids and drive them to a foster home. The dumbasses never picked them up. They did not acknowledge the case or lift a finger for them. They slipped through the cracks, and both Niki and her brother stayed in the trailer—without adult supervision. She dropped out of high school and uprooted her entire life for her brother.

Niki dabbled in trades, from cleaning services, deliveries, manufacturing companies, public works and sanitation, to hauling fucking metal at the junkyard. Her latest, and my least favorite, exotic server. Her friend Jasmin is no different. Same age, she’d beenunofficially adopted by Niki’s parents when she was eight years old, and after they were killed, she stayed working in the club scene. She’d gotten well known and even moved up to a supervisor position atNym-Pho. Julius Junior was an excellent student and only stepped away to help out with bills. They were tightly knit and unified by one tragedy after another.

Hell, Jason even provided a list of Niki’s previous relationships. If you can even call them that. My fox was incapable of settling down. She’d lost her virginity to some idiot at sixteen and then entered a long line of one-night stands. She never took anyone home or slept with anyone more than once. Her last sexual partner was six months prior, and she only started dating Noah three months ago. They’d been a steady item. For now.

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