Page 64 of Veiled in Brick

“Finding a private place to tell you goodbye,” he responded with smiling eyes.

His fingers had woven through mine, my right hand pinned above my head. I looked up to his grip and grinned wickedly, stretching my body to splay against his. The scent of his body wash that we both wore invaded my nostrils, he pulled my waist flush against him so no space was left between us, and he rested his forehead against mine. I hummed happily, the warmth of him encompassing me from all angles.

“I like this,” I murmured in a seductive tone.

“The alley or me?”

I cocked an eyebrow up high. “What do you think?”

“I dunno.”

He said his response with a shake of his head and an almost anxious exhale, and I reached up to place my lips on his. Brief as it was, it scorched through me. Our mouths separated with a smack.

“When are your classes over tonight?” I asked him quietly.

He noted, “Won’t be long after you’re back.” I nodded, and he said, “Have Luke wait with you until I get there.”

I complained, “Lee, that’s—”

“Needed since a guy busted your door open, deadbolt and all, and he could do it to mine too if he knows you’re there?” he asked quickly with an eyebrow arched up high. I sighed against him, and he concluded with, “It’ll be a few minutes. Tops.”

“Fine,” I whispered.

“Thank you.”

His warm eyes showed that he meant it, and he leaned in to kiss me deeply.

I thought back to the moment my back was pressed against the brick outside of Zest’s store walls over and over throughout my shift. The daydreaming, as spicy as I had made it, only made the time pass slower. The eight hours dragged on, and I supposed I had been avoiding it by focusing on the thought of lewd content finally being able to be recreated, but I knew in the back of my mind that I needed to speak with Brenda once more about the mystery man in my life. We were closing up shop by the time the idea resurfaced, and I dragged my feet as we went through the motions. Brenda picked up the few items left in the dressing rooms. I ensured that the scant cash was counted from the register. She turned off the background music that had begun to croon soft piano tunes into our ears, and I sighed heavily as we wandered to the back together.

One hand on her large red purse on the counter, she asked me, “What’s up?”

“I gotta ask you more about this guy,” I stated with a grimace.

Brenda placed a hand on her hip, her hazel gaze turning concerned. “The one that left you the flower?”

The one that attacked me? The one that doesn’t seem to want to leave me the fuck alone? The one that broke into my apartment?

I hadn’t told Brenda about the incident at my apartment, and I didn’t intend to. I held my tongue, erring on whatever side of brevity that I possibly could.

“Yeah…what did he look like, exactly?”

“I told ya, short black hair, brown eyes, crooked nose—”

“Height?”

“Oh,” Brenda thought to herself, “um…hard to tell. Tall, really tall.”

I nodded, for I expected no different. “Was he…muscular? Thin?”

“Hmm—thin, I guess.”

“Any idea of his ethnicity?”

Brenda hesitated before she noted, “These sound like cop questions.”

I let out a bitter laugh. “Do they?”

“You gettin’ the police involved?”

---