Page 20 of Secret Admirer

What?!My mouth falls open. I’m flabbergasted. “Well, I’m here to change your mind.”

He snickers at me. “I’ve never been one to watch too much TV, but I’m willing to watch it with you if it will make you feel better.”

Instantly the night comes back to me. Leaving Tricks and being thrown up against the wall, feeling my skin scraping against the brick wall of the building, being hit and blinded by pain, and then Bodhi.

“Hey, I’ll watch whatever you want. Don’t cry.” He speaks quietly from his corner of the couch with concerned eyes.

Pulling the blanket up to my chin, I attempt to smile at him, but I know it doesn’t reach my eyes. “It’s not about Friends. For a few minutes I forgot about tonight and then—”

“I reminded you. Shit. I’m so sorry, Coco.” A muscle ticks in his jaw and he shifts uncomfortably in his spot.

“It was bound to happen sooner or later, but it was nice while it lasted.” I hit the power on the remote and wait for it to come alive and then switch over to Netflix and queue up Friends. “Do you want a blanket or anything?” He doesn’t look cold, but maybe he’d like to cover up. I know I can’t sit around the house without a blanket draped across me.

Bodhi eyes my blanket and nods. In some ways, it’s so easy to forget that he’s been homeless for who knows how long and probably hasn’t even had the bare essentials.

A yawn escapes my mouth and all of a sudden, I feel the weight of the night on me. I’m dead tired, but afraid of what will happen when I fall asleep. “Want to share mine? I’m too tired to get up and find one.” Scooting closer, I start to place the blanket over his legs when the light from outside turns on and I jump.

Bodhi’s head swivels back and forth from looking outside and at my frightened face. “Coco? Are you okay?”

“This is part of why I haven’t been sleeping well.” My voice shakes along with my hands. I stuff them under my legs to try to control them. “Every night the security lights come on, but when I look there’s nothing out there.”

“You think it’s someone?” He stands, making the blanket fall from his lap and straightens to his full height.

“I’m not sure. That’s the thing. I’ve felt like someone’s been watching me for weeks now. Following me, but I’ve never seen anyone. It’s just a feeling.”

Bodhi’s face darkens and some untold emotion flickers across his face. “Do you have the alarm set?”

Looking up at him, I’m surprised to see the piercing gaze of his eyes as he scans the outside from where he stands. “I do. I turned it on the moment you went upstairs to take a shower.”

“Can you turn it off so I can go outside and check around the property? You can turn it back on while I’m out there if it will make you feel safer.” He says all of this with his back to me while he continues to scan my property.

In all truth, the only thing making me feel safe is the giant of a man standing in my living room. “Let me go grab my phone and I’ll disable the alarm. That way I can stand at the door and disarm it again. Actually,” I stop and motion to Bodhi, “follow me and you can go out that way.”

As we walk back to my bedroom, I turn off the lights. If someone is out there, I don’t want them to see what we’re doing. One of the downfalls of having a house and ninety percent of the wall made of glass is there’s no privacy. Except there should be because I live out in the middle of nowhere with no one around for miles.

Disabling the alarm with the panel by the bed, I grab my phone off the charger and slide open the glass enough for Bodhi to slip through. I grab his arm as he steps outside. Turning back to me, he looks down at me with fierce protection in his eyes. “Please be careful.”

He nods and takes another step out into the night. “I promise. Make sure to lock up.”

Watching Bodhi with my face plastered against the glass, I lock it and enable the alarm. I won’t feel truly safe until he’s back by my side. It doesn’t take long for him to get lost in the shadows, but every so often a different security light turns on outside.

What the hell had I been thinking letting him go out there in only a robe? If something or someone is out there, he has no way to protect himself. I should have at least given him a flashlight to search with if only I knew where one was.

A shadow starts toward the house and my heart rate picks up speed. I can’t tell if it’s Bodhi or not. He’s too far away for the security light to come on. Whoever it is, is moving slowly. Is he hurt? Disabling the alarm and unlocking the door, I slide the glass open and call out to him. “Bodhi?”

“Get inside the house,” he barks from the other direction.

Not the shadow!

I stand frozen as if my feet are encased in cement as I look out to the edge of my property where the shadow stops after hearing Bodhi’s voice.

“Bodhi!” I shout, panic filling every inch of my body. Who the hell is out there?

“I said to get inside,” Bodhi growls from only a few feet away. I’d been so paralyzed by fear I hadn’t been paying attention to my surroundings. It very well could have been someone else who came up on me and not Bodhi. Gently he grabs my arms and pulls me inside the house before closing the door and locking it. Looking down, his gaze is on my phone. “Enable the alarm, Coco.”

“Right. Right,” I shake my head and hit the button to enable the alarm. “Should I call the police?”

“I don’t think that’s necessary. All I found was a—”

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