Page 21 of Claimed By the Sailor

“I really like the idea of you waiting in bed for me. I bet I’ll be the first to finish our run today with motivation like that,” he boasted.

Twisting my neck, I looked up at him and giggled. “If that means you’ll get back faster, then you’d better be.”

He snapped to attention and saluted me. “Yes, ma’am.”

“As long as you’re taking orders, I could use a cup of coffee before you go.”

I was only teasing, but I shouldn’t have been surprised when he returned to my bedroom five minutes later with a steaming mug. “Here you go, baby. I went heavy on the flavored creamer, just how you like it.”

Sitting up and reaching out to accept the coffee, I beamed him a smile. “You really didn’t have to do this, but thank you.”

“My pleasure.”

I wagged my brows at him. “I’m hoping it will be both of ours when you come back.”

He tugged a T-shirt over his head and smirked back at me. “Stay right there like a good girl, and it definitely will be.”

“I promise, I’m not going anywhere.” We’d stayed in the bubble of my apartment all weekend, and it had become my safe space…especially with Silas here. Without him at my side, I had no interest in running any of the errands I’d been putting off.

After he put on his socks and shoes, he gave me another kiss. I let out a dreamy sigh as I stared at his butt while he walked out of my bedroom.

I was super comfy in bed and could use some more rest since it was early. I hadn’t slept much last night because Silas woke me twice to make love. So I heaved a deep sigh and grumbled to myself when there was a knock on the door only a few minutes after Silas left. “I wonder what he forgot?”

Setting my coffee on the bedside table, I crawled off the mattress and threw on my robe before stomping through my apartment. When I flung the door open, I got a big, unpleasant surprise.

I must have been more tired than I thought because I should have known Silas wouldn’t have knocked if he’d left something behind. He had to have taken my keys so he could lock the door behind him, and he wouldn’t have left me alone in bed when someone could walk right into my apartment without me being aware. Not when he’d kept it locked the entire time he’d been here to protect me.

Now he was gone, and I was facing off against the mysterious woman who’d threatened me all by myself. She wore the same hoodie from the video and clenched a big knife in her fist.

Holding my hands up in a gesture of surrender, I murmured, “Please don’t hurt me.”

“Get inside,” she growled, shoving my shoulder with her free hand.

It wasn’t until she kicked the door shut behind her that the hood fell back and I got my first glimpse of her face. Gasping, I pressed my hand against my chest. “I know you. I don’t know your name, but we met at the rehab center. You were discharged when I went to visit my brother.”

“Of course you don’t know my name!” she shrieked, laughing maniacally. “Why would you bother to do something as basic as that before you destroyed my life?”

Between her pale skin, stringy hair, and dilated eyes, I was pretty sure she’d already fallen off the wagon and straight into a pile of whatever she was addicted to. I knew from experience that trying to argue logic with someone when they were high wouldn’t work, but I had to at least try. “I’m sorry. Will you please tell me your name now? And what I did to hurt you?”

“I told you not to bother playing dumb.” She took a menacing step toward me, jabbing the knife in my direction. “It’s not going to work on me. Paul said I was smart. He did.”

Her eyes lit up when she said my brother’s name, the same way they had when she’d talked about him in the lobby of the rehab center. “My brother is a very good judge of character.”

“He is,” she agreed with a frantic nod. “And he likes me.”

“I’m sure he does.”

Her eyes narrowed, and her lips pressed together. “Or at least he liked me when we could talk to each other. But you’re ruining everything because you won’t let him anymore.”

“I don’t control who my brother gets to talk to while he’s at the rehab clinic,” I pointed out in a soft voice. “You were a patient there. You know that’s not how it works. The counselors decide how much contact it’s safe for the patients to have, depending on where they are in their journey to becoming sober. Paul is still only allowed to talk to family, but that should change sometime this month.”

“No,” she hissed, shaking her head. “You went there, and I didn’t get to talk to him again. It’s because of you. It has to be. Paul wouldn’t tell them that I couldn’t call. You did. You even said so.”

My brows drew together. “What did I say?”

“That the universe didn’t want us to be together,” she spat.

“Oh.” I remembered saying something similar, but I hadn’t thought for a moment that she would take it as me preventing her from having contact with Paul. “I didn’t mean you specifically. I only meant that there are rules about not starting a new romantic relationship so soon after finishing rehab. Remember, I also said you might meet in the future…when you’re both on solid ground and ready for more than friendship.”

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