The Unsettled Series

HER

The tears won’t stop. As soon as I step inside my house, they fall down my cheeks. I thought I was over Jer and his threats—but I guess he’s still trying to contact me, to find me.

It’s a wonder I’m not scared of my neighbor, after everything I’ve been through, but my neighbor has never been anything but sweet. I swipe angrily at the tears as I search for anything to soothe the pain in my chest.

At the back of one of my kitchen cabinets I find a forgotten bottle of whiskey. It’s a few years old, and I hate the way it burns, but it’s the only thing that’ll take me out of my head. I slug back a couple of shots with a grimace.

Head spinning now, I sink down on the couch, still holding the whiskey bottle in both hands. I have the bad idea to contact him, to see what he’s doing, maybe to ask if he saw what happened in the parking lot.

What almost happened, I correct myself. At least that mall cop arrived before Jer could hurt me again.

For once in my life, I wish that I could have called a man and he’d come to swoop in and save me, be my knight in shining armor. But my neighbor can’t do that. That’s not part of our arrangement.

Every time I think too hard about our unwritten rules, I realize how much I hate them. Not because I don’t want to do this anymore, but because I want ~more~.

Feeling sorry for myself, I trudge upstairs and curl up on my bed in the dark for the first time in months. My phone rings just as I’m starting to get comfortable.

I don’t answer the first time or the second. When it starts ringing for the third time I reach for the phone, but it slips down the edge of my bed. I curse and lean over the edge, spilling some of the whiskey onto the duvet.

Fuck, I’m a mess.

“Yes?” I had no idea I was so out of it, but now I hear it in my voice, slow and loopy.

“Doll? Why are you crying?”

“I just—”

“Something is wrong. Your light isn’t on. You don’t want me to see you.” He seems sad, worried, his words laced with concern.

In our fucked-up relationship, my light being off either means that I’m not home or that something is wrong. It’s only happened once before, and that night he called the police for a welfare check.

It was sweet, just as him checking in on me now is sweet.

I don’t answer him—mostly because if I open my mouth again, I’ll start sobbing again, loudly.

“Let me come over. Let me hold you. I can fuck you to sleep, chase away the nightmares.”

See? Fucked-up but sweet.

I nod, but then I realize he can’t see that. My head feels weird. I nuzzle deeper into my pillow. “Okay.” My voice is small as I cradle the phone against my ear, closing my eyes and just wishing things could be different.

When I hang up, I see a message from one of the friends I was meeting earlier, Sara.

Sara’s the only one who knows about Jer and his abusive personality. She’s also the biggest reason I can’t gossip about my new arrangement with my neighbor. She’d have me committed.

I text her that I’m fine, then throw the phone down beside me, wondering how my neighbor is going to make it into the house. I lock all my doors, specifically because of Jer.

I shouldn’t have worried. Within seconds, I can feel his presence is in my room. I’ve noticed before that he can move unnervingly fast when he wants to.

Even in the dark, I don’t dare turn around to look toward him. It’ll ruin the magic, and I’m pretty sure at this point, him not showing his face is part of the bargain.

I need him right now. I can suffer another night without knowing what he looks like.

He slides into bed behind me, a hand settling on my hip and squeezing softly as he presses his lips to my shoulder. I sigh, snuggling back against his chest.

His lips trail up my neck to the sweet spot behind my ear. “Doll, you’re safe now. You’re with me.” I tremble; the words are odd. I know what this man feels like inside of me, but he’s still a stranger. For all I know, he could be more dangerous than my ex.

It doesn’t feel that way, though.

His other hand drops between us, a smile spreading across his lips against my skin. He drags his tongue up my neck, licking my jaw before speaking again. “You’re not wearing anything. Were you hoping I’d come over?”

“I was just hot,” I lie. Well, it’s not completely a lie. I am hot. I’m sure the whiskey is partly to blame, but having him behind me, gloriously naked, his cock pressed against my ass—it makes even more heat bloom in the pit of my belly.

“I can just hold you tonight, doll, or I can fill you and fuck you to sleep.”

His words are dirty, and I think he knows how that makes me feel. “I want to forget,” I mumble. I feel bad for using him like this, but he’s offering.

Besides, as I have to keep reminding myself, this isn’t a relationship. We’re fulfilling each other’s desires, desires we can’t take anywhere else.

“When we forget, we make the same mistakes,” he says in a chiding tone. “No, I will help you heal. To move on.” He slides into my pussy with one full stroke. “But I will not help you forget.”

I don’t even know how to respond to that. He holds onto my hips and fucks me hard and fast while I cling to the sheets in front of me.

I cry out when I orgasm quickly, my pussy spasming around his cock until he’s shooting his seed inside of me.

He’s still hard, still rocking against my ass when I come down from my high, promising me another orgasm. I’m already half asleep when the orgasmic bliss washes over me again.

A few moments later, I feel a warm cloth dragging along my legs, cleaning me up. I expect him to leave me here for the night, having done what he said he would do—fuck me to sleep.

But then his arm wraps around my waist, and he pulls back into his chest.

I gasp as he curls himself around me, flipping me around so that my face is tucked into his chest. “Sleep now. You’re safe with me.”

I shouldn’t believe him. But I do.