by Lexy Timms
Her chest tightened, and her breathing became unsteady, heaving more deeply in and out like the ocean did just a few yards from her place. The idea of sex with Sasha in any place was erotic in its very own way, apart from the actual physical act.
Scenes played out in her mind of the two of them together. Kallie was mesmerized as she watched Sasha in her mind’s eye, rolling around in bed with her, making love. She had watched in mirrors before as he took her, but she had to leave it to her imagination what he would look like entering her.
His body was so flawless, proportionate, so defined and clean. Her vision romanticized their sex, but it was hot and delicious make-believing just the same. She needed to put all that hot thinking away and plan instead for his return, that she could play it out in real life with him.
The beach had a row of antique shops and thrift stores. She wondered if she would find some things to furnish what she wanted to make into a boudoir for them.
He left her a credit card. It would be hard to totally surprise him, but she would try. He knew she was picking out a bed and he was buying it. She would have to simply dazzle him with her choice. She set out to the antique row in the oversized car, which was losing its charm fast. She decided she would give it back and settle for something practical. Kallie knew why he’d given it to her. She at one time insisted on driving his muscle car. She smiled at the memory.
She parked in a community parking lot. As she exited the car, a coldness washed through her. What if she was in the very lot where Jeremy had been discovered? Then she got paranoid that if she was found there, it might look bad for her. She shrugged it off and shopped.
It was really fun to know that she could buy anything she wanted, and that she was shopping for them...as a couple. She didn’t expect to find a suitable head and foot board, but she actually hit pay-dirt. One shop had several them. She told herself not to get impatient, just to get something.
She came across an extra-large bed frame made of ash, with a burnished finish. It had all the criteria that she’d been looking for. She just wasn’t sure if she liked it.
“I’ve been trying to get rid of that thing,” the shop person said from behind her. “You would be doing me a great favor if you took it.”
She knew a salesman’s come-on when she heard it, but she didn’t mind. There was probably a little truth to it. It was an unusually large bed frame, but then she had an unusually large man. Sasha’s master bed in the town home was extra-large. This bed would be perfect, the more she thought about it. “For free?” Kallie snarked, not expecting a serious answer.
“I’ll make you a deal,” he said cautiously, and she laughed.
“Do you deliver?” she asked, willing to play hardball.
The shop owner thought for a moment. “We do.”
“Any chance I could get this tonight? I’m just down the street, about a mile,” she said.
The shop owner thought this over. “Maybe,” he said. “Wondering about availability. I’ll be right back. I’ve got to check, if you’re sure you’re interested?”
“I am.” Kallie nodded. She actually felt overjoyed. She had no idea how happy buying this would make her. This would be the first domestic thing that she and Sasha bought together. It wasn’t until now that she realized this had been missing. Every place they shared together, even if for an hour, had already been put together. Nothing ever felt like home, like it was theirs. Buying this bed frame changed some of that.
She pulled out Sasha’s credit card and wrote down the apartment address. When the shop person returned and saw that she lived in an apartment, he hesitated. “Is the manager going to let us up?” he asked.
“Yeah, he will,” she replied, fairly sure that he would.
“Are you sure? Because we’ve gone all the way out to places. I happen to know this is a furnished outfit and they don’t like you bringing your stuff in with their stuff.”
“I didn’t know that,” Kallie replied. “But I swear it’s okay. My boyfriend owns the building.” She knew she sounded a little obnoxious when she said that, but it was awfully fun to say. And after the shop owner wrote up the ticket, she knew it’d been a dumb thing to say. The salesman couldn’t change the price of the bed because they’d already agreed on the deal and he’d discounted it as promised. But the cost of delivery was definitely inflated. If she weren’t so impatient for the bed, she would have protested it. It was a lesson learned.
Her next stop was to buy a mattress and then pick out bedding. She laughed at herself at how distracted she’d become in her errands, knowing that she was putting together one of the most critical pieces of furniture for her boyfriend and her. She loved being able to call Sasha that out loud. Boyfriend.
She texted Sasha to let him know she had a surprise for him. He didn’t answer. Yes, she’d been so spoiled by him that when he didn’t shower her with attention, she got impatient. It was a good thing to be aware of because that feeling right there was a lot of what motivated her to act on impulse.
Right after she contacted Sasha, the antique shop salesman called with disappointing news. He couldn’t deliver the bed that day after all, and wanted to know if he could deliver in the morning. Despite his word of honor, and that it didn’t make that much of a difference, Kallie felt sad about it. “Of course,” she said. “I’ll be here.”
She tossed and turned in her broken bed that night, not because it was uncomfortable really but because it was broken. The novelty of sleeping on the floor had worn off. And the bed just felt so empty without Sasha in it. She just knew would have another exhaustion hangover in the morning.
She finally crashed, and as things worked out for her the knock of the delivery men with her bed woke her up. Still no word from Sasha or anyone he knew. After the events of the day before with the cops and suddenly seeing Jeremy, she no longer believed she was just being paranoid.
The delivery guys dropped off the bed and were kind enough to take the old one away. Kallie had coordinated the mattress delivery, so the new set arrived minutes after the frame did. At least she had something to do until she heard from Sasha.
Now, though, it had been almost twenty hours since she’d last spoken to him. That had never happened in all the time she’d known him. From their very first meeting, he’d cooked up ways to call her or drop by until he offered her his vacant town home. Then the two times she’d run away, he was right behind her.
She texted his driver but he didn’t respond. She now became obsessed. She catastrophized. She imagined that Sasha and his driver were in a car accident somewhere and couldn’t let her know. She called Sal, but only got his voice mail.
Sasha had simply dropped off the radar.
It had been good medicine to focus on the bed and all the magic she and Sasha would share in it. She told herself she had just obsessed because the whole Jeremy thing had stressed her out. But that didn’t mean Sasha wasn’t going to get a huge lecture from her if he turned out to be okay.
Kallie busied herself with washing the linens she’d bought for the new bed. She strung a line across her balcony, so they could line-dry. She put the bed together easily, pushed the new box spring and mattress onto it, and made it up with sheets, which had dried in an instant in the beach sun.
It’d been just enough activity to take a cat nap. She did feel grateful for the needed sleep. It would kill some time at least. She went to bed the night before wanting to run this morning, but felt like she was going crazy by now and couldn’t even eat. Finally, just to have something to do, she tried out the new bed. Ordinarily, she wouldn’t be able to sleep, but she’d worn herself out with worry.
Kallie woke after an intense brief nap. No one had called her back. Something had happened—she knew it for sure. She would drive out to Pikesville, but was afraid she might cross paths with him and miss him. He knew how to be in touch with her if he could. She just had to wait.
That waiting turned the day into one of the longest ones of her life.
Chapter Eleven
Sometime before midnight, Kallie woke up to a knock on the door. She’d spent much of the day contemplating her circumstances and how much she’d become dependent on the man she loved, and how much she just didn’t know about him. Then she would bounce back to the things he’d said and done that counteracted her doubts, making her feel that he loved her. After so much back and forth, she honestly didn’t know what to think anymore.
But that knock scared her senseless.
It made no sense. If it were Sasha, he had a key, he wouldn’t knock. At this hour, it had to be bad news. Was it the police again? There was another knock. No one called to her.
She checked her phone. He hadn’t texted.
Cautiously Kallie crept from the bed, knowing there was no way it was him. She drew the chain lock across the door, so she could keep the door locked but still open it. The last thing she expected to see was the angry, battered face of her ex-fiancé, Jeremy Marwell.
He didn’t try to enter. He hovered in the gap of the door, glaring at her with the eyes of a demon. He had been beaten up, but he hardly looked like someone who’d been in a trauma ward only a short time before.
Kallie backed away from him. “Go away. I’m calling the police.” She started to close the door, but he pushed back, hard. Suddenly the chain snapped. She wondered how he’d had the strength to do that. She scanned all that was in her immediate grasp in case she might have to use it as a weapon. She had nothing, not so much as a knickknack to throw. “What do you want?” she growled, drawing her robe more securely around her. “Sasha isn’t here.”
“I know that.” Jeremy wasn’t doing well. His breath came in short pants. “With any luck, he’s being arrested for putting me in this condition.” He laughed wickedly.
“He didn’t touch you,” she said, shaking her head.
“I know that, and you know that, but after what I told the cops,” he began, and he affected a weak voice that would invoked the sympathy of anyone.
“And you’re telling me this why?” Kallie asked.
“Why?” he reiterated. “Because you can go to the cops and tell them I made this up, but it won’t work.”
As he said this, the man who had been at the Hobbit strolled through the door.
Sean.
“Hello, Kallie,” Sean greeted her, leering at her when he saw her robe held tightly against her body.
Kallie’s apartment was one large room; the giant bed against one wall made it nothing more than a glorified bedroom. Her wonderful idea had suddenly become a stupid one. There was no place except out the window to get out of the apartment. She could zip to bathroom, but that would be a trap. They could pound the door in and she would be history.
The only place she could think of that they couldn’t go would be under the bed. She would get them to crawl after her then she could roll quickly and scurry out the front door. It was worth a try. She knew if she ran, they would run after her.
She darted. She faked to the bathroom and then rolled under the bed. The silly plan worked. She lured them to follow. Sean, the stronger man, climbed under the bed. She deftly scooted out. She was going to ram into Jeremy with her shoulder if she had to and run out the door.
Sean was wedged under the bed. He was furiously cursing as Kallie scrambled to her feet. Jeremy blocked the door. He suddenly looked more challenging than before. She could go into the kitchen area for a knife, but that would draw her path close to him.
It was only a matter of time before Sean broke free and Kallie would be back at square one. The only thing she would have accomplished was to piss them off.
A distant banging turned Jeremy’s head and hers as well. It sounded like someone was pounding on a kettle drum. Then it sounded like small bombs blasting.
It was footfalls of someone running up the outside steps. Someone large, quick, and very intent on reaching a goal in a hurry. In the blink of an eye, Sasha Petrov loomed in the doorway. With the sweep of one fist, he knocked Jeremy off his feet. “Where’s the other guy?” growled Sasha.
“Under the bed,” Kallie managed, cowering into the kitchen area, trying to stay out of the way of the fight.
Now that she knew safety had arrived, she felt safe enough to give in to her fear. She felt herself begin to shake.
Sasha shoved the bed over in a single push. It had no casters, so the move was even more dramatic. Sean yelped as the bed disappeared and he was exposed to view.
The look on Sean’s face as he beheld the force that freed him was almost worth the terror to Kallie. He had stalked her just a minute before, and now he was stalked by someone much larger than he was.
Sasha lifted Sean by his shoulders then dropped him to the floor again.
Again, the man yelped.
Kallie stared at her bad-boy-turned-rescuer. There was something very satisfying about witnessing Sasha avenge her.
“Did you tell the cops you saw me beat up this little runt?” Sasha asked in an eerily tight voice.
“Uh-um—” Sean stuttered.
Sasha placed his foot onto his chest, just enough so the man couldn’t go anywhere.
Jeremy laughed. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you. Not if you love Kallie.”
Sasha’s turned his gaze on Jeremy. The look on his face was rage in its purest form. This was the stuff that simmered somewhere inside that made a person wonder what would happen if they ever truly got mad. Kallie cringed, not wanting to see this, not really wanting to find out.
“Did you tell Kallie how you’ve been paying me all along to keep me from implicating her to the feds? At first, before he fell in love with you, it was just a little tide me over money among friends. But then he cut me off,” Jeremy stated.
“That’s not the way it was,” Sasha said steadily.
“Yeah, but she has doubt, so I’m going with it.” Jeremy smiled.
“You have the life expectancy of a housefly right now,” Sasha growled.
“Threatening me?” Jeremy was edging around the room. In a minute he’d be at the door.
“You’ve got nothing,” Sasha countered, drawing himself up, very sure of himself.
“I want more money!” Jeremy screamed. “I want it now!”
Kallie blinked. The man had gone crazy.
“Let me up,” Sean pleaded from the floor.
“The cops know that you whaled on Marwell here to set me up,” Sasha said. “I’m just making it easy for them to find you.”
More footsteps pounded up the stairs. The cops who’d appeared at Kallie’s door a couple days before were present once more. “You broke your promise to us, Petrov,” the cop said casually.
“I told you I was going to my girlfriend’s place. These guys just happened to be here,” Sasha replied just as coolly. He stepped off of Sean and let the police take him.
The cops contained the two men in cuffs, poised to lead them out of the apartment. The first cop stopped to talk to Kallie, “Are you okay, ma’am?” he asked her.
“I’m pissed off, but I’m okay.”
“I’ll be back to take a statement,” he said.
“Can it wait?” Sasha asked. “I think we’ve had enough for one night.”
“I would rather get a statement while it’s fresh,” argued the cop, “but okay.”
As soon as the door closed, and Kallie and Sasha were alone together, he spoke. “I haven’t had anything to do with that guy. The first you saw him at the gas station was the first I’ve heard from him since you and I met. I haven’t given him any money at all.”
Kallie didn’t want to talk. She already knew he hadn’t. She just rushed into Sasha’s arms and embraced him. The man was all she wanted in the world. The whole time she’d thought he was playing her—he’d really saved her. She put her face in his neck and just breathed him in.
After a long moment, she took a shaky breath and stared at the mess made by the commotion. The new bed wasn’t broken, but it was tainted. Kallie looked around at the place that was s
upposed to be a haven for her and Sasha. Maybe she would feel better about it once she had sleep, of which she’d been deprived of again, but right now she felt upset that she’d even bought the stuff.
“What?” he asked sympathetically.
She explained, struggling to put her feelings into words.
“Oh,” he replied, but he smiled.
And just like that, the atmosphere around them changed. They connected via the invisible line that pulled at them both. Maybe it was an addiction that affected them, but the chemistry had been real and had masked what truly had been love all along.
Sasha gathered the bedding from off the floor and easily slid the giant frame back into place. “Like that?” he asked. “Or shall we arrange it completely differently, so that it’s a new start?”
She liked this suggestion. So, he turned the bed. She could still look out the window towards the ocean, but it was on the opposite wall. In fact, now that she really looked at it, she liked this placement much better.
He pulled the bedding up, one piece at a time, and tucked it squarely around the mattress. “I like this,” he said as he lifted a soft cotton blanket and fingered the weave.
It felt like he was just saying this to make her feel better, and she loved him even more for it. Then it dawned on her that they were making the bed while staring at each other. “Why are we making the bed when we’re just going to mess it up?” she asked, tilting her head.
“Because it’s fun. It’s nice to have nice things. To have comfort. Comfort and nice is climbing into a freshly-made bed.”
She tugged the sheet to stop him. “What if they come back?” she asked.
He regarded her. “They could. Not tonight, though. Tonight, they’re in jail. So, it’s the middle of the night. We’re probably keeping the neighbors up,” he said. He sank onto the mattress, walking across it on his knees. He took hold of her waist and encouraged her to join him. “They woke you up, didn’t they?” he consoled, running his palm up and down her body, finding its way under her silk robe.
