Killmore

by Martha Sweeney

  I see his body shift in the mirror and I turn my head away, looking down for his clothes. My hands hurry to gather them up off the ground after I leave the clean ones on the edge of the sink.

  “Nice view,” Aiden comments.

  “I don’t have a view,” I claim.

  “I meant me,” he chuckles. “Your ass looks fucking amazing when you bend over like that.”

  “Pig,” I snap.

  “For you, Pix, I’ll be whatever you want,” he states.

  “Is this it?” I ask.

  “What?”

  “Your clothes,” I explain.

  “Yep,” he says with a smug tone.

  “No underwear?” I check.

  “Nope,” he confirms.

  I take a deep breath and use my hand to block my eyes from seeing anything as I turn.

  Aiden’s laugh bounces off the walls. “You sure you don’t want to join me, Pix?”

  “Yep…sure,” I answer.

  “Then, what are you still doing in here?” he says confidently.

  “I was just leaving,” I answer. “I wanted to make sure I wasn’t forgetting something or….”

  Aiden snatches my arm and yanks me to him where our bodies are flush.

  “Or…that I didn’t see anything…I didn’t want to see,” I continue, establishing my control.

  “I wouldn’t mind if you joined me,” he states.

  “I bet,” I return flatly, maintaining eye contact. “Let go of me.”

  The water is suddenly turned off and I’m surprised that his arm was able to reach that far. Aiden takes several steps toward me, forcing me to move with him. He doesn’t stop until he’s backed me up against the wall.

  “What are you doing?” I ask stupidly.

  “Hoping to entice you,” he confesses.

  “Nope,” I reply. My hand extends forward to push him away. “Let me go.”

  “No,” he objects.

  My brows crinkle, not expecting his answer. “Yes,” I insist.

  “Give me a kiss, and I’ll let you go,” he requests.

  “No,” I challenge, pushing him harder, but his body doesn’t move.

  “Just one kiss,” he whispers.

  My head snaps forward and I peck him on the lips.

  “That was not a kiss,” he comments.

  “You didn’t say what kind of a kiss, but, you got a kiss,” I explain.

  Aiden’s mouth opens as if to comment, but then it closes. His smile increases and he leans in, kissing me on the cheek. “You got me on that one, Pix.” With his eyes not veering from mine, Aiden takes several, slow steps backward as he reaches and takes a towel off of the rack to his right.

  I force my gaze to stay on his face, too afraid that they might go somewhere else.

  “Got everything you need?” he muses, remaining completely naked and not bothering to put on his towel.

  “Yes,” I answer.

  He smiles and nods, continuing to just hold the towel at his side.

  I force my eyes shut before I spin to the left and head for the door. Counting my steps, I open my eyes after the third to make sure my attention stays on the exit until I’m out of the bathroom. My feet hurry down the hall, to the steps and toss his clothes into the washer that Esther had already started.

  “Well, that didn’t take that long,” Esther comments.

  I glare at her, but remain quiet.

  Two minutes later, Aiden joins the four of us at the table on the patio wearing only the sweatpants I gave him. Esther and Gerald lift a brow in my direction questioningly.

  “Where’s the shirt I gave you?” I inquire, taking a sip of my beer.

  “It’s too small,” Aiden informs.

  “I can see if I have a larger one,” Gerald offers.

  “I’m good, thanks,” Aiden replies.

  Gerald chuckles. “Suit yourself.”

  Esther gives me a smug grin as the four of us silently begin to eat.

  Thirty Two - Aiden

  I wake to something sniffing my ear and the weight of it on my body. “Hey, Cain and Mable,” I greet. “Is it morning already?”

  “Give me one good reason not to shoot you for trespassing,” Laurie’s voice demands from behind my left shoulder along with the sound of a riffle cocking.

  “Because, it wouldn’t look good to the town’s people to know you shot your boyfriend,” I reply.

  “You’re not my boyfriend,” she reminds.

  “Am too,” I tease.

  “I can’t believe you stayed out here all night,” she says.

  “So, you did have the chance to shoot me at some point, but didn’t,” I state.

  “I seriously considered it,” she reveals.

  “So, you do like me,” I charge.

  “Nope,” she denies.

  “If you didn’t like me at all, you would have shot me…or dragged me to my truck,” I return.

  “Why didn’t you sleep in your truck?” she inquires.

  “The lounger is comfortable,” I mention. “Plus, it’s been years since I’ve slept under the stars.”

  “You know that a bear or coyote could have attacked you in the middle of the night, right?”

  “It was worth the risk to see your sexy ass this morning,” I reply.

  Ignoring me, Laurie heads back inside, leaving the sliding door slightly cracked.

  I spring to my feet and grab my bag, hurrying to get inside before she changes her mind.

  “The bathroom is over there,” she states, pointing through the kitchen.

  “Thanks, Pix,” I reply, quickly kissing her cheek.

  “So, what are you doing here?” she checks just beyond the bathroom door.

  “It’s been four days, Pix,” I mention.

  “Four days for what?”

  “Since I saw you,” I reply.

  “You saw me yesterday,” she reminds.

  “Okay…three days since I had seen you and four since I set up the gear,” I clarify.

  “If there’s a problem with it, why didn’t you or Paul say anything yesterday?”

  “There’s nothing wrong with it,” I reveal, flushing the toilet and starting to washing my hands. “I just need to check it here…as well as….”

  “As well as, what?” she asks when I exit the bathroom.

  “As well as establish the next phase of our relationship slash surveillance,” I explain.

  “What’s that?” she feigns.

  “That I need to be here more often…” I remind, following her back into the kitchen.

  “Joy,” Laurie replies sarcastically.

  “I know you’re really excited,” I tease. “You’re just trying to hold it all back because you don’t want me to know you are.”

  “Whatever,” she comments.

  “So…” I begin, “I was thinking that I’ll start off with staying a night or two this week and we’ll build from there to where I’ll move in in a couple of weeks.”

  Laurie doesn’t say anything as she adds some food to the blender and then starts it. I study every move she makes and note that she’s trying hard not to acknowledge me as well as the arrangement that must begin. When she turns off the blender, she pours its contents into two glasses, washes the blender and then picks up one of the smoothies and starts drinking it as she heads over to her workout area.

  I grab the extra glass, realizing that she left it for me. “Thank you,” I shout after her.

  “How long do you plan on staying?” she checks as I approach, not looking at me.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Today?” she mentions.

  “I was hoping to check the feed and then hang out with you,” I answer.

  “Why?”

  “Seriously?” I laugh. “You need to stop questioning what I’m doing and why I’m doing it. You know why.”

  “How do I know you’re telling me the truth or not?” she comments.

  “I’ll let you watch the feed with me if you want,” I state
.

  She looks at me, but doesn’t reply.

  I down the smoothie and wait for her to finish to grab her glass and wash them out in the sink. Then, I get my bag and head back to the bathroom to change, ready to workout with her. Returning to Laurie, I do my best to stretch with her, but keep getting distracted by her body.

  “So, what’s the plan?” I ask.

  “What?” she replies confused.

  “Clearly you’re working out,” I say.

  “I’m going for a run,” she answers.

  “Great! I’ll join you.”

  “I didn’t invite you,” she mentions.

  “Either I come with you, or I stay here…inside,” I goad.

  “You aren’t coming with me and you aren’t staying inside,” she returns.

  “I’m not coming yet,” I tease.

  Laurie rolls her eyes. “Fine…you can join me. But, if you get on my nerves, I’ll shoot you. If you can’t keep up, I’ll leave you behind. Got it?”

  “You know you’re sexy as hell when you’re dominant like this,” I return.

  Laurie gets up and heads to the front door and I’m quick to follow. The dogs run on either side of her, never faltering a step as I follow either on her side or behind her when a path is too narrow. As our feet take us along, I note certain markers of the trail.

  By the time we get back to the house, Laurie, the dogs and I have jogged just over five miles. I kept track on my phone. She tried to push, seeing if I could stay with her which I managed. Morning runs for me are usually two or three miles, so this one wasn’t too bad, but I started to feel it during the last mile.

  We make our way back to the workout slash surveillance room to stretch. Laurie starts doing some yoga positions and I watch as I pretend to stretch. The curves of her body are distracting and I start to picture how we could have sex with each move she ends up in. Several times I have to force myself to stop looking because of the raging hard on that I develop.

  “When you’re here,” Laurie says, snapping my attention out of another sexual fantasy about her. “You can stay in either of those two rooms.” Her hand lifts and points to the rooms above us. “You will not…and I repeat…you will not go up those stairs which are to….”

  “Your room,” I say with a grin.

  “Exactly,” she confirms.

  “Sure thing, Pix,” I agree.

  “You can have free range of this floor and the room you pick…that’s it,”she informs. Laurie gets up and heads into the kitchen and I’m quick to follow her. “If you’re hungry, you better bring your own food.”

  “What if I help with the garden?” I check.

  “My food is off limits,” she states.

  “Where can I store my own,” I prod.

  She opens the refrigerator. “Wherever there’s room here….” Laurie closes the door and walks to the door where she got the light bulb the other night. “Or, here.”

  “Sounds good,” I comment, peering in the walk-in pantry.

  I inquire about the location of the laundry room, where she wants me to park the truck as well as anything else I can think of just to keep her talking or close. “What about access?”

  “To what?” she inspects.

  “The house?”

  “Definitely not,” she states. “Just because you have to be here…staying once or twice a week does not give you access to coming and going as you please.”

  “I’ll need it when I’m here full-time,” I remind.

  “Not happening,” she replies.

  “Pix,” I call playfully.

  Laurie rolls her eyes. “If I ever catch you up here,” she says, pointing to her room. “The deal is off and I just might kill you.”

  “What if, by some odd chance, someone gets inside the house and….”

  “No one can get in,” she says cutting me off.

  “What if you….”

  “No,” she snaps. “Off limits.”

  “Fine,” I sigh with a smile.

  She makes her way upstairs, I’m assuming to shower, so I collect my things and head up the other set of steps.

  “Oh,” she says at the top of the stairs.

  I turn to look at her.

  “If you suddenly get the urge to walk around the house naked…don’t,” she directs.

  “It’s summer,” I challenge. “It does get hot.”

  “Don’t test me, Aiden,” she replies. “You won’t like the outcome.”

  “You’re welcome to join me over here anytime,” I share.

  “I’ll pass,” she objects. “You’re responsible for cleaning up after yourself. If you make a mess, clean it. I’m not a maid. I’m not your mother. I’m not your wife.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” I agree playfully.

  “Extra towels are in the bathroom. Sheets, blankets and pillows are in the closet,” she adds.

  “Thanks,” I reply.

  Laurie disappears in her room with the dogs, closing and locking the door. I enter the first bedroom and walk through the bathroom to the other bedroom to decide which one I’d prefer. I settle on the back one, enjoying the extra window that overlooks the back yard. There could be a chance encounter of watching her outside.

  Once in the shower, I take a little longer to rinse, needing to get the kinks out of my neck and shoulders from sleeping on the lounger last night. I didn’t sleep as good as I claimed. Plus, the thought of Laurie naked in her shower at the exact same time as me in mine entices me to masturbate to ease my desire.

  Once dressed, I make my way downstairs and notice that her door is still closed. Quietly, I inspect where everything is in the kitchen, noting the systematic placement of everything from food, to dishes, to cutlery and machinery, and a few select weapons she has hidden. All of her food is neatly organized in both the fridge and the pantry. I take my time inspecting more of her house, noting every little detail, including colors and the lack of photos. Everything in the house is minimal, but comfortable at the same time.

  From what I count, Laurie has at least thirteen different guns and six different knives on the lower level, which isn’t counting the bedrooms, closets, and the hallway that leads to the garage. Knowing that she’ll be done any minute, I make my way over the the feed and turn on the screens. All of the monitors are working, and leave them on. I open a new window that minimizes the rest so I can rewind what has been recorded already. Most of the feed Paul and I have been keeping an eye, staying up later to make sure we haven’t missed anything. I text Paul that I’m checking the backlog, specifically from yesterday, while we were with Laurie and the Lenards.

  At some point, Cain and Mable come over to visit and I pet them, happy for their company and excited at the thought that Laurie is downstairs. I keep the headphones on while I try to listen for conversations at Quintin's. Any conversations that are picked up on are non-business related or are a television kicking on in the background. The house is quiet at the moment which gives me time to play catch up. I have noticed a few times during the past couple of days, thanks to the newer cameras being closer, that Quintin, or what appears to be Quintin, has left the house either early in the morning and returns in the afternoon, or leaves in the afternoon and doesn’t return until the evening. Phone calls coming into the house are pretty much non-existent as of right now and we can’t get a reading on text messages unless we’re able to directly tap his phone which is not happening anytime soon. There are a few times when one of his men gets a call on their cell phone, but they’ve got a blocker on the device and they mumble their words.

  After about an hour of sitting on the floor, I realize that I’m going to need a better seating arrangement for when I’m here. Wanting to stretch, I get up and search for Laurie and the dogs. It doesn’t take long to find them when I notice that the sliding glass door that leads to the patio off of the kitchen is cracked open halfway.

  My eyes search quickly for Laurie and widen when I find her two seconds later, bent over and adding some either soil o
r compost to one of the garden boxes. Her tank hangs low, revealing her round, plump breasts. I get an instant boner.

  “Didn’t your mother ever tell you that staring isn’t polite?” she asks, keeping her head down.

  “In some cultures, staring is considered a complement aside from the fact that it’s normal to admire beauty,” I counter.

  Her head lifts just a little, indicating that she’s looking right at me.

  “Do you need help?” I check.

  “Nope,” she replies.

  “Come on,” I coax. “I could use a break from boring ‘Ole Q.” My feet move me toward her even though my head is telling me to move with caution.

  “I don’t have any trees that need trimming…if that’s what you’re inquiring about,” she says sarcastically.

  “I can do more than just chop down trees, you know,” I comment.

  “I doubt that,” she laughs.

  Over the course of the next fifteen minutes, Laurie seems to relax a little more, allowing me to help her with some of the repotting of plants in the green house. I start to freak out a little when the bees come closer, but she tells me that they respond to energy. If I stay calm, they will be calm. Laurie turns on some music which helps ease me and which seems to do the same with the bees. She shows me how to work with the bees rather than against them and I’m amazed at how some of them land on her and don’t sting. When I ask, she explains to me how the beehive is designed so that the honey comes out automatically by the turn of the spigot.

  She has us collect a bunch of fruit and vegetables which get divided into different piles. Certain baskets are for the food that is almost ripe and can be eaten over the next few days while the rest will be turned into things like jams, sauces or other preserved type items.

  Laurie makes us lunch and we sit in relaxed silence afterward while I check the monitors again. Even when I return to listening in on Quintin, I watch and listen to what Laurie and the dogs are doing around the house. She checks things on her iPad a few times a day, plays with the dogs, preps some food that we picked, and even takes time to relax and read on the couch.

  As the sun starts to set, I insist on us getting out of the house for several different reasons. She tries to argue with me about it, but I tell her that I need to get some of my own foods and want to treat her to dinner since she was actually nice to me today. I let her choose the restaurant and we end up grabbing food from the cafe and take it over to the docks. She seems to relax a little once she has a beer in her. She’s not more talkative, but seems more comfortable with the proximity of our bodies. I purposefully sit closer to her for selfish reasons, trying to push the boundaries just a little more without touching and kissing in public.