Page 51 of Beautiful Killer

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Sunny

Unlike a lot of people, I liked Mondays. Usually after a weekend of alone time, I was ready to get to the shop and have some human integration.

Not this Monday.

Because my weekend hadn’t been lonely. It had been extremely . . . eventful. Which had included some amazing sex, throwing up (okay, that wasn’t so great), cooking with Zeke, talking with Zeke, going on surveillance, followed by a whole lot more amazing sex. And honestly, I wasn’t ready for it to end.

I heard him moving around downstairs and stared at myself in the mirror. This was it. The end. Where we said goodbye.

Neither of us wanted a relationship, right? Zeke definitely didn’t want one. So really my roller-coaster emotions were irrelevant. Pointless. I drew in a deep breath through my nose and shook my head. Enough, Sunny. I wasn’t some schoolgirl with a crush. I needed to get past this, get on with things, and put Zeke behind me.

I nodded at my pale reflection . . . then added more blush. I still wasn’t feeling the best, but sometimes stomach bugs stuck around. Nothing makeup couldn’t cover. I was leaning in, putting on lipstick when I felt Zeke’s presence, the intense weight of it. I turned to the door. He was leaning against it, looking at me, watching as I started packing everything up.

“You almost ready?” he said.

I forced a smile. “Yep.”

“Cage said your place is rigged up like Fort Knox. No one’s getting in.”

I turned fully to him. “Thank you, for everything. I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t stepped in to help. I hope . . .” I bit my lip, contemplated my next words, and pushed on. “I hope we can still be friends, after . . . everything.”

His expression closed off and he pushed away from the door. “We better get going.”

Ouch.

So that was a “no” then.

“I’m right behind you.” I watched him walk down the stairs with my bags then glanced at the bed, remembering the way he’d held me last night. How good it felt waking up pressed against him.

I’d drifted off and when I woke next, I was alone.

Snatching up my purse, I rushed down after him.

I climbed in his car and Zeke drove me home. He followed me in and showed me the new additions to my already extreme security, then waited while I changed for work. He drove me to the shop as well and followed me in, checking the place before he made me promise to keep the security cameras on at all times and headed for the door.

He stopped before walking out. “Call me if you need to, if you’re worried about anything.”

I nodded.

His eyes were on mine, then they dropped to my mouth before sliding back up. “I’ll see you tonight.”

Then he left.

Tonight.

The way my heart soared at those four words had me frozen to the spot as I stared after him.

Not an end then, not yet.

Not tonight anyway.

I tried to shake off the buzz of excitement thrumming through me, because that rush of excitement, it was a giant warning that I was in serious trouble. That I needed to protect myself, my heart, but as it turned out, I was too damn weak to say no.

In an attempt not to think about any of this, I gave the shop a quick dust and ran the vacuum over the floor. I’d just opened the shop and was deciding what to work on this morning, when Julia walked in. I hadn’t talked to her for a couple days. But she’d been messaging me regularly, and I was tentatively optimistic about where our relationship was headed. She also hadn’t asked for money since then, either, and I hoped like hell that she wasn’t here for that now.

She walked straight to me and gave me a quick awkward hug. I hugged her back. She wasn’t a hugger. That she was now either meant she wanted to put in the effort and work on our relationship . . . or she wanted something.