Crazy Love by MINK

9

Slade

Icheck the water temperature. It’s just south of scalding, so I know Bunny will love it.

“I should be offended.” Walter puts his front paws on the edge of the tub and sniffs.

“Why?”

“You ate a kitty.” His whiskers twitch in amusement.

“It was so good. Like fucking amazing. Better than I imagined, and I imagined quite a lot.” I turn off the spigot.

“You should check your phone.” He hops down and sashays out the bathroom.

I stand and make sure Bunny’s fluffy towels are ready for her, along with her Kindle. She likes to read in the bath.

Once I’m certain everything’s perfect, I walk into the bedroom and grab my phone off the nightstand. A few messages are waiting for me.

Two of them are nothing. The last one, though. It’s not good.

Kerrig: Where are you?

I stare at the question for a while. Why is he contacting me? It’s been at least a year, and he knows I’m out of the life. Hell, he’s the one who helped me get out.

Shaking my head, I respond: Taking care of some business. What’s going on?

I pocket my phone and return to the kitchen where Bunny has finished her meal. She looks sleepy, her body relaxed despite her earlier misgivings.

“Your bath is ready.” I clear away her plate.

“Bath?” She blinks at me.

“I have the lemon verbena bubble bath you like.” I put everything in the sink. “The newest Lucy Darling book on your Kindle, and a warm robe for when you’re done.”

“Wow.” She hops down from the stool, and I lead her back to our bedroom.

I notice she glances at the locked front door when we pass it. “It won’t be like this forever.”

“I don’t understand why you’d lock me in here in the first place.” She frowns at me. “Don’t you trust me?”

“With my life.” I guide her down the hallway to our room. “But I have my reasons. When I found you at the restaurant, that just reinforced the point that you need me to protect you. There are bad people out there, Bunny. Men who would hurt you if given half the chance. Here with me is the safest place for you.”

“I hear what you’re saying. I really do. But I’m not a child, Slade. You know that. I have a job—well, several jobs—and a life and a cat and a house.” She yawns. “This is sweet in a sort of psycho way, but you can’t keep me here.” She inhales deeply. “Mmm, you really did get the bath bubbles I like.”

“Anything for you.” I kiss the crown of her hair.

She turns and looks up at me. “I’m getting in.”

“Okay.” I reach for the hem of her shirt.

She puts her hand on mine. “I know we just… um, what we did on the couch, but I’m still kind of… shy.”

“Oh.” Should I tell her that I’ve already seen every inch of her precious skin through the cameras I have in her house? I do a quick cost/benefit analysis on that and decide against it.

“I’ll be right here if you need me.” I back into the bedroom, but I leave the door open.

“Thanks,” she calls.

After a few moments, I hear her get into the tub, and the moan of pleasure she lets out has my cock acting up. I want her so badly, but instead of smoothly getting her into my bed, we’ve been almost dancing around each other. Like she can’t understand why I would do this, but I can’t understand how she doesn’t get it—especially when her boss just tried to take advantage of her. Just the thought of that threatens to send me into an anger-filled spiral, but I have to remind myself I already took care of the issue. Foley won’t be drugging another woman ever again.

My phone vibrates in my pocket. I ignore it and creep to the bathroom door.

Fuck me. She looks like a sea goddess, her head back against the tub and bubbles all the way up to her neck. Completely relaxed, she seems to relish the hot water. I want to jump in with her, to give her body every bit of attention it deserves.

“This is what she would refer to as creeper behavior.” Walter prances past me and walks in a figure eight on the tile floor.

“Why are you such a dick?”

Bunny whips her head toward me. “Excuse me?”

“Talking to Walter.” I shrug.

“He’s not a dick. He’s an angel.” She stretches one hand from the tub, and he trots up to it and gets ear scratches. “Aren’t you, boy?”

“Absolutely.” He purrs.

I want to yank him up by the tail, but I don’t. I stay put. She hasn’t protested me being here while she’s in the bath. Maybe the bubbles make her feel like she’s covered. I don’t care about the reason, I’m just happy to be here with her.

My phone vibrates again. I know it’s Kerrig. Right when I need to be left the fuck alone, that’s when he decides to show up again. Perfect.

“Better see what he wants.” Walter saunters away from the tub. “I’m going to go claw some of your furniture. Break it in.”

Keeping my voice low, I say, “If you claw even one thing, I’ll toss you out on your ass. These woods are full of bears and coyotes, all of them looking for a hot summertime meal.” I glare at his fluffy tail as he leaves my room.

“Trembling down to my toe beans, Slade. Truly.”

The asshole knows all too well the lengths I’d go to just to keep Bunny happy. And it so happens that she loves that little shit, so I can’t touch a single whisker on his smug face.

“We’re still going to talk about this. This whole ‘kidnapping’ thing is not a thing, okay? We’re going to—” She yawns loudly. “We’re gonna talk about it, Slade.” She laughs a little. “You know, I actually like Slade a lot better than Ted.”

“I’m glad, and yes, we can talk, but for now, just enjoy the bath.”

“Don’t have to tell me twice.” She lets out another yawn.

I sit on the edge of my bed, situating myself so I can still catch glimpses of Bunny, and pull out my phone.

Kerrig: They know.

Kerrig: Slade, are you fucking there? THEY KNOW.

He’s sent me a pic. The image loads. It’s a photo of a house on fire, flames shooting up into the night.

My house.

They finally found me.