Jesse jerked to a stop and whipped his head around, and I was sure to step back into the side street away from his searching eyes.
“Hello?” he called out, his voice echoing off the brick buildings. “Is anyone there?”
I waited with my back pressed up against the wall and my cock hardening, loving the slight tremble I heard in his voice. It was like music to my ears. When nothing else followed but the sound of footsteps moving away, I knew he’d taken off again. I walked back out onto the sidewalk and began to trail behind him, and this time, I noticed his movements were much faster.
Jesse sensed something wasn’t quite right, and he wasn’t wrong. There was nothing right about what I was doing.
With each step I took, he doubled his pace. Every now and then he glanced back, and I made sure to be hidden from sight. And when he stumbled slightly at one point, I couldn’t stop the curl of my lip.
Yesss… This was what I wanted. What I’d known would happen if I followed him. And I knew that if I had him pinned to the wall right this second, his pulse would be racing.
I wanted to feel that. I wanted to feel it under my fingers as I restrained his hands and made him beg. I wanted to watch his eyes search for a means of escape. But most of all, I wanted to watch him give in. I wanted him to surrender to me.
As Jesse made a turn as though he were about to head down to the right, I saw him come to an abrupt halt. His feet froze in place and I knew exactly what it was he was staring at in the side street—Faolán had just made an appearance, and now…now I just had to hang back and wait for the lamb to run.
Oh fuck. Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck. Gleaming yellow eyes stared out from the shadows, and panic seized my chest. The dog in the side alley had to be massive, which didn’t bode well for me.
Shit, were you supposed to run when you saw a rabid animal? Stay still? Roll over and play dead? Running seemed to be out of the question, since my legs weren’t cooperating. It was like they’d suddenly filled with lead, and even as the animal began to growl, I couldn’t seem to move. My fight or flight seemed jammed, because I was frozen where I stood, even as my brain told me I needed to back up.
This is how I’m gonna die, I thought, my heart pounding so hard I couldn’t hear anything over the rush of blood in my ears. Attacked in the middle of downtown.
Oh God. Maybe if I shut my eyes, it would be easier than watching the end as it came. But I was mesmerized as the dog stayed in the shadows but kept his eyes on me. Was this what happened before the attack? He wanted to smell my fear?
The growling stopped all of a sudden, and as quick as he’d appeared, he vanished back into the alley. My breath left me in a whoosh, my limbs feeling like Jell-O, as just like that, I was alone again. Finally, I could move, but my legs were shaking so badly I had to steady myself on the brick wall beside me and take a few breaths. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw no trace of the dog or anything else that would’ve scared him off, but the fact that something had gotten his attention and chased him away? Yeah, I needed to get home, and now.
4
The sun was barely peeping through the blinds when Brayden began to blow up my cell. I ignored it at first, not wanting to reminisce about last night this early in the morning, but on the third call, I groaned and rolled over to answer. I only managed to get out a “hello” before Brayden was off and running.
“I can’t believe you went and pussied out on me. I looked for you everywhere. What the hell happened?”
“Hey to you too. And I didn’t pussy out—I got thrown out.”
“What? Why?”
“Beats me.”
“There had to be a reason. They don’t just go around kicking people out, Jesse.”
“They did last night. All I know is I came out of the bathroom, and before I could head down the stairs to meet you, some big security guy told me I was leaving and threw me out—in my fucking boxers. You know how humiliating that was?”
Brayden let out a laugh. “But…that doesn’t make any sense. Why didn’t you tell them to come get me?”
“I did.”
“Oh. Shit, man, I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine.” I shifted onto my side and pushed up on my elbow, not wanting to relive my humiliation. “So, how did things go with you?”