My feet came to an abrupt stop, and I sucked in my breath at what I’d just heard, and then the side of his lip curled and my entire body responded to the wicked curve of it. When did I go from his little lamb to his little— Oh shit. Right then, I knew that somehow, instead of putting an end to this twisted relationship, I had just altered it in Wolfe’s mind, and he was letting me know loud and clear that this was not over, that it would never be over, and with that final image of him in my head, I turned on my heel and ran.
Epilogue
One Year Later
The sun beamed as I pushed open the employee exit door at the Shepard Natural History Museum and stepped out into the summer heat that had been unrelenting, but apparently normal, for Washington, D.C. I wasn’t complaining, though. I’d had enough of the dreary Pacific Northwest rain and gloom to last me a lifetime, so I’d happily take the heat if it meant blue skies and a daily dose of vitamin D.
“Hey, Jesse! You comin’ out with everyone to Dante’s later?” one of my coworkers, Will, said, as he jogged up alongside me and threw on his shades.
I squinted at him and grinned. With his wavy sandy-brown hair, infectious charm, and a smile that made my stomach flip every time he shot one my way, Will was a huge perk to joining the museum staff. Not one I’d ever act on, but there was no harm in looking. Or…flirting.
“That depends,” I said, unscrewing the top of my water bottle. “Will you be there in case I need backup?”
Will laughed. “You know it. Gotta keep the wolves at bay.”
I almost choked on my water at his word choice, but I recovered quickly and nodded. “Guess I’ll see you tonight, then.”
“Looking forward to it.” Will gave me one of those brilliant white smiles as he walked backward, and then he pulled his keys out of his pocket and headed off to his car.
My stomach did another one of those flipping things, and I tried to calm it by taking another swig of water. It had been a year since anyone had that kind of effect on me, and though I didn’t feel ready to date or get involved with anyone, it was a relief to feel interest for someone other than he-who-shall-not-be-named.
There wasn’t a day that went by that I didn’t think of him. Some days, those thoughts were of the missing him variety, which was crazy, considering what he’d done. And other days, all I could think about was how blind I’d been and how he’d preyed on my vulnerabilities, and those were the days I knew I’d made the right choice in leaving Westport. I hadn’t known it at the time, but moving had been the best thing that had ever happened to me. I thought leaving the NMNH before my internship was up would be ending my career before it fully began, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. Dr. Marks had put in such a good word for me with a former colleague at Shepard that I’d been hired on the spot as a junior research analyst for an upcoming exhibit that focused on the similarities between modern-day birds and those from the Cretaceous period.
Though I missed Brayden, he’d already come to visit a handful of times, and I had a feeling he was thisclose to relocating. There was, in his words, “so much uncharted territory,” which I knew he meant in reference to his dick. Such a classy guy, that Bray.
After unlocking my reliable Honda, the one I’d be making payments on for a couple more years to come but was totally worth it, I put the air on full blast and put the car in drive. I’d scored an apartment a ten-minute drive away with a killer view of the Washington Monument, thanks to a tip from my new boss. No more living on the bad side of town, no more cars that died more than they started, and no more bad-for-me men—it was like I was a new man.
Well, almost.
As I looked in the rearview mirror, I scanned the cars and trees behind me, but like always, there was nothing and no one there. It was such a habit now that I didn’t know if or when there’d come a time when I wasn’t on guard. Even though it’d been a year, I could still feel his eyes on me, like he was there watching in the shadows. It was an absurd thought; the man I’d left behind was on the other side of the country, but the line was so blurred now that I constantly felt the heat of his stare, though I knew it was my mind remembering. The prickling sensation on the back of my neck would probably never go away, but I was okay with that. It made me smarter, less trusting, more self-aware, and maybe that was the lesson I’d take away from my time with him. At twenty-three, I’d already lived a lifetime’s worth of mistakes, but I’d come through the other side of them stronger—and I was alive to tell the tale.