After the Storm (6 page)

She slowly looked up at him and gave the barest of nods. He couldn’t take it anymore. He grabbed her by the upper arms and pulled her off of the bike and into his arms, holding her tight. “Come on Lexi, say something. Tell me everything.”

She pulled slightly away and looked up at him. “I…” that was all she could get out. Their eyes locked together.

Seeing her at such a loss he couldn’t control it any longer. He, ever so slowly, closed the distance, stopping just before his lips touched hers.

“Tell me to stop now,” he whispered. “I’m used to getting what I want. You mean something different to me, so tell me now because I can’t—I won’t—stop on my own.”

It felt like waves of electricity flowed between them, as if the air was vibrating with it, with their need for each other. He didn’t want her to deny either of them. Showing him her decision, she closed the space between their lips.

Everything disappeared at the exact moment their lips touched. They started off gently, and slowly, learned each other’s lips. She darted her tongue out to taste his. He sighed when his came out to meet hers. He leaned up against the wall. Lexi’s hands roamed all over his body. She touched everywhere she could get to, wherever she wanted to. He grabbed her ass and squeezed it, pulling her in closer to his hardening length. A soft mewing escaped her lips. Her fingers grabbed his shoulders trying to pull him closer. They couldn’t catch her breath as their tongues and bodies waged war against each other, each wanting more.

“Break it up you two, dinner is ready,” Sam said as he peeked his head out the door from the house.

Noah slowly pulled his mouth away from Lexi’s, giving Sam a look that could kill. “Your timing could be better.”

“By the looks of things, I’ve got perfect timing. Food’s getting cold.” He let the door close loudly behind him.

They stood staring, at each other trying to catch their breath for a moment. “I’m sorry, Lexi.” He leaned his head down so their foreheads were touching. “I shouldn’t have done that. I took advantage of your emotional state. I just couldn’t stand to see you look so scared.”

She stared at him, disbelieving. “So, you’re saying the only reason you kissed me was because I looked scared? Well, gee thanks Noah, you’re a prince.” She pulled away, giving him a shove to his chest and turned to walk away.

Noah grabbed her and turned her back around to him, “Damn it, no, I am saying that we haven’t known each other that long. I’m trying to do this whole friendship thing because I can tell you aren’t ready for anything else and I don’t want to fuck it up. So this won’t happen again.”

Lexi stood there looking at Noah then down at his hand that grasped her arm, then back up at him. Looking him straight in the eye she said, “Fine. But if that is how you kiss a friend, imagine what it would be like if we were lovers.” She turned and walked through the door Sam had just been standing in.

Noah closed his eyes, tilted his head back, and let it slam into the wall. He really didn’t need the image of them as lovers going through his head after that spectacular make-out session. His body still throbbed with need.
Damn it
. He knew he wanted to make some changes, but the ones she made him think of were too radical. A completely different direction than he was originally thinking. He didn’t need the complication of Lexi. Oh, but what a sweet complication she was.

~*~

Noah invited Sam and Martha to join them for dinner in the kitchen. All of them together had a nice family feeling that Lexi had missed.

“How did the talent show rehearsals go today, Lexi?” Martha asked as she passed a plate of chicken.

Lexi sighed and shook her head, “Typical first time through. Slow going, but it should be a wonderful show. We’ve got some really talented people. I’m really proud of how prepared everyone was for a first run.”

“How much trouble did those old crazy ladies cause?” Sam asked, shaking his head.

“Samuel, you know that is no way to talk about them,” Martha scolded as she held back the bowl of mashed potatoes.

“Oh, come on, Martha, hand over the potatoes. Besides, their stories are legendary, so spill, Lexi—what did they do?”

Lexi laughed, “What didn’t they do would be more like it. First, they decided today would be the best day to clog the toilets, then every time the plumber cleared the line, they would clog it again. We started an hour late. Then Evelyne and Leigh gave the old guys, Statler and Waldorf, from The Muppet Show a run for their money. There were a few moments I thought I might have to break up a fight. It would appear some people don’t think Evelyne and Leigh are as funny as they think they are. Then they refused to run through their act. They sat up there for five minutes not doing a thing. It was a long day. I am glad we don’t have too many of these run-throughs planned.”

“Do you know what they are going to do?” Noah asked around shoveling food into his mouth.

Lexi shrugged. “I have no idea which scares me like there is no tomorrow. When I asked them, they wouldn’t tell me a thing. I guess they are rehearsing at one of their houses because they aren’t doing it at the senior center like everyone else.”

“Are you going to do anything for the show, Lexi?” wondered Martha.

Lexi sighed. “Yes, but not because I signed up. It appears that the three lovely ladies decided I should. I’m thankful they’re allowing me to, at least, pick what I do. If it were up to them I’d end up having to sing ‘I Touch Myself’ by the Divinyls.” As soon as the words left her mouth, she realized what she’d said and with wide eyes looked into Noah’s. She could tell by the look on his face, he was picturing her taking those lyrics literally.

She cleared her throat. “So anyway, I haven’t decided exactly what I am doing. I have a few ideas. Speaking of that, I really should get going so I can get some work done.”

“I’ll walk you home,” he said, “Don’t argue, Lexi.”

“What do you mean, argue? I wouldn’t dream of it.” Lexi batted her eyelashes at him. “The meal was wonderful as always Martha, thank you.”

“Hey Lex, when’s the next time you’re going to have those old bats over?” Sam asked as he dodged his wife’s punch. “I just want to know so I can make sure I have plans to be somewhere else.”

Laughing, Lexi said, “Don’t worry, Sam. I’ll give you plenty of warning. I remember last time. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone blush that much in the span of ten minutes as you did that day.”

Martha laughed, too. “It was funny, Sam honey, and you do have a nice ass.”

Noah shook his head, “Come on, they can’t be that bad.” He frowned when they all laughed at him.

After excusing themselves from the table, Noah and Lexi were quiet while walking to her house. Lexi was trying not to think about what happened on the road and being alone in her home. She knew that she couldn’t be weak, but she didn’t want to be stupid either. Her thoughts were interrupted by her phone ringing.

“Hello? Oh, hi Rob, what did you find out?” She covered the mouthpiece of the phone and mouthed, “The garage,” to Noah. “Really? Well, how can that happen?” Her eyebrows furrowed in concern. She started to shake and tried to hide it from Noah.

“Tell me,” Noah demanded. She held up a finger to tell him he would have to wait a minute and started to walk away with her back to him. He just followed her and sped up so that he was in front of her and held his hand out for the phone.

She turned her back to him, “Sorry Rob, I’ve got a man here who seems to think that because I’m a woman there’s no possible way I could know anything about that mysterious contraption called a car.” Lexi rolled her eyes.

“Alexia.” Noah warned.

“Thank you, Rob. How long will it take to get a new radiator?” She nodded into the phone. “Thanks. Let me know as soon as it’s done. Goodbye.” She turned back to Noah. “For your information, my Dad works on cars for a living so I have my way around them. I don’t need some white knight riding in to save me.” She moved toward him to poke her finger into his chest. She was trying to hold onto her anger towards Noah so that she wouldn’t go to pieces in front of him.

He grabbed her finger. “Stop that, I’m not some damn white knight, Alexia. So sue me for trying to help you when you are too stubborn to ask for it.”

“I know how to ask for help you Neanderthal, and how the hell do you know how stubborn I am?” She tried to get up in his face.

He crossed his arms. “Darling, you’ve got stubborn written all over you. Now tell me what your mechanic said.”

“Somehow I think you could write the book on being stubborn.” She started to walk past him to her house.

He grabbed her arm, stopping her and bringing her so close their shoulders touched. She looked up at him, then back down to where he still had his hand around her arm, then back up to him with one eyebrow raised.

“Lexi, please, tell me what he said.”

“Are you going to be making a habit of grabbing my arm and stopping me when I walk away from you?” She held up her hand for him to stop. “Nevermind, don’t answer. If I tell you will you let me go?”

“Yes.”

“Fine. There’s a hole in my radiator. It appears that someone went to some trouble to make a hole the correct size and correct place on my radiator so that it would overheat after I had been driving for a few miles.” She tried to block out the fact that meant her car would breakdown where there were no houses. Keeping her breathing steady was what she needed to do in order to stay calm.

“Do you have any idea who would do something like that? What about the guy you saw? Do you think they’re connected?”

“There is no one here who would do something like that. Plus, for all I know it could be my overactive imagination that created a guy standing there in the woods. It was probably some kids messing around.”
Why wouldn’t he just drop it?
She had to get home. Her head was rapidly approaching migraine status.

“This is not open for discussion. You can just lower that right now.” He tapped his finger on her eyebrow. “When we get to your house, I’m going through it from top to bottom. I also want to make sure that everything is locked up before I leave. I want you to keep your cell phone by the bed and call me no matter what.”

“Is that it?” she asked sarcastically, folding her arms across her chest.

“Yes, that’s it because what I really want for you to do is to stay at my place where there are three other people and an alarm system until we get this all figured out. Or, I could camp out on your couch. However,” he held up a hand to stop her from talking, “I know there’s no way you’d go for either of those options, so I suggested the one you would say ‘yes’ to.” He crossed his arms over his chest and raised an eyebrow, mimicking her, and waited for her response.

“Fine, let’s go.” She turned and walked toward her house.

“How come I get the impression you are saying ‘asshole’ every time you say ‘fine?’”

“Maybe because I am?” Lexi just wanted to get rid of Noah. She needed to make a phone call without Noah around.

By two A.M., Lexi knew she wasn’t going to be able to sleep. She spent hours telling herself there was no possible way it could be who she thought it was. He wouldn’t lower himself by hiring someone to mess with her after all of these years. He enjoyed
seeing
the havoc he created, not
hearing
about it. He was still in prison. She’d called the authorities in San Diego County after Noah left, but she couldn’t get any information since the supervisors had left for the day. The last thing she wanted was to call her parents and worry them, especially if there was nothing going on.

Her mind kept revolving around who else could have sabotaged her car. There wasn’t a high crime rate here, but there were always kids looking to cause trouble.
Could it be as simple as that?
If that were the case, then she really had nothing to worry about. It wasn’t like someone was targeting her.

She’d never needed air conditioning living on the water but it was too hot in the house without the windows open. It had been a long time since she needed them, but she dug her window security locks out of a box in her office closet and installed them on all of the windows. The moon was full and the clouds had blown out so she was able to look around the beach and rocks. Since she didn’t see anything move, she opened some windows in her bedroom a few inches, just enough to let some air in but not enough for a person to climb through it. Besides, without a ladder there would be no way for someone to get to them.

Once the sun came up, she felt a little better after snagging a few hours of sleep but her dreams had been filled with dark shadows that’d chased her through the woods with no end in sight. Deciding to make an early start of it, Lexi locked up the house and took a walk out to where her car had broken down the night before, glancing at Noah’s house as she passed by. She knew that he wouldn’t like her doing this herself, but he’d just have to deal with it. There were times when she had to face things herself.

She hadn’t wanted to take Pepper in case she messed with any potential evidence so Lexi’d locked her in the house. Squaring her shoulders, she walked into the woods. The sun was shining without a cloud in the sky and she could hear the birds singing from the trees. There was nothing for her to be afraid of, she told herself over and over again. She kept looking back to the road to judge the distance until she got to the spot where she thought she’d seen the man. Looking around, she saw no footprints so she backtracked for about twenty feet and still nothing. All she’d found were animal tracks.

Maybe it was all in my head.

Feeling a little defeated, Lexi walked back home. She still needed answers from California and someone should be in by now.

~*~

After a torturous climb down the rocks, he picked the lock and snuck into her home. He watched as the dog ran past him and out onto the beach. He breathed her scent in and shivered. Slowly, he turned back to the inside of her home, his eyes taking in everything as he scanned the room.

He knew he had at least an hour before she returned. He made sure the back door was locked so that damned, filthy dog wouldn’t come in while he was there.

Starting in the living room, he touched everything he knew she touched. He leaned down to sniff the cushion of the chair she always sat on. He thought about all the times he had watched through binoculars from the rocks or the boat he rented. He’d see her curled up in this chair, reading. With his face buried in the cushion, he jerked off and thought of smothering her while he pounded his cock into her. He smeared his cum into the carpet, picturing it all over her.

In the kitchen, he opened her silverware drawer and licked the forks and spoons. It turned him on to think of her putting them in her mouth, savoring her food with his dried saliva on it.

He ran his hands over the walls and railing going up to the second floor. He thought about chasing her up the stairs, how he would grab her and she would trip, falling so that he could climb on top of her. The space was tight. If he wasn’t careful she might be able to get the upper hand. He shivered with anticipation of feeling her fear.

In her shower, he got naked and rubbed her loofah all over his body, thinking of their skin cells intermingling. Thinking of her washing his body, allowing her to wash him. It made him rock hard thinking about it. He wanted to dominate her. It was essential as breathing.

He walked naked into her bedroom his hard cock pointing the way. He went to her closet and fingered every item. When he got to her dirty laundry, a whimper left his lips and his cock throbbed. He dug around until he found two pairs of silk panties. He held them with a death grip as he went to her bed and lay down. The panties and lying naked in her bed was almost too much for him.

He stuffed the black pair into his mouth, sucking on them, and the white pair he put over his cock and began stroking it, first slow and then faster, imagining it was her mouth. He rolled around on her bed, imagining what he would have done to her last night if she had gotten out of her car and not called that bastard so quick. He had felt her fear from where he’d been standing. His muffled roar filled the room as he came again into the panties wrapped around his cock.

He got up and dressed quickly, putting the soiled panties into his pocket. He walked away from her house with no one the wiser. Now that he knew what the inside of her home looked like, he knew what he would need to get.

~*~

When Lexi arrived home, she saw Pepper outside and swore. She thought she’d left her in the house, but couldn’t be sure with all the thoughts vying for her attention right now. At this point, she wasn’t even sure if she’d locked up before she left. It was such a habit not to lock the doors. Sure enough, her backdoor was unlocked. She had an uneasy feeling as she walked in. She wondered if she should call Noah to help go through the house with her, but she wasn’t up for the lecture, which would be completely justified.

She stood and listened closely, but all she could hear were the sounds of the surf and crying seabirds outside, nothing strange from inside. Plus Pepper was right there with her and she would’ve noticed if someone were in the house.

After a quick check, she picked up the phone to call La Jolla. She was the fifth caller in the queue, so she started her laundry and straightened up the house while she waited.

Having cleaned her bathroom, she moved to her bedroom and started to remake the bed when someone came on the line. She spent the next hour being put on hold and passed around from person to person without being given any answers. Sitting on her bed and looking out over the ocean, she was finally told that someone would get back to her within the next couple of days.

At this point, she wasn’t holding out much hope. She was sure if
he
had been released it would have made the local news at least and she would have received a phone call from her attorney.

She decided to give Evie a call with an update before her friend ended up on her doorstep wanting to know the latest news about her neighbor. When she got downstairs, she grabbed something to drink and walked over to her chair to sit down with her feet hanging over the arm. “Hey, sexy lady, what are you wearing?”

Evie’s throaty laugh filled the line. “If you could see me, you’d run screaming from the room. We’ve been rearranging my office so that I can get another desk in here for Jesse. He claims I’m completely unorganized and has no idea how I built a successful business working like this, therefore, he
cannot
share a desk with me.”

Lexi could hear a male voice in the background saying something about shuddering at what her apartment must look like. Laughing at the thought of anyone thinking Evie was disorganized, she shook her head at the thought of how much a perfectionist Jesse must be if he thought the person Lexi looked up to as her organizational hero didn’t measure up.

“Carry on, Jesse. I’m going to get a coffee. You do your thing. Now tell me, what’s the latest with your rock star next door? I want to know
everything
.”

“What makes you think there is anything to tell?” Lexi started digging through the cushions in her chair, pulling out pens and other things that always got lost in there.

“Girl, I heard what he said to you. Did you go upstairs, and if you did you’d better have been up there all these days, otherwise why the hell didn’t you call me before now?”

“Come on, you know me. I don’t just jump into the sack. Besides, Hot Rock Star isn’t going to be around forever.”

“So? You need your pipes cleaned. Go for it. Have some fun.”

Lexi shook her head. “Pipes cleaned, really? Have you been talking to your grandmother?”

“No, why, should I? What did they do now?”

“Just the usual, they clogged up the toilets at the senior center to get a plumber out there. I think they’re going to start charging extra when one of the ladies calls in with a problem.”

Evie laughed. When she calmed down, she said, “We should be taking notes for when we are old. They do have a lot of great ideas, you’ve got to admit that.”

Lexi moved her legs from the arm and put her feet on the floor. “Yes they do but… ewwww.”

“What ewwww?”

“I don’t know there’s something gooey on the carpet, and of course, I just put my foot in it.” Lexi got a rag and started cleaning up the mess.

“What is it? Smell it.”

“I’m not going to smell it, that’s gross. Yuck. Anyway, guess who I cooked dinner for after we took a tumble in the ocean?”

“Seriously? You cooked him dinner? What was for dessert? You, I hope. Don’t make me come up there and give you a lecture.”

“God forbid. It was a really nice evening. We talked long into the night. Did you know he grew up in the Chicago area too? He’s a really nice guy, for a cocky rock star.”

“Lexi, Lexi, Lexi. Girl, what am I going to do with you? Kiss him already, jump him, rip his clothes off, have your way with him. Do it!”

“I didn’t say I didn’t kiss him.” Lexi’s brow furrowed at the silence on the other end of the phone. “Evie, are you there?”

“Ummm… yeah, I’m here. I just had to clean my ears out because I know I didn’t just hear my best friend say that she kissed the totally hot guy next door and wait until now to tell me. I think you’d better start talking and quick.”

“First I need to you promise me something.”

“Anything. You know that.”

“Don’t freak out on me and don’t tell anyone. I really don’t want anyone to worry for what could be nothing.”

“Of course, but spill.”

“I had some car problems. Someone put a hole in my radiator.”

“Shit-fuck-damn. Seriously? You don’t want me freak out about that?”

“There’s more.” Lexi jumped at the sound of something breaking from Evie’s end. “Are you okay?”

“No, I am not okay. How could I be okay? Is it him? Is there anything else that’s happened? You’d better fill me in quick otherwise not only am I on the phone, I’m coming up there. Talk. Now.”

“I will, just don’t break anything else. I ended up broken down on the side of the road, I called Noah to come pick me up, it was getting dark and I didn’t want to walk home. I thought I saw someone.”

She paused as Evie let out a string of profanities. “Anyway, Noah took me back to his place. That’s when we kissed. It was off the charts, but Sam came in and Noah made some stupid comment about being friends. He walked me home, got all pumped up and protective when we found out what was wrong with my car. He searched the house and there was nothing out of the ordinary and left. I made sure everything was locked up and went out this morning and there were no tracks where I saw someone. So see, just my imagination. I called the authorities in La Jolla this morning. I couldn’t get anywhere, but you would think if he was out, I would have heard something by now.”

“Before we get to the good stuff, promise me you’ll tell me if anything happens again. And at least Noah sounds like he’s ready to ride in and save the day. Maybe you should stay over there until you hear from La Jolla. Oh, and then you could accidently walk in on him while he’s naked.”

Lexi shook her head. “While that would be nice, you know I need my independence.”

“Fine. But you know what you need to do to keep yourself as safe as possible. And do not, I cannot stress this enough, do not think it’s all in your head and not call someone for help. You know better than that.”

“Yes,
Mom.
I just really hate asking people for help.”

“I know, hon, and so do I, but you also know there are times when you have to. Don’t be stupid. Otherwise I will tell the ladies and you know what they would do. Do you really want all three of them living with you and all the trouble they could get into with your next door neighbor?”