Her CEO Stalker and Her Second Chance Mate Chapter 25

Briar

Carter grabbed my bag and guided me by the small of my back up the steps to the front door. When he pushed it open my mouth dropped as I stepped inside. The living room was simple: the ceilings high, a flat screen on the wall, a cozy couch, and a pair of armchairs, each sporting a crochet blanket over the back. The one on the couch, however, was in a rumpled mess across the seats. A grey cat with large green eyes meandered out from somewhere mewling. I unzipped my boots and left them by the door. My feet were bare, and I hated not wearing socks but I hadn’t taken much with me and I needed to find somewhere to get more, and more clothes for that matter.

I stepped up next to Carter and all I heard was the cat’s purrs.

“This is my baby boy, Tucker,” he said, rubbing his face into the cat’s soft fur.

“Tucker, meet Brair,” he said, as he passed the cat to me. I was surprised as I took the cat and cuddled him to my chest. His purrs vibrated against my chest and I found myself nuzzling my face into his soft fur as I followed Carter through the open planned house to the kitchen where Rosie lapped at a bowl of water. Tucker was a glutton for affection, rubbing his face across my chin.

“I knew he’d like you,” Carter said, smugly as he opened and rummaged through the fridge after depositing my bag onto the island.

“He sure seems friendly,” I said, as I shrugged absentmindedly, petting him as he purred.

“Tucker knows good people when he meets them, he’s not so affectionate with just anyone,” Carter said grinning. Why had he just handed off his cat that might tear off someone's face to me? Not knowing if he would approve of the person he had been entrusted so abruptly with? I let it go as Tucker’s purring against my chest felt good, like an immense calm had come over me, from within. Carter’s head disappeared into the fridge again.

“Since you don’t have a preference, we are having steak,” he announced. Even though my mouth salivated, I knew like every other meal since Creedon, I’d have to choke it down, it seemed.

“Sounds good to me,” was my unbiased reply, as I smooched on the cat’s cheek. Rosie disappeared into the house as Carter pulled more things from cabinets and I was too preoccupied with loving on the cat to pay attention to what he was doing.

Carter dusted his hands off and grabbed my bag. Let’s see to your laundry, and get your stuff charging, then I’ll set you up in the bathroom  so you can have a nice hot shower.

“I probably stink,” I apologized, as I followed him through a well stocked pantry and into the laundry room. 

He inhaled deeply, “No, I like the way you smell,” he answers. I wondered if he meant to say it out loud, so I didn’t comment. Everything was surprisingly neat and tidy throughout the house for someone who I assumed was a bachelor, but I didn’t point it out. Did he have a woman he hadn’t mentioned yet? Would she show up to find some random woman in his house? An unprecedented thread of possessiveness ran through me and I knocked it to the side. That was stupid. He set my bag on the dryer and pointed out the unscented detergent and how to use the washing machine. I set the cat on the floor, begrudgingly, and Tucker looped himself around my legs as I unzipped my bag. Carter chuckled to himself and made his way back to the kitchen as I filled the washing machine with what clothes I did have. The cleanest things were what I left the city in and I left those to unfortunately change into. I had opted for my jeans and hoodie when I got to the first bus stop after leaving Beck, I didn’t have many options left.

I came back into the kitchen, setting my bag on the island. “Thanks, I really appreciate this,” I let Carter know as he seasoned the steaks. 

He just shrugged. “It’s nothing, if you are Jake’s people, you are my people,” he said, pushing the tray to the side. “Come on, let’s see to that shower.” He grabbed my bag and gestured for me to follow.

I trailed him up the stairs where he stopped at a linen closet and grabbed a few towels and a washcloth and pushed open a door to a bathroom door. “Use whatever you want, there’s soap and shampoo in the shower and razors under the counter if you want them. Take your time, it will be a while before I have dinner done. I’m gonna let the steaks marinate for a bit so I’ll be downstairs prepping the sides,” he let me know. So he would be busy with cooking and such. Good. The vulnerability of getting naked with someone else in the house, eased a bit.

“Thank you,” was all I could say, and he half smiled and shut the door behind him. I turned the shower on to warm up when I heard a thump at the door. I peaked out to find Rosie gnawing on a bone with her body across the threshold. Somehow her presence made me feel safer. I shut the door and began undressing. I hesitantly grabbed a razor, he had said it was alright, would he turn on me like Creedon and think I was inviting more than I truly offered? I pushed the thought aside. He’d been nothing but a gentleman and a very kind neighbor to me since we met.

Stepping into the hot shower as steam plumed from behind the curtain, washcloth in hand, I began scouring the last few days from my skin along with the atrocities that refused to fade from my hazy memory. The sounds of Rosie, with her bone at the door as she shifted, made me feel somehow more confident that everything was alright.  I squeezed some shampoo into my hand and lathered it through my hair. My ears honed in on Rosie’s every movement, as I scrubbed at my skin, the hot water raining over me. I probably spent too long in there, got too comfortable under the hot spray, easing my tense muscles as I tried to set my mental state back to human, finding some normalcy within myself in something so basic as a hot shower. 

When I finally came out, I wrapped a fluffy grey towel around me. Throwing my hair up in another one. Rosie still gnawed on her bone against the door. I wiped the foggy mirror and stared at my fading bruises. My deep inhale reminded me it was more than just my face that Creedon had punished. Overwhelming shame washed over me. How had I not seen it coming? I blamed myself, in my grief, I had let the one thing that could ruin me in. I pulled on the bondage skirt and tucked my heavy breasts into a sports bra before pulling on a boxy cropped band tee I hadn’t worn yet. I felt ridiculous and exposed. My middle hanging out and a short as hell skirt. Why did I care? I shouldn’t, so when I opened the door and Rosie rolled over eyeing me with one eye I didn’t balk. I just stepped over her and she followed me with her bone in her mouth.