Locked In

19

AINSLEY

“Can I get a large pumpkin spice latte, two cinnamon rolls, and a toffee nut coffee?” the woman at the counter asked, her voice barely cutting through the lively chatter filling the shop.

I nodded, punching the order into the till. “Coming right up.”

As I moved to prepare her drinks, I couldn’t help but glance around the coffee shop. It had been like this all day—bustling, chaotic, alive. The familiar buzz of chatter mixed with the hiss of the espresso machine and the clatter of mugs as Ma’am Jeena and I rushed to keep up with the flood of customers.

It wasn’t just any day, though. It was Saturday, the last weekend in October. Halloween was right around the corner, and one could feel it in the air. Not just outside, with the crisp, cool wind that carried the scent of burning leaves, but in here too. The shop was decked out in fake cobwebs, black and orange streamers, and little paper pumpkins that dangled from the ceiling. Even the menu had taken a spooky turn—pumpkin spice lattes, caramel apple ciders, toffee nut mochas, and cinnamon spiced hot chocolates were flying out the door faster than we could make them.

I handed the woman her drinks and pastries, offering a polite smile before turning to the customer with an empty table. The frequent cry of ‘I haven’t gotten my orders. I’ve been here for five minutes. Can you hurry up please. Jeeeena, where’s my order?’ didn’t seem to be shrinking any time soon, and the phone was ringing off the hook with people calling in for deliveries. It was like everyone in town had suddenly woken up to the fact that Halloween was in six days and decided to celebrate with a caffeine rush.

For once, I actually felt the spirit of it all. Usually, Halloween came and went without much notice from me, but this year it was different. I could feel the excitement bubbling around me, and for the first time, I didn’t mind being caught in the middle of it. Maybe it was the sight of little kids running past the shop in their skeleton costumes, or the way the cold wind carried the scent of bonfires through the street. Or maybe it was because, for once, I had something to distract me—something that made the chaos feel manageable.

Him.

Just thinking about it made me blush. Wednesday night, I agreed with the package he came with, and nearly started reconsidering on Thursday morning. And after my friends had left, he had come two hours later and bent me over my living room furniture to spank me till I was red for waving him off as a psycho to my friends.

My pussy had throbbed with need after the spanking, and he’d taken it as a bright, colourful sign that I was over the soreness and wanted to get laid. Theon had wrapped a gentle fist around my wrists and put them behind me, using them as anchor as he slid his way in and out, telling me how good I was, how insanely hard I made him without even moving, how nice I was taking him, and orgasm-inducing filthy words that made my eyes roll hard.

All that had been good until he remembered how scared I’d been when I thought Blake was dead, so he’d spanked me again while he fucked me, threatening to kill anyone who messed with me in cold blood. And gosh, that wasn’t supposed to make me climax, but it did. The possessive tone of that man had made me come when he threatened to slit anyone’s throat without looking back. Death, threats or murder wasn’t arousing, but from him...it was much more than that.

I was becoming sick in the head just like he said I would, and to know what and who I was actually dealing with, I talked to him yesterday.

I’d slept nuzzled in his arms last night and woken up to Ma’am Jeena’s pleading on the phone. Before we slept, I’d ask him to tell me bits about himself, and of course, he didn’t have a lot to say. Only that he grew up alone, and when he was eighteen, he came to South Highland to see a man, but then he saw me.

Theon said I was walking with an older man which I easily pictured was my father, and something had caught his eyes for the first time. He’d followed us secretly with the knowledge that he might not see me again, and all that time, he admitted that, “I didn’t know what I was doing until I saw you walk into your house. I’d snapped out of it and went my way, but the image of you plagued my thoughts ever since. Until I moved to South Highland and got myself enrolled in your school.”

So yes, he didn’t see me fall from the sky with shredded wings and immediately fall in love. I’d been walking with my dad in the neighbourhood and he changed town and school because of that.

I was terrified of anyone who wasn’t afraid of him. But thinking through, Theon rarely graced the public with his presence. If they pointed a gun at everyone in the town and asked if Theon had been sighted by them before, they’d all be dead.

But the discussion had ended when I trailed his scar with my finger and asked what happened. He’d distracted me by saying my fingertips were giving him tingles and tingles were making him hard.

A part of me had wondered if he got it from the cliff fall. I wanted to ask him about it, to know how he survived the fall. Who saved him, and what had happened after.

But out of fear that he might not be ready to discuss it, hence pushing me away, I decided not to press him and asked about the lone leaf tattoo instead. He only replied, isn’t it obvious? Then said nothing. Whatever that meant, I didn’t know.

Getting to know and understand him might not be easy, but I was ready to take the step. With fear? Absolutely. But would I give up and have him call me a chicken? Definitely not.

“Ainsley,” Ma'am Jeena called.

I gave her a hold on sign and finished my call. “Yes, we’ll have it delivered very soon. Thank you.” Scribbling the rest of the address on the paper, I looked up to catch her walking to me.

“Attend to the table in the Nile Corner.”

I nodded and handed her the paper for the delivery, immediately rushing to the Nile Corn—

My steps slowed, my heart pounding so hard it echoed in my ears. Heat rushed through me, starting at the base of my neck and spreading like wildfire. Butterflies—genuine, maddening butterflies—filled my stomach as I saw who the customer was.

Theon.

He was sitting there, behind the table in the Nile Corner, his legs slightly apart, completely unbothered. No hoodie today. No attempt at hiding himself or blending in. He was just there , exposed and effortlessly drawing eyes— my eyes. His dark hair was messy, but not in the careless way most people wore theirs. No, with him, it looked deliberate, like even his imperfections were crafted to make him look more beautiful.

I swallowed hard, my throat suddenly dry. How could he look so...perfect? So untouchable? His eyes locked onto mine, I stopped breathing. The heat in his gaze burned with that possessive look he always gave me. His eyes moved over me, slowly, as if he was memorising every inch, and God, it made him look...hotter, if that was even possible.

A sharp jolt snapped me out of my daze as a man bumped into me with his shoulder, muttering an apology as he walked past. I blinked, inhaling deeply, trying to steady my racing heart. Get it the fuck together, girl.

I straightened up and continued walking towards Theon, but his gaze hadn’t shifted, hadn’t blinked once. It was fixed on me, burning into me, drawing me in without saying a word. Every step closer made my pulse quicken, and I cursed myself for reacting like this, but I couldn’t help it. He had that effect, and he knew it.

“May I know what you want, Stranger?” I brought out a notepad from my pocket.

“You. Is that on the menu?” he asked, looking serious.

I inhaled, thinking, trying not to break the act as well. “Well, if that was on the menu, I would have been ordered more than ten times by different men.”

His hazel eyes flared, and I rejoiced internally for striking a nerve. “They’d probably choke to death having you because you’re another man’s personal order.”

“Are we still talking about what you’d like to order or something else, Stranger?”

“Both.”

I frowned. “Both what?”

He sighed, sinking back in his chair. “You’ve been here for six hours.”

“Have I?” I turned in search of the wall clock. “I didn’t notice.”

“Did anyone give you a hard time?” he asked, casting a quick look over everyone.

“No,” I replied, even though I’d been insulted and harassed like three times. This was where Hudson and I met, and he had tried to force me to stay back in bed after my phone call with Ma’am Jeena. But I couldn’t forget what she’d done for me in high school—gave me a lot of food during and after school until I left the town. So if she told me to help her out for free, I would. Of course, she’d offered money, but I rejected, knowing how truly she wanted help.

“If anyone did, tell me.”

Actually, I would keep it to myself and take it to my grave. Halloween might be cancelled in this town if they found another dead body days after the first. It had not died on everyone’s tongue, too. So it’d scare the shit out of them.

“I have a lot to attend to. What do you need, Theon?”

“You. Come back to bed with me.”

Okay. Shit.

How does one keep a straight face in this situation? Do they—

“Ainsley.” Ma’am Jeena

“I’ll be back soon. Think of what you wanna have before then. I mean edible food. Something you can consume. You know, nutrition.”

I turned and attended to the woman with a baby. “He looks so cute. What is your order?”

“ He is a she.” She smiled warmly, and I chuckled.

“My apologies. She looks gorgeous.”

“Thank you,” she said and went on to place her order from the menu.

After I left her side, I tried to focus on my job. I attended to two more customers—a couple who seemed to be debating over their drink choices—and answered a call for a delivery order. My mind was buzzing with tasks, but despite everything, my thoughts kept drifting back to Theon.

I finished writing down the delivery details and handed it to Ma’am Jeena. When I finally allowed myself to glance back in his direction, I paused.

There was a woman sitting with him now.

She was opposite him, leaning slightly forward, her long, sleek hair cascading over her shoulders. She wore a short dress that showed off her legs, paired with high heels that framed her feet perfectly. And Theon—he wasn’t looking at me anymore.

For the first time, he wasn’t staring at me with that strong gaze. No, his focus was entirely on her. He was watching her talk, his eyes fixed on her like he was trying to give her the same effect he always gave me. And from the way the woman’s face had flushed red from ear to ear, she was definitely feeling it. She was blushing so hard it was almost painful to watch, and Theon...he just stared at her, like he had all the time in the world to listen to whatever she was saying.

My stomach twisted. He hadn’t come to the shop to see me. He was here to meet her.

I didn’t know why I felt so...off. It wasn’t like we were in a relationship...? If Theon had wanted to do something behind my back, he wouldn’t have done it here, right in front of me. But still...it stung. Maybe it was the fact that for once, he seemed genuinely invested in someone else, paying her attention the way he usually reserved for me.

I tried to shake the feeling off as I attended to more customers, but it lingered, gnawing at me with every drink I handed over the counter. The thought looped through my head like a broken record. Why didn’t he tell me he was meeting someone? Were we not close enough to share things like that? Or when he said I was his, did he only mean in bed? Was that it?

The more I thought about it, the more it annoyed me. I knew I had no right to feel jealous, but there it was, bubbling up, making me feel even more ridiculous. What is wrong with me?

When I finally had a moment to breathe, I found myself standing behind the counter, watching them. The woman was still talking, her laugh loud enough to carry across the room. Theon didn’t even say anything. What was funny? And why hadn’t he taken his eyes off her.

Annoyed, I grabbed my notepad and made my way to their table, refusing to even glance at Theon.

“What would you like?” I asked, my voice steady, despite the storm of emotions swirling inside me.

He raised his head, and so did the lady, as though I just interrupted a romantic moment.

“You’ve been sitting here for more than ten minutes and you need to order something. More customers are coming in. The tables—”

“Fine, fine,” the lady cut me off, and I spared her a look. “What do you want? I’ll have anything you want to have,” she told Theon.

I clenched my notepad to keep my hands to myself because her wig was drawing them. If I ripped it off and threw it out the window, what were the chances of getting sued?

“I’m good,” Theon clipped.

She shifted to me. “Then I’m good. We don’t want anything.”

Okay, well, please take your butts and sit outside, was dancing on my tongue, but I turned around, annoyed that I couldn’t do anything to get under—

Strong hand seized my elbow, pulling me back gently. Behind closed lips, I gritted my teeth and trailed my eyes from his sleeved arm to his face, not bothering to hide the displease in my expression. One that he brushed off so elegantly.

“Give her a cinnamon spiced hot chocolate,” he said.

“But she said she doesn’t want anything,” I protested, my frown deepening.

“Give me what he wants to order for me.” A glance at Theon. “Don’t you want one for yourself?”

He shook his head.

“How romantic,” I muttered under my breath and freed my elbow from his grip. I needed a moment to calm down. I wasn’t thinking straight. Theon wasn’t like that. He’d told me with every chance he got—either I was fast asleep, having sex with him, cuddling with him—that he only had eyes for one person.

And my stupid, empty head knew it. But I couldn’t help it. It was the first time I was seeing him pay attention to a girl. He’d always ignored girls in school, too. That could be the reason why I was worked up.

Sighing, I delivered the order to their table and didn’t waste a second lingering. I went to Ma’am Jeena and told her I needed a break. She patted my back, telling me to go to the changing room.

I easily found the changing room door at the back corner and entered. It was empty and clean, two lockers positioned on one side of the wall, a long bench on the opposite side. And that was it. In the rectangular room were two lockers and a bench.

A bed would have been appreciated.

Falling on the bench, I leaned on the wall and closed my eyes, thankful the noise from the shop didn’t reach the room. It was quiet. My mind was at peace. I could think.

Notifications went off on my phone in my pocket, and I smiled. The girls were texting in our group chat that was created on Wednesday night.

Jade: Girls! Did you know Mathew Cowell from that Bumber High movie just moved into the apartment a few metres from mine!!

Laura: Does he have a big dick?

I laughed, typing.

Me: The last time you said you were scared of big dicks.

Laura: Not anymore. I want it now.

Katy: Why are we talking about dicks? Did I read Jade’s question right?

I sent laughing emojis just as the door opened, and I didn’t look, thinking it was Ma’am Jeena until that cologne hit me.

I typed a response as I talked to him.

“So much for come back to bed with me.”

The door closed. How was he even allowed here? How did he get past Ma’am Jeena?

Me: What do you guys do when you get jealous?

Katy: What’s this about? Theon made you jealous? You guys are official?

Laura: No wayyyyy. So you didn’t only fuck him but made him your boyfriend?

I sighed.

Jade: You should maybe—

“Hey!” The phone slipped from my grasp and into Theon’s hand. I stood up, attempting to get it back as he read through the messages. “Jerk!” I kicked him, giving up since he’d read it all. Asshole.

“You’re jealous?” His brows furrowed, and for a moment, he didn’t speak. It was like he was trying to make sense of it, of me. I could see the gears turning in his head, trying to figure out why I was so worked up over something that should have been obvious. He had brought her to the coffee shop. He hadn’t hidden anything from me. His silence was suffocating, so I crossed my arms, but then, the confusion in his eyes shifted, morphing into something darker, sharper.

“You’re jealous of her?” His voice dropped lower, the edge of anger creeping in. Why did he sound like I was out of my mind because I couldn’t control what I felt?

I opened my mouth to retort, but before I could get a word out, Theon’s hand shot out and grabbed my wrist. In one swift movement, he turned me against the wall, my chest colliding with it as his body pressed into mine. His grip tightened, pulling my hands behind my back, locking them in place.

“Theon—” I hissed, squirming against him, but he was unyielding, his body a solid wall of heat against mine.

“You don’t get it, do you?” His voice was low, a dangerous whisper in my ear. “You don’t need to feel jealous, Ainsley.” He moved closer, his lips brushing the shell of my ear, sending a shiver down my spine. “Because you’ve been branded into my soul. No one— no one —can take your place.”

Didn’t I know that? I knew. But that jealousy had been impulsive and blinding.

“You’re mine,” he continued, his lips grazing my ear again, his breath hot against my skin. “Not just under the sheets. Not just for show. You’re branded on me, Ainsley. Burned into me so deep that no one could ever replace you.” His grip on my wrists tightened, his fingers digging into my skin as his words washed over me. “You’ve already ruined me. So stop acting like anyone else matters. Because they don’t. Only you do. ”

I bit my lip, my body trembling against him, my heart racing in my chest. His words, his presence—it was overwhelming, suffocating in the way it always was. The way it made everything else melt away, leaving just the two of us, tangled in this endless, maddening pull between us.

“I’m sorry, I just—you didn’t tell me you were here to see someone. Who is she?” You seemed to be paying her a lot of attention.

“Someone. It’s about the man who left a note on your doorstep and Vincent’s couch.”

Oh, goodness. I’d totally forgotten about it.

Before I opened my mouth to speak, he gave me a hard spank that made me jump on my toes, drawing in a sharp breath.

“How does she— fuck.” He did it again and rolled his hips, letting me feel his bulge. I wanted it. Somehow, I’d turned into a horny slut around him, and this wasn’t about the ovulation anymore.

“Pull down your trousers.” He released my hands and stepped back a little.

I stared at him over my shoulder as he began to undo his belt. “In here?” Ma’am Jeena was just a door away.

“You’ll be quiet.”

I chuckled and gawked at him in disbelief. “You’re joking, right?”

He brought out his cock.

My walls clenched on empty air.

“Theon, you know that’s impossible. How can I be quiet when—”

He spun me around and pressed me against the wall, taking my trousers off by himself with the other hand. Okay, this was madness. The door wasn’t locked. If Ma’am Jeena found out I was getting dicked in her coffee shop, she might freeze.

But even that thought didn’t stop me from getting soaked.

The jeans dropped around my ankles, and Theon gripped my ass cheeks, giving one a harsh slap that drew a loud sound from my throat. I clamped my mouth shut and closed my eyes, reminding myself to shut up as pain raced through me, ending on a pleasure note that had my core twisting.

Theon leaned in and bit my ear, rubbing his palm over the skin that burned. “That is for doubting my feelings.”

“I don’t doubt—” I choked on the last word as his hand came down on the exact spot again, the sound echoing off the walls.

“Shh, and stick out your ass for me. Your hands on the wall.”

Flattening my hands on the wall, I did as he said. I trapped a moan in my throat when he ran his hand through the crevice of my ass down to my pussy, giving it a not so gentle massage.

“Hmm. So ready,” he rumbled in my ear, his cock against my ass as he slid his hand back and forth on my clit. I fisted my hand on the wall as he got rough with it, dying not to make a sound even though every fibre in me wanted to scream.

“Pull down your panties,” he ordered, and I lopped my fingers around it and tugged it down from my ass. “Place your hands back on the wall and flatten them. Don’t fist, and don’t make a sound.”

I nodded, though I couldn’t promise that.

He found my clit and let his hand stay, now rubbing instead of sliding. I sucked my lip in between my teeth and stood on my toes, shooting out my ass as my heart raced. One big hand was spreading my ass cheeks, and the other was between them, his finger pressed on my swollen nub, rubbing.

My legs were turning jelly and my inside was crawling with sensation as he stopped rubbing and started flicking, increasing my wetness until I felt it slide down my legs to my ankles.

It was unfathomable how fast this man could get me wet. I never knew there was a higher and mind-blowing degree at which a woman could get soaked until him. Not that I’d met a lot of men or had a lot of experience, but sometimes, I get all wet during sex like my thighs had been drenched in water.

I shut my eyes and moaned in my throat, my fingers curling in as his own fingers kept slipping smoothly over my clit.

“Fist your hands and I’ll stop.”

I opened my palms, a cry breaking out.

“Please,” I begged, although I was not sure what for.

“Please what?” he asked, and I tossed a quick look down over my shoulder to see his cock hard and straight, my walls weeping with the need to be filled by him.

“Please,” I repeated with a moan, my knees jerking as he resumed back to rubbing, alternating between flicking and sliding.

Fuck shit.

Every muscle in me ached to reach back to hold him as my stomach tightened, body jerking with an incoming orgasm.

“If you lift your hand away from the wall, I’ll stop,” he threatened, flicking faster.

So fast I came. Hard.

I opened my mouth to scream, but his hand came around my face, muffling the sound immediately, his fingers pressed down on my clit as a wave of orgasm swallowed me.

My hands had left the wall, clutching his shirt like he was the only one who could keep me grounded as shivers whacked every inch of my body. When his hand left my mouth, I was breathing hard, my heart drumming everywhere, tears clinging to my eyelids.

Theon grabbed my right leg and placed my feet on the bench, canting my hips before dragging his cock over my folds, smearing it in my arousal.

“Your hands back on the wall.”

The said hands shook with anticipation as they met the wall.

“Do you want it?” he whispered in my ear, teasing my entrance.

I arched my back, nodding.

“Say it.”

“I want it.” My voice broke as I obeyed.

“I don’t understand it.” He pushed the head inside and slid out just a second later, groaning in desire.

“I want your cock. I want it bad,” I confessed. “Stop punishing both of us and”—he rocked in at once—“ Gahhdd.”

Holy shit. Holy shit. Holy shit.

My teeth clamped on the flesh of my arm to contain my moans, feeling every vein, every ridge, every tortuous pull against my walls as he receded, lodging himself back in with almost the same force as the first.

Squeezing my eyes to distract myself from the hands that were starting to curl, my whole body focused on the one place where we were joined, something bigger and rowdier than butterflies stirring awake in my belly.

I trembled as he thrust inside me again before starting at a normal pace, my flesh indented with my teeth. I was biting down so much it hurt now, so I lifted my head from it and threw it back, my ass shot out with my hands on the wall as Theon rammed into me from behind.

I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t keep the sound at bay. It crawled up my throat like a scream, raw and desperate, begging to break free. My skin itched, burning under the surface, every nerve screaming at me to just let go. But I wasn’t allowed to. I was supposed to stay quiet, calm, in control. But how could I, when it was instinct? Like breathing, something I couldn’t switch off even if I tried.

I bit down on my lip, hard enough to taste blood, but the pressure wasn’t enough. My chest tightened, the tension coiling tighter and tighter, until I swore I might explode if I didn’t release it. It was like trying to hold back the tide with trembling hands—impossible.

“Theon,” I squeezed out, breathless. “Fuck, I want to scream.”

“And risk everyone in here hearing?” he gritted very close to my neck. “Never.” His hand went into my hair and pulled down, mouth going to my neck. “You’re so fucking soaked, you’re dripping. Do I make you drip?”

“Yes,” I panted.

“Who else makes you drip?”

“Only you.”

I was rewarded with a bite on my neck and a brutal squeeze of my left breast. My nipples strained inside my bra as he did the same with the right one, making me wish I was naked and he was tugging on my piercing with his teeth like he loved.

But I felt truly owned already. He was everywhere—solid, controlled grip in my hair, rough palm messaging my breast and a length pounding me relentlessly with a threat not to move or moan.

It was always like this with him, and I wasn’t sure how long it would take me to get used to it. I preferred never. I couldn’t believe he had a woman waiting outside while he banged another one in the changing room where anyone could walk in.

It was thrilling.

Suddenly, Theon set my hips higher, gaining another position inside me. My legs were on the verge of giving out beneath me at the change. I couldn’t hold myself up again. If I peaked, I would fall unless he supported me.

I was about to tell him that when he pulled out and turned me, shutting up my curse by shoving me to my knees. The swell between my legs was big and aching as I stared up at him, clearing the tears from my eyes.

“Open your mouth,” he ordered, his chest heaving, eyes dilated.

I took a look at the cock coated in my wetness and opened my mouth. I’d never done this before, and I didn’t want to hurt him.

“I’m not sure...”

“I know. Just open. I want to come in your pretty mouth.”

My heartbeat was still pounding everywhere, and it wasn’t the only thing beating that heavily.

“Open your mouth as wide as you can, tongue out and less teeth.” He palmed the back of my head, and after I did as instructed, he slowly pushed himself inside my mouth. The taste of myself on him was gratifying, suddenly understanding why he said my taste was addicting.

At first, he slid in and out of my mouth, brushing the end lightly as he held my head in place. Then he slowly went deep and pulled out, did it again and again, as if prepping me.

“I want to see you looking up at me with tears in your eyes when you choke, okay?”

I nodded, and he went into my throat, holding my head steady with a death grip on my hair. I raised my hands to his thick thighs, a foreign feeling of having a big, hard cock in my mouth assaulting me. Everything with him was new. Yesterday, he told me he’d fuck my ass one day, and that the day was lurking around. I didn’t know how I felt about that, considering it was a puckered hole and a kid could easily tell he wouldn’t fit inside. But he’d been serious. He wanted to invade and own every hole in me, he’d promised.

After a while of repeatedly shoving himself all the way to my throat, I swallowed and lifted a hand to wrap around his length, stroking it.

“Fuck,” he growled, my scalp bruising, and left me to it. For the first few seconds, I stroked loosely, loving the slick feeling of shooting my hand back and forth, then I fisted tightly, dragging from base to crown, occasionally licking the tip.

He loved that because he sounded pleased, so I did it again, glad that I was pleasing him like he’d done me a couple of times. Wanting him back in my mouth, I hollow my cheeks and took him until he was touching the back of my throat, tears springing out of my eyes.

With a low, gruff noise, he pushed himself deeper and held me still. My throat burned and so did my eyes. I couldn’t even breathe, and I was choking, mentally fighting for air as he pulsed in my throat. When he pulled back a little, he allowed me a moment of rest then fucked steadily till he couldn’t.

Theon jerked out his dick and let his hand take over, moving up and down his shaft as veins strained out on his neck, his body muscles stiff. He wrenched my head back to look at me as ropes of his cum spurt out, and I needed not to be told to open my mouth.

I wrapped my lips around the head to lick the cum off it, moaning as I sucked and swallowed the thick, salty substance.

“You make me so fucking crazy,” he panted as he lifted me to my feet. The ache between my legs bloomed, wanting him to finish what he started.

But he began to tuck himself in.

I shot my hand out before I could think twice about it. “What are you doing? We’re not done.”

“We are. You found your orgasm and I found mine.”

I frowned, a second from throwing my legs out in frustration. “Yes but...but you left me hanging. You...you were—why are you smiling?” I was fuming at the obvious certainty that he would, in fact, leave me hanging as punishment, and all he could do was smile. Not helping. His face was making my walls flutter. “Theon, no. Don’t you dare. I swear I won’t let you come near me if you leave this room now.”

He ate the small distance between us after fully dressed back to normal, stringing his arm around my waists to pull me in for a deep kiss. I draped a hand around his neck and let the other one slide down his chest to his zipper.

He caught my hand and retracted, softly brushing his lips on mine after the kiss. “When you get back to bed, I’ll give you what you want. And remember, the earlier, the better.”

“Fuck you,” I whispered back, pulling away.

“I’ll let you.” With one last annoying scoop of my half naked body, he opened the door and went out.

“Asshole!”

Sexually frustrated and angry, I pulled up my trousers and slumped on the bench.

Ma’am Jeena heard the sounds and asked if that was what I meant by ‘take a break’. I apologised and obviously, she didn’t appreciate a certain man sneaking into her changing room to take away my free time.

She’d gone to him with a frown and slapped a hand on his table, confusing the girl—who surprisingly had waited for him. Ma’am Jeena didn’t say anything, just gave him a motherly scolding glare. Theon had tilted his head to singe me with a cold look across the room where I was standing behind the counter. And I pouted, rolled my eyes and went back to work.

Yes, I defended myself and told her it was entirely his idea and I tried to warn him off. She’d asked if he was my boyfriend, and slowly, unsurely, I had nodded. So she’d charged to his table with the idea that he forced me.

That was what he got for leaving me like that. I felt the swell between my legs during work and cursed him through.

Stepping out of the shower, I wrapped a towel around myself and stood in my small closet, eyeing every top I had. Nothing particularly seductive in sight. Everything was either a tad too big, or big. I should have something of my size.

While rummaging through my clothes, I found some shorts and tossed them on my bed, still searching for something that would, even just a little bit, expose my cleavage.

My phone rang on my bed, and huffing, I walked through the pile of clothes and grabbed my phone, nesting it between my shoulder and ear as I got back to my clothes.

“Hey,” I chirped, lifting a brown top with a V-neckline, but I flung it away when I saw small holes in the fabric where I’d probably scratched it.

“How’re you doing?” Katy asked, sounding down.

“Good. I should be asking that. Are you good?”

“Hmm. Kinda. I need to talk to you about something.”

I nodded, moving back to the room to sit on my bed. “Listening.”

I could feel her hesitation from the phone as she went quiet for a while, slightly worrying me.

“Are you there, Katy?” I asked.

“Yeah...I...Ainsley. Is there something wrong? Like really wrong?” She sounded concerned and sad.

I stood up. “What? No. I’m good. There’s nothing wrong. What’s this about, Katy? I don’t like the way you sound.”

“Well,” she sighed. “You know I said I will try to see if I can get you a job. So I talked to my boyfriend about it because he has friends from college working in places you might like. The point is, he gave me one of their numbers and I mentioned your name to him to see if there’s a spot. He called back this afternoon and sent me your application. Apparently, you’ve tried to get a job with them before.”

I paced, my heart racing with the uncertainty of where this was going.

“They’d rejected you because of what was on your application file.”

I stopped, my brows almost touching. “My application file? What is there? Is there something they didn’t like about it?” I asked.

“Yes. Your criminal record. You didn’t tell us you got in trouble once.”

It felt like a wave hit me, turning my blood to ice. I took a seat on my bed because I was a second from passing out on the floor. “What do you mean? I don’t have a criminal record.”

“You don’t?” she exclaimed. “I knew this was all a misunderstanding. You’d never try to kill anyone no matter how—”

“Excuse me?” I shot up. I had a criminal record, and it was murder? “Why is there murder on the file I submitted?”

“Attempted murder,” she breathed out, sounding better.

I was not better. I was so fucking worked up and out of my mind. They’d rejected me because of a criminal record I didn’t know about? Usually—every time—when they emailed me back, they were vague with their responses. Something in the line of:

“Thank you for your application. After careful consideration, we have decided to move forward with other candidates.”

“We regret to inform you that you do not meet the necessary qualifications for the role.”

I’d assumed it was just the competitive nature of the job market, and I was just unlucky. Could it really be?

“Did you see it? It could be wrong. It could be another Ainsley Hades. Was it my passport?”

“He sent it to me,” she reminded me. “Although it is wrong to disclose someone’s personal information, he made an exception. So I’m going to forward it to you now.”

“Yes, please.”

I cut the call, placing my phone in my palm, my eyes glued to the screen. A buzz startled me, and I hurriedly clicked the notification, nearly dropping the device in the process.

The image loaded, spreading across my screen. I immediately zoomed in on the passport photo—my face staring back at me—and then my name. It was my application, no doubt.

But then my breath caught in my throat.

Just beneath the personal information, right beside the employment history, it stared back at me in bold letters: Attempted Murder.

My fingers trembled, and the phone slipped from my hand, hitting the floor with a dull thud. How...? How could this be there?

I scrambled to pick it up, my heart pounding in my ears. Shakily, I scrolled to the saved copy I usually sent out to every company—the version I knew by heart. No criminal record. Clean.

No wonder. No wonder I never got past the application submission stage. No wonder no one ever called me for an interview. No wonder I was never given a chance. It was because they had no reason to.

Someone had intercepted my applications. They had to have planted that false record. That was the only answer, the only reasonable explanation. This wasn’t what I submitted.

But who would do something like this to me? And more importantly...why?

Was it even possible to intercept an application? I slid into my message with Theon to ask him that when it hit me out of nowhere.

Theon.

If it was possible, the only person who could have been behind it was him. He wanted to strangle me to death when I saw him again after that night. He’d been following me all these years and I just didn’t know it. What if he had hands in this. He was good with computers, what if he’d done it out of spite. But why?

It couldn’t be. It could—

Attempted murder. Attempted murder.

He thought I left him on that cliff to die, indirectly killing him. Attempted. He didn’t die. So it’d been an attempt.

I gripped my head in my hands, pulling my hair, hoping to drag the idea that he was behind it out because everything kept fitting perfectly the more I thought about it. It kept making sense. I didn’t have a lot of friends, and he was the only one that might— this won’t do.

I stood up and threw anything on, my body shaking with the possibility. I would die if he’d been the one sabotaging my life. If he wasn’t, he could help me find out who. Hell, it could be this strange man leaving me letters.

So why did my mind keep sliding back to him? I had to ask him.