Secrets (A Standalone Novel) (A Suspense Romance) (8 page)

My eyes got big as I watched Chris come out of his
garage dressed in all black. He looked like some sort of swat team member and I
was turned on. Police officers had never been a big fetish of mine before, but
if they all looked like Chris then I could reconsider the option. His muscles
seemed to be showing off in the tight shirt he had on and his black cargo pants
and black combat boots seemed totally out of place. I decided I had to try and
follow him.

Obviously, I wouldn’t be able to follow him all the
time; but that moment just seemed perfect for getting into my car and seeing if
I could follow Chris. He didn’t look back in his mirror and instead kept his
eyes on the road as he speed through the traffic and made his way to the
downtown area. I had not been down in that area of St. Louis in a very long
time.

I felt a buzzing in my lap and I looked down at my
phone. It was Chris, he was calling me. I certainly couldn’t answer the phone
while driving on the interstate and following Chris. I decided to pull over
quickly so I could answer his call.

“Hey, I just wanted to make sure I had your number
right.” Chris said as he drove off and I lost him in the traffic of then busy
city.

“That’s great.”

“I shouldn’t be gone for more than a couple days this
time; hopefully you won’t get too bored.” I could hear the smile in his voice.
Did he call me on purpose to get me to pull over? Where was he going? I just
wanted to ask him that and see what he would say.

“That’s really great. I think you should start keeping
all of your jobs to only a couple of days.”

It seemed obvious to me that Chris was making an
effort. He seemed to actually care about my feelings and worked hard to ensure
I would understand enough about his travels to know when he would be coming
home. As we got off the phone, I continued to drive right to the airport. Just
by luck I saw Chris’s jeep sitting in an unusual spot on the airplane tarmac.
There was no way I could get to it and instead I just had to observe from afar.

I pulled my car up in a wooded area near the cargo
loading planes. I just wanted to see if I could figure out what was going on
and why Chris was involved. But it was impossible to see what was happening.

It was impossible to even know what people were in the
plane or what was going on during this trip he was going on. I wanted to be
supportive, but I couldn’t trust anyone yet. There was just a lot going on for
the kids lately and I didn’t have the energy to trust people. I watched in
silence as the ten duffle bags were unloaded from the Jeep to the new cargo
plane. I assumed the bags were still full of guns, but I had no way of knowing
for sure.

I continued to watch as a group of other men, who
looked very similar to Chris, arrived and started to load themselves onto the
cargo plane. The men all seemed to know each other very well.
 
Whatever these guys were doing for a job, it
seemed pretty dangerous. They all were bringing on black duffle bags that
seemed to look a lot like the ones that Chris had had in his home.

I closed my eyes briefly to imagine what these guys
needed all these guns for. Nothing that I could think of seemed like a very
legitimate business. Although I was sure that somewhere there was a fake
twitter account for these guys and their sexy hot bodies. The other men were
the first to get on the plane and Chris seemed to be in charge so he waited and
got onto the plane last. I watched each of the body guards intently as their
muscular bodies seemed to have no problems with anything that came their way.

I watched as the private plane took off and I couldn’t
help but think that something illegal was going on. There was no way Chris worked
for a police department or even a special agency; they didn’t let their men
travel on private jets. It was hard to differentiate between the Chris I knew
and the Chris that I saw loading up guns onto that private jet. The Chris
loading up guns seemed very deadly. The look on his face was serious and he was
not someone you would want to mess with. The Chris I knew was kind and caring
and willing to carry an injured woman a half of a mile to her home.

I turned my car around and made my way back home. There
was no use trying to figure things out right then, Chris said he would be gone
for a couple days and that meant I wouldn’t hear from him that whole time. At
least we had gotten to talk a little bit before he left.

The next day I was preparing my photos for my art show
and I got a Skype call from Chris.

“Hello,” I said as I held the phone up to my face.

I had never
Skyped
anyone and wasn’t even sure why I had the app on my phone. Probably something
Rebecca thought I needed. When I bought my phone she had made sure to install
every possible application she thought I would want to use.

“Hey, I promised to do better. So here I am,” Chris
said.

He was wearing a t-shirt and looked very casual in a
hotel room. I couldn’t help but smile at the effort he was making to stay in
touch. I also couldn’t help but wish I was in that hotel room with him. I bit
my lip as thoughts of him naked rushed through my mind. His smoldering brown
eyes looked at me as if I was the only woman in the world. It felt good, but it
felt like he could tell exactly what I was thinking.

“Where are you?”

“Chicago.”

“Doing anything fun?” I didn’t want to come out
and
ask exactly what he did for work or why he
was in Chicago, but I desperately wanted to know.

“Nope. How about you? That’s a sexy top, let me see
it.”

I was out in my garage and wearing a
torn
up
old
t-shirt. I had gotten it while visiting Paris and it always gave me
inspiration. I set my phone on the table in my garage and took a few steps
back.

“It’s nothing but a rag,” I said.

“Yes, it’s horrible. Take it off.” Chris leaned closer
to
his camera and smiled.

I lifted my t-shirt up over my head and threw it to
the other corner of the garage. Chris’ jaw instantly dropped. His eye widened like
he hadn’t really expected me to do it. Come to think of it, I didn’t think I
would either.
 
Slowly I moved back toward
the camera and let my fingers play with one of my nipples. I moved in nice and
close so Chris could see what I was doing. He still had not said a single thing
since I took my shirt off.

“
Mmmm
, I wish your lips were
right
here,
” I said as I let my finger
circle around my hard nipple.

“You don’t know how bad I wish my lips were there
too.”

“Show
me,
” I
said.

It was fun to play this game. Chris could only see my
breasts at the moment and couldn’t see my face. It gave me a weird sense of
confidence that I had never really felt before. I certainly would not have felt
this confident if I was standing right in front of him.

“Oh you can’t handle seeing this,” Chris said in his
usual cocky tone.

“You’re right. I better just get dressed and get back
to my displays.”

I looked at the screen and there he was, sitting in
some hotel room chair with his cock out in his hand. The camera watched as his
hand slid up and down the shaft and I got wet just seeing him.

“When will you be back?” I asked as I picked the
camera up and moved it to my face. I bit my lip slightly and licked my lips at
the thought of feeling him inside of me again soon.

“I’ll be there for your art show. I promise.”

Chris moved the camera back up to his face and I
suddenly felt embarrassed now. His chiseled jaw and defined muscular torso made
me nervous. I could feel the flush of red taking over my face.

“I’m really nervous. I’ve never had a show as big as
this one.”

“Don’t worry, people will love
you,
” Chris said confidently.

“What are you doing in Chicago?”

“Just work stuff. Nothing exciting.”

“I really am so nervous about this show. I’m afraid
I’ll get there and no one else will show up. Or worse yet, people will show up
and say the photos are terrible. I don’t know if I can take that kind of
rejection.”

“You’ll be great. I’m going to get going. See you in a
few days,” Chris said and he was quickly off of the call. It struck me that I
felt bonded to Chris. We had not
known
each other for long and I certainly did not know much about him. I felt
somewhat different about us after our conversation. I still wanted to find out
all of his secrets, but I was alright waiting for a little bit if that is what
he needed.

I finished putting one of the frames together for a
picture and then made my way inside. As I walked across my
yard,
I thought I saw a light turn off from
inside Chris’ house. I watched patiently from the comfort of my living room,
just to see if anything unusual happened. I wanted to see if anyone else was
coming or going from his house. He certainly had not talked
about
anyone being at his home, but then again
he might not want to share that information until necessary. I continued to
watch his house and felt like I was going crazy. No lights turned on or off and
there
certainly did not seem to be anyone
running around outside. There wasn’t even a car around. After walking around
the house and checking all the door locks and windows, I headed upstairs to my
room.

For some
reason,
I felt scared. I had lived in my grandparent’s house on and off for years, and not
once had I ever felt afraid while I was there. My instinct was that someone was
watching me from afar and I either needed to confront them or pretend like I
didn’t notice them. Unfortunately, I had no idea what I should do or if there
was even a person out there that was watching me.

“So tell me more about this mysterious neighbor man,”
Rebecca said as she and Robert helped me bring my pictures to the art gallery.

“There’s nothing much to tell. He’s a mystery man.” I
said and then laughed.

“You haven’t found out any more about him?”

“Nope, nothing. I guess he doesn’t like to reveal too
much about his life.”

“You’re lying to
us,
”
Rebecca said as she stopped and looked me in the eyes.

“What? There has been nothing to lie about. I don’t
know anything about him.” I continued to bring my pictures out to Robert’s truck
while behind
me
I heard Rebecca and
Robert having a little bit of an argument. Robert was telling Rebecca to leave
things alone and Rebecca was telling Robert that he didn’t know what he was
talking about. It was actually very fun to listen to the two of them argue.

“Ok guys, I’ll tell you the truth. I fell down a
mountain and he carried me home, we had sex. We had sex again just the other
night. But I don’t know where he is at or what he’s doing now and I’m perfectly
fine with that.”

Rebecca broke out in hysterical laughter. Her body was
bent over and she held onto the table for support.

“Oh Katelyn, you are so funny. I love your sense of
humor.”

Sometimes honesty is better than any lie you can tell.
I knew Rebecca wouldn’t believe me. I knew that the idea of me sleeping with a
stranger would not be something she could even comprehend. But to me, Chris
wasn’t a stranger anymore. Sure, I did not know much information about him. I
wasn’t too worried about it though, the man did live right next door. Sooner or
later I would find out more about him, which was a natural thing that happened
over time.

“
Well,
I’m glad
my life is amusing to
you,
” I said with a
smile.

“Seriously Katelyn, you should stay away from that
guy. Whatever he’s doing it’s probably illegal. Only criminals like to keep
their life so shrouded in mystery.” Robert said as he continued loading the
artwork into his truck.

“I appreciate you both worrying about me so much.”

“Katelyn, he’s very handsome. Do you think you would
consider dating a guy like that someday?”

I could tell what Rebecca was really trying to get at;
it was if Chris looked like a guy that I would consider my type. If I said yes,
then surely Rebecca would have a date lined up with a guy that she thought
looked a lot like Chris. If I said no, the date would be with someone exactly
opposite of Chris. There really was no way for me to win.

“I don’t know. He is very handsome.”

“I think you two should stop talking about how
handsome this guy is,” Robert laughed.

“Oh darling, you are much better looking,” Rebecca
said as she hugged her husband.

Both Robert and I laughed. He certainly had a good
sense of humor, but handsome was not a trait I would use to describe Robert.
His tall, thin frame looked like it barely kept him from falling over on a
windy day. Although Robert did go to the gym often, he didn’t appear to be
making any progress on his goal to bulk up and get more muscle.

“When you are married someday, you will see your
husband as the handsome model that he is in your
eyes,
” Rebecca said as she kissed Robert.

The two of them were such a sweet couple. It was
encouraging to see them together and how they interacted with each other.
Rebecca was more of the caretaker for the family and Robert was the provider,
but they switched roles as necessary and took care of each other very well.

“I’m really excited about this photography show. I
hope there are a lot of people there,” I said, trying to change the subject.

“Yes, I’m sure there will be. There have been flyers
all over Kansas City and I think they said all the tickets for the event were
sold out.”

I couldn’t help but smile. All the tickets being sold
out was a big deal. That meant there would be over a thousand people at my
show. All of them interested in seeing my art and possibly buying some of it. I
would really love to sell a few pieces to help pay for the renovation to my
family’s home.

“How many total pieces do you have?” Robert asked.

“I should have twenty-six. I’m not sure if they will
be showing all of the pieces or picking twenty of their favorite.”

“This is big Katelyn. Like really big. People will
come to your show and be talking about your photography in the newspapers and
stuff. You might just end up being really famous.”

I couldn’t help but smile at Rebecca’s enthusiasm. She
was always one of my biggest supporters and it made me feel so optimistic about
my show. I had sold a few photos through friends and local people, plus I had
sold several pictures online, but I had never had a real show. I had never put
my work on display for people to critique and judge with me standing right there.
It made me nervous even to think about it.

The thought of people picking apart my work or saying
bad things about my photos, it made me feel pretty anxious. I really did hope
that Chris could make it to the show and I wanted him to be able to walk around
with me to be my protector from the critiques. His physical presences would
make it hard for people to say too many bad things to me. At 6’2 and with all
the muscles Chris had, no one was likely to be talking very poorly in front of
him at least. They would be too afraid of him.

Chris wasn’t a scary guy, even if he looked like it on
the outside. In
reality,
he was a very
kind man who seemed to have a lot of demons in his past that he liked to keep
protected. He always seemed to be protecting something. I did really want to
get to the bottom of what he did for a living and why he was here. It seemed
like there was
quite
the story there and
I just wasn’t hearing it yet.