Page 3 of Angry Lion’s Naughty Little Neighbor (Company 417 Shifters #60)

Chapter Three

Kelsey

I stare after him, trying to wrap my head around the man.

He wasn’t even that bad of an asshole this time.

I expected a much more explosive battle.

Of course, if I’m going to be fair, I only think he’s an asshole in the first place because he represents authority for me.

I think about that as I make my way to the shower.

When I get there, I think it’s confirmed.

He’s an authority so I act like he’s a jerk.

I mean pretty much anyway. He’s the one coming to my place and asking me to keep the music down.

He’s the one telling me I’m being irresponsible.

He’s the one who makes me think about my mistakes.

He’s a constant reminder of how fucked up my life is.

So, it makes sense that I resent him, right?

Who wants someone to be the mirror that shows all the ugliness?

Wow.

Wow again.

Yesterday really screwed me up, I guess.

What’s that called… Hang on… Damn it all, my brain is so muddled.

Not like last night but still muddled. And it must have screwed me up because my anger toward Aaron is pretty much gone.

See, instead of thinking of him as a jerk who’s always screwing with me and being an asshole, I’m thinking of him as a man stuck putting up with me.

Yeah, wow.

Wow again. Again, I guess.

But yesterday evening did scare me. Look, I’ve been out of control for a long time.

I think last night was the first time I felt like I wasn’t in control.

I wasn’t there thinking fuck everyone I’ll do whatever the hell I want .

I was thinking I can’t possibly stop whatever is going to happen from happening .

I wouldn’t have told the boys to stop. When they kissed me, I would’ve kissed them back.

Look, I’m not saying those two are saints but they were just as drunk as I was, and I have a well-deserved reputation for being good to go at any time.

I mean, I’m terribly promiscuous and easy.

When a girl is like me and somehow can’t get around to the word no , lots of things are going to happen she’ll regret.

Even if there’s a measure of complicity shared by others, it’s all on her shoulders.

Not her. Me.

If I had sex with both those boys last night, I would have been ninety percent to blame.

Me. The boys, just as drunk, had a little bit of blame but it was mostly me.

That’s what I’m trying to say here. And that’s why yesterday scared me so much.

If that man with the powerful voice hadn’t come along and stopped the party, this morning I’d be thinking about how hopeless and terrible my life really is.

I’d be thinking about how I got myself so screwed up that those two boys fucked me without any protest from me.

And how twenty boys could have done it. I was that unable to function. Hell, maybe others would have shown up if not for that man. He showed up right in the nick of time, and…

How…

Wait a minute! What did Aaron say when he left?

I turn the water off and stand there for a minute or so.

He said… Holy crap. Aaron is the man with the voice.

Aaron is the man who kept me safe and then carried me up to my bedroom.

Aaron is the man I thought would take from me what he kept the boys from getting.

And instead, he put me in bed and left. The man saw me naked and drunk. The man knew he could do whatever he wanted to do to me and instead of doing it, he protected me. As a reward. I treated him like shit when he came to check on me!

I hurry out of the shower and put on my robe. I already feel breathless, though I haven’t done anything to make me feel that way. It’s just that, in an instant, my life and Aaron’s actions on behalf of my life are in crystal clear focus.

And I need to make things right.

I hurry to my closet and shuffle through an overflowing shoe rack to find a pair of old flip flops. I shove them on and run out.

It takes me about three minutes to get from my bedroom to his porch.

In those three minutes, everything replays in my head several times, but now I see Aaron’s face where the stranger’s face was.

I see him dismissing Tommy and his buddy.

I see him staring down at me as he picks me up from the couch.

I see him scanning the room and chasing people out of my house. Then, I see him looking at me with concern as he walks me to my room and gently puts me to bed.

I also see a wildly out of control girl throwing her life away because she doesn’t have any real idea of how to connect to other people. I see a girl that looked at her mature next-door neighbor as just an annoyance.

My whole life, I’ve pushed the best kind of people away and kept the worst close to me. Some part of me knew I was not making good choices, but I felt my freedom rested in the idea that everything I did was just a big fuck you to anyone in my life that might have wanted me to do better.

All of this happens in a flash, in just the time it takes to go from my house to his.

I can feel tears welling up even as I knock on his door.

It opens after a bit and Aaron sees me, still in a robe, and sighs.

I don’t even register it. I just blurt out, “You showed up and put me to bed last night!”

He shakes his head and looks past me. “I’ll leave you alone from now on, okay? It’s a promise.”

He makes a motion as if to shut his door, and I, without thinking, jump forward and wrap my arms around his neck.

I start sobbing. Something inside of me has broken, and I’m just thankful that Aaron is giving even this much time to me.

“I’m sorry! So sorry, Aaron! I don’t know what I’m doing. My life is just the world’s biggest shit show and I just keep making worse and worse.”

“Everyone has problems, Kelsey.”

“I’m my own problem, but I don’t know how to stop, Aaron. I just don’t!”

I trail off into blubbering and incoherency.

I stand there like that for about five minutes or five hours or five seconds or whatever.

I stand there crying and blubbering without any reaction from him.

I feel completely desolate and drained.Then, he brings his arm up and pulls me closer.

He strokes my hair with his other hand. “It’s okay, shhhhhh. ..”

I’m just getting worse. Aaron will just think that his neighbor is a complete nut and deserves to be sent to an institution.

But instead, he turns me around, walks me into his house and closes the door behind us.