Page 24 of Promised Secret (Promises, Promises #3)

Chapter Twenty

CLAY

I was having the most amazing dream.

My entire body was flushed, and the nicest fucking mouth was sucking on my dick like it was the best thing he’d tasted.

The nicest mouth was, of course, Dan’s. I wasn’t surprised that Dan had followed me into my dreams, especially after seeing him come apart so beautifully last night.

I wanted to experience it again, even if it was just in my dreams. I didn’t know what to expect, seeing Dan hard for the first time. His erection wasn’t like mine, all red and veiny.

His hard cock was smoother and felt so fucking good in my hand. I wondered how he’d feel inside my mouth? Hot and sensual?

I’d work him with my tongue and swallow him down my throat just like Dan’s mouth was doing to me in my dream. Dan chuckled, and the vibrations the action caused had me wanting to come, but I didn’t want it to end so quickly.

I’d never had such a realistic dream before. I could hear him moaning louder over my dick, but I couldn’t see him. God, did I want to see him, but I couldn’t figure out why the world was black around me.

My hand moved to where I estimated Dan would be. It landed in his soft hair, but I still couldn’t see him. I gripped his hair just when he pulled off my throbbing cock.

Dan moaned my name, his voice sounding a little too real to be merely a dream, and then his mouth was back on me again. He sucked hard on my head, and my eyes popped open just in time to see my dick explode all over his beautiful face.

I sat up, huffing, as I tried to gather my bearings. Dream and reality blended together until I realized the sight of Dan with my sperm painted on his face was very real.

A spattering of the milky-white fluid dribbled down to his lips, and he lapped it up and moaned. His eyes fluttered closed, and it was only then that I noticed Dan was stroking himself.

Had he been jerking off while deep-throating me? And I missed the view all because I was asleep?

I pulled him down over me and sucked the lingering taste of me off his lips. I traded his hand with mine and fisted him until he was gasping into my mouth and spilling between us.

“What a way to wake up,” I murmured in between kisses. Dan hummed and took my lips in a slow, languid kiss.

“Good morning,” he whispered. I didn’t miss the sleepy satisfaction in his tone.

We’d wound up in his bed together last night and passed out cuddling. If this was what waking up in his bed was like, I’d have to sleep here more often. Every day, if I had any say about it.

“Morning,” I replied and swiped away the rest of my cum from his face. Dan took my hand and lapped it up like it was his fuel for the day, all the while watching me with his tempting eyes.

“How much time do we have before we have to head into work?” I asked with labored breath.

Dan’s smile was pure seduction as he replied, “More than enough time for a shower.”

He plopped one last kiss on my lips before leaving me on the bed. His hips swayed with each of his steps, calling to me, and I was running after him quicker than I could think.

Dan laughed when I ran to him, and his laughter followed in our wake into the bathroom.

Being ten minutes late to work was a cheap price to pay for a hot tumble in the shower with Dan. My coworkers at the station were curious about my lateness since that’d never happened before. Being punctual was something else I’d learned from Dan’s lao-ba.

I’d made up some bullshit excuse to brush off my coworkers and shook all thoughts about Dan’s lao-ba out of my head. Thinking about him when his son’s mouth was on my dick just a few hours ago was not the way I wanted to start my morning.

I realized things would get significantly more complicated with Dan and me getting together, but I didn’t regret my choice. I’d longed to have a father figure like Victor, but Dan was more important.

Dan and I hadn’t discussed what we’d do if our parents found out we were together, and I didn’t know how our parents would react either, but I wasn’t going to let that taint what Dan and I had. We’d take it one step at a time.

One thing I did know was that I didn’t want to hide us forever. Our relationship was too special to be kept in secret and hidden, like it was some kind of taboo. Dan deserved better than that.

I deserved better than that.

Maybe we could slowly get them used to the idea of us being unrelated people instead of brothers.

Thank god Mom kept our last name instead of taking Victor’s.

How fucking awkward would that be if I was dating my stepbrother with the same last name?

Probably not much less than dating my stepbro with a different last name, but hey, any little win counted.

Now I understood why Dan disliked it when people referred to us as brothers. He’d get so grouchy, and it used to hurt my feelings. Who wouldn’t get hurt when their best friend didn’t want to be brothers with them?

I smiled at how much my thinking has changed now. Now, brother was the last thing that came to mind when I thought of Dan.

The sound of the front door jolted me out of my thoughts, and the person I least expected appeared in my vision.

Atlas caught sight of me and waved. He tried to round the corner, but the receptionist stopped him. I stood from my desk and walked to their side.

“What’s going on?”

“Hey, Clay,” Atlas said with a smile. I’d never seen him not smiling, though it was a bit dimmer than usual. “Did you have a moment? I wanted to report an incident.”

“Is everything okay?” I asked with a frown.

Not much happened in Kither Springs besides the petty neighborly squabbles and the occasional rogue teenager who needed a stern talking-to. Hell, people didn’t even speed inside the town’s limits.

“I think I have a stalker?” he said with a laugh and rubbed the back of his neck. He spoke with such nonchalance that I was starting to suspect this was a prank one of my friends put him up to.

But it was the stiffness in his movements that told me I needed to take this seriously. “Let’s talk at my desk,” I said and led us back to where I came from.

“Start from the beginning,” I said, grabbing a memo pad and pen to take notes.

Atlas nodded and pulled out some pieces of crumpled-up scraps of paper from his pocket. He emptied one pocket, and I was shocked when he pulled out more from all his other pockets.

There had to be at least fifty notes, all with the same cutesy cursive handwriting. The notes were written on different items. Most of it was scraps of paper, but there were also notes on bubble gum wrappers, paper towels, and most notably, receipts that I recognized came from Hector’s diner.

Atlas pulled out one of the receipts from the pile. “This was the first note,” he said.

The receipt was dated three weeks ago and had the sentence “You shine as radiant as the sun” written at the bottom.

“I kept it because I thought it was sweet,” Atlas said with flushed cheeks. “But then more notes with the same handwriting started showing up.”

“Hold on,” I stopped him before he could touch the evidence again. I grabbed some disposable gloves from my desk drawer and told him to put them on. I knew his fingerprints were probably all over the notes already, but being careful didn’t hurt. I pulled on gloves for myself, too.

With gloved hands, Atlas rummaged through the pile of notes and set aside more receipts.

“I kept the first few for the compliments, but I also threw some away. Then I noticed the receipts didn’t come from the same customers.

I really started to pay attention after that and realized the notes on the receipts showed up when the diner was busy, and they didn’t always appear on the same date as the receipt.

Someone has been stealing the receipts from other tables, then showing back up to drop them off. ”

The notes started off with innocent compliments, saying Atlas’ smile lit up their day or how they admired his positive attitude, but as the days passed, the tone quickly shifted.

“We belong together. You’re mine. You’re spreading your legs like a slut for that criminal? How could you betray me like that? You’ll pay for this.”

The last receipt was dated a few days ago.

“Why didn’t you come in as soon as you got this?” I asked, holding up the last note that promised vengeance. It wasn’t professional, but Atlas had become a friend of sorts, and something like this happening to my friend in our town? That concerned the shit out of me.

Atlas moved to Kither Springs at the beginning of the year. It was a bit ironic how the first time I saw him at the diner, I’d suspected him of stalking our diner owner, and now here Atlas was with an actual stalker on his hands.

Atlas hung his head. “I didn’t think anything would actually happen, since our town is pretty safe…”

That had my guard going all the way up. “Your words make me think something did happen.” His expression said it all. “Did they hurt you?”

Thankfully, he shook his head. “I’m fine. Whoever’s leaving behind these notes hasn’t made contact with me yet, but…”

He rummaged through the pile of notes again. I was surprised by how careless Atlas really was. I knew he was an easygoing dude, but seeing how he’d come with all this important evidence stuffed haphazardly in his pockets, he was sloppier than I realized.

I suddenly became more worried than ever. Having a stalker was dangerous, but it was made even more so when the person getting stalked was negligent in being safe.

Atlas finally found what he was looking for. It was a pink slip of paper that smelled faintly of roses. In the same cutesy, cursive handwriting, the note read: “I’m always watching.”

“That’s not creepy at all,” I deadpanned. Atlas laughed weakly.

“Where did you find this note?” I asked.

He rubbed his neck again. “That’s the issue. The note was found inside my car last night. Whoever’s doing this has left notes on my windshield before, but this is the first time I found one inside my locked car.”

That was very disconcerting. Some people in town never bothered locking anything since crime wasn’t a big concern here, but for them to slip it inside a locked vehicle, it meant whoever was doing this was skilled enough to know what they were doing.

I looked at a few of the notes, looking for clues, but the only common factor was the same loopy handwriting. Atlas listed some of the places the notes showed up: the diner, his car, the park, and the grocery store. He even mentioned how he found one at the bar right outside of town one night.

This person was following Atlas around all over the place and was daring enough to leave the notes in plain sight. The possibility of this being some cruel prank just went out the window.

There was trouble brewing in our sleepy town, and I didn’t like it one bit.

“Can you think of anyone who might be behind this? Anyone at all?” I asked, trying to cover my bases.

Atlas’ face scrunched up in thought, but he came up empty. He shook his head.

“Have you noticed anyone around you acting strange recently?” I continued to probe.

He shook his head again. “Nobody comes to mind. Besides, I’m always at the diner, so it’s not like I have time to get acquainted with strange people,” he said with drooped shoulders.

He worried his bottom lip. He’d seemed so casual about this when he first walked in, but now the worry was coming through.

I pulled off the glove from one hand and clapped his shoulder in comfort. “I’m going to do my very best to get to the bottom of this, but until then, make sure you keep up your vigilance.”

Atlas nodded his understanding.

“You’re currently staying with Hector, aren’t you? You should let him know what’s going on so that he stays on guard, too,” I suggested.

Besides, Hector wasn’t someone people messed with easily. He was huge and an ex-con. It didn’t help that he had a pretty scary face and a nasty scar through his eyebrow and temple. If I hadn’t known Hector to be the giant teddy bear he was, I would have steered clear, too.

It was reassuring to know Atlas was with Hector more often than not. Hector would keep him safe.

“No, he can’t find out about this,” Atlas surprised me by saying. “I don’t want to worry him more than I already do. I want to solve this without him. You can tell the others, but I don’t want Hector knowing.”

I sighed. “Atlas, you have a stalker. This person could very well be dangerous, and they’ve already promised to get payback for you supposedly betraying them. Keeping this a secret might put him in danger as well. Especially since this stalker thinks you two are together.”

Atlas blushed at my words and seemed more concerned about Hector’s well-being than his own, but he stubbornly wanted to try to fix this issue without involving the diner owner.

I sighed and told him I would investigate this and keep in touch.

Maybe I could have Dan talk some sense into him. Dan was a lot closer to Atlas than I was. I walked Atlas out, then returned to my desk to sort through the evidence to see if I might have overlooked something.

My thoughts kept wandering back to Dan. Knowing there was potential danger in our town made me want to see him, to always keep him in my sights.

I’d always been possessive of Dan, but I thought it would get better now that we were together. Instead, I was left feeling…anxious.

I didn’t know whether it was worry over our parents that was making me feel this way or the potential danger from this unknown stalker, but the feeling wouldn’t settle down until I was clocking out for lunch and running to his clinic.