Page 19 of Right Next Door (Stone Family #3)

Ian

T hat little minx wrote an actual goddamn book report. Put a header in the left corner with the date and everything. Got my dick hard just reading it.

Never in my life have I been turned on from words written on a page, yet knowing exactly how much Nicole wants to please me makes my blood pump hard and fast.

It arrived in a plain white envelope with the mail, my name written in her pretty cursive. Not knowing what it was, I immediately took it to the back to read, finding a typed summary and response to her book, and it took everything in me not to cancel my appointment and go to her instead.

Especially when this peacock tattoo is going to take me hours, until well after she closes her bookshop.

Stone Ink has general hours that it’s open, but I’m pretty loose with the schedule.

If any of the kids have appointments that they want to come in early for or stay late, I don’t care.

As long as they lock up properly, it’s okay with me.

And today is one of those days that I’ve got a long one in the books.

An elaborate colored piece all along the side of this woman.

So, in lieu of seeing Nicole in person, I text her.

I received your book report. I am impressed.

You are a very good student.

In my mind’s eye, I can see her light up, hands twisting behind her back, cheeks flushing at the praise.

Nicole

Thank you.

I wanted to see you tonight, but I’ll be here late.

Nicole

That’s okay.

It’s not. Because you deserve your reward.

Nicole

I can wait.

I know you can. But you’ve waited long enough.

I want you to go home tonight and get yourself off.

And film it so you can send it to me.

Nicole

You want a video?

Yes.

Nicole

Of me?

Yes.

Nicole

Touching myself?

Yes, Nicole. I want a video of you touching yourself. I want to watch you get yourself off.

She doesn’t respond for a while, and I’m half tempted to go next door to check on her. See what she’s doing.

Is that a problem?

She still doesn’t answer, and I don’t like it.

What’s wrong?

Nicole

All the pictures and videos I’ve sent you before have been innocuous. I’ve been covered up.

Besides the fact that she used the word innocuous in a sentence and I fucking love her brain, I need to know why she has a problem with this task.

So I can understand if this is a boundary for her, but also because I want to know what has made her anxious.

Even over text, I can tell she’s nervous about something.

She normally answers me immediately.

But she’s holding back. There has to be a reason.

We need to talk. On the phone or in person, out back. Up to you. Decide in the next minute or I will. I have an appointment coming in, but I’m not working until I find out what’s going on.

A few seconds later, my cell phone buzzes in my hand, her picture flashing on my screen. No one would know it’s her. It’s a cropped photo of her shoulder and hair from a selfie she’d sent me the other day after she ate lunch. I answer with a terse, “Nicole.”

“Hi,” she says quietly, and I step out back, kicking at pebbles on the ground.

“What’s wrong? Why are you suddenly anxious?”

The background noise on her end quiets, and I assume she stepped into the back room. “It’s…stupid.”

“It’s not stupid. Nothing that worries you is stupid. But I need to know what it is.” So I can destroy whatever it is. For my own sanity.

If it hurts Nicole, it will meet its demise.

Person, animal, fucking inanimate object, I don’t care.

But she doesn’t answer, and I eye the back door to the bookstore, picturing her only a few feet away from me. I check to see if it’s locked—it is, and I rattle it. “I need you to talk to me, baby. This doesn’t work if you don’t communicate with me.”

“It’s…” She sighs, a sad little sound that tempts me to break down this fucking locked door to get to her.

“What? You’re killing me here.”

“I know. It’s just hard for me to say out loud. I don’t talk about it. I haven’t talked about it in a long time. Not even to Bryce.”

I fist my free hand and tilt my head up to the sky. I hate hearing his name in our conversations, a reminder that whatever this thing is between Nicole and me isn’t real. Her marriage to that motherfucker is. I’m merely an escape.

An escape that’s currently crawling out of his skin because something is bothering his girl.

I stalk away from the building, crossing to the other side of the street, where a small warehouse takes up most of the block.

I lean against the cement wall, glaring at the back door of Chapter and Verse.

“If it’s that hard for you to talk about, I’m picturing the worst, so I won’t force you to talk about it, but I’d appreciate it if you did. ”

“It’s not…” She clears her throat. “It’s nothing physical. I wasn’t hurt like that.”

“Okay.” I blow out a breath, fingers tangling in my hair. She wasn’t hurt…like that. Still, she was hurt in another way.

“It happened while I was in college, so it was a long time ago. I was embarrassed and didn’t tell anyone. Except for Aunt Sue. It’s why I started coming up here during summers.”

“If there is one thing you should know by now, it is that I will never betray your trust.”

“I know.” Her laugh is pitiful. “You are one of the best people I know, and I want to tell you. It’s just that it happened so long ago, I feel like I shouldn’t still be bothered by it.”

“Time has nothing to do with how your hurts heal.” I know that from personal experience, and whoever said time heals all wounds was a fucking liar. “You can feel however you want about anything. It doesn’t matter how long ago it happened.”

A moment passes before she begins explaining it.

“I wasn’t very different in college than I am now, except maybe a little more naive.

I was used to growing up with brothers and athletes, but I never really fit in, so I truly didn’t realize it when one of the baseball players was paying attention to me at school.

We had a freshman gen ed class together, English Comp, and we were paired up as critique partners.

And the whole time, I thought we were just friends.

What did I know about flirting?” She lets out a wry laugh. “Nothing.”

I remind myself that she said she wasn’t physically hurt, and it’s the only thing keeping me cool and in the moment.

“One day, we were both walking to the cafeteria, and he cornered me. Told me how he really liked me, he thought I was cute, and said he’d really like to take me out.

And I was shocked and…flattered. I told him yes, and he kissed me.

” Nicole exhales a long breath. “His girlfriend saw the whole thing. Slapped him and then slapped me.”

“Jesus Christ,” I grumble, and she lets out a soft, sad sound like a wounded bird.

“Yeah. It was really embarrassing, but…I probably could have gotten over that, if not for him saying I threw myself at him. He told her I’d been after him for weeks, flirting and begging for his attention.

The girlfriend, of course, was fuming and had a huge tantrum right there in the entryway of the cafeteria.

Everybody heard and saw, and even that—maybe the humiliation would have passed eventually, but… ”

I rub my hand over my forehead, completely unable to guess where this story is going. “But…?”

“She—well, I always assumed it was her, but I couldn’t ever be sure—made some video. It was a poor Photoshop edit, but suddenly everyone on campus knew my face from it having been put on top of some woman in a porn video.”

I squeeze my eyes shut and bend over, hand on my knee like I got kicked. “Oh, baby, I’m so sorry.”

“Everywhere I went, I was that girl. Even if everyone knew it very clearly wasn’t me in the video, it still marked me, you know?”

“What happened? Did anyone ever face any consequences?”

“No. I suppose it could be defined as revenge porn, but this was well before any laws about that were passed. I was so mortified by everything, I didn’t even want to go to the administration, but my roommate convinced me to, although they couldn’t do anything.

Couldn’t prove anything. I didn’t tell my parents, but they also wouldn’t let me transfer schools either, so I basically lived in my room.

I went to class and right back to the dorm.

I’m not sure if anyone ever found anything new to gossip about, because I stopped talking to people.

Only my roommate and one or two other girls. I had them, my books, and Aunt Sue.”

By the time Nicole finishes the story, I’m sunk down to my haunches, gutted on her behalf. “If something like that had ever happened to Juniper, I would have lit the world on fire. I want to for you now. What can I do?”

“Nothing.”

And then the back door of her bookstore opens, her head poking out so those big rainstorm eyes find mine, and I’m up and jogging to her before I can think better of it, because all I can do right now is hold her.

She lets me, and I shove my cell phone into my pocket to curl my arms around her, one hand planted on her opposite hip, the other on the back of her head.

She tucks her head against my shoulder, her fingers gripping my back like I’m her lifeline.

Nothing has felt as important as this moment in a long time, and I will hold Nicole as long as she needs. As long as it takes to prove that she’s safe with me.

She eventually turns, her nose tickling the skin of my throat before leaning away to meet my gaze. “I told you it was a long time ago, and it feels silly to still be hanging on to it.”

“It’s not silly. Are you kidding? I want to go down to Florida right now and light some people up. I don’t care if it was a month, a year, or three decades ago. That shit sticks with you, and it never should have happened.”

She nods, casting her eyes down toward my chest, where she places her hands, the nail of her index finger scratching the B on my Be Fucking Nice shirt. “Thank you for listening.”