Page 19 of Restless Obsession

But she didn’t.

Everything in the world froze for me when I felt the soft, sweet exhale of her breath skate over my lips. My hand moved up from her hip to the small of her back. Just as I was going to seal my lips to hers, someone crashed into me, jolting me forward.

“Shit,” I cursed, turning around to see some kid dressed in a Frankenstein costume and a pumpkin basket in his hands bounce off me.

“Oh no! Hey, you okay?” Lucy asked, immediately dropping to her haunches to help the little boy.

Watching her with the kid made something in my heart crack wide open. I’d never thought about falling in love, much less marriage and a family. But as I watched Lucy help the kid back up and I mumbled my apology, all I could think about was how much I wanted that very thing. With her. Kids. A mortgage. A fucking lawn to mow. Messes and chaos with little people who looked like a combination of the two of us.

“Is he a giant?” the little boy asked her in a loud whisper. She coughed away a laugh.

“No. He just ate all his veggies growing up.” She winked and waved at him when he saw his mom and ran back to her. “Happy Halloween!” she called out, a sweet smile gracing her lips.

“You want that?”

“What?”

“Kids one day?” I asked brusquely. I was getting way too goddamn ahead of myself. She stared at me for a moment before she smirked.

“First you ask me to marry you, and now you’re asking me if I want kids?”

“Maybe I’m just the kind of guy who knows what he wants when he sees it,” I responded.

Something flashed in her eyes, something I couldn’t read. But as quickly as it appeared, it vanished. Lucy opened and shut her mouth before reaching for my hand. Her attention moved to watch as our fingers tangled, my skin darker than her creamy peach.

But mine?

Mine were laser-focused on her.

She looked up, and it was her bright blue eyes, wide and earnest, that got to me.

“How about we take things one day at a time?” The words felt like they wrapped my plans up in a pretty bow, giving me the green light for what I had arranged.

I ran my tongue over my teeth before I nodded. Lucy stepped back, dropping my hand. I shoved it into the pocket of my gray joggers. It felt the loss like a goddamn limb; like my arm had been shredded from my body.

That thing inside me, the dark, obsessive-compulsive animal that had come to life after catching a glimpse of her on that cam site, stirred. He wanted to claw his way to her. He felt primal and so damn greedy for her I wasn’t sure how I had enough self-control to keep standing where I was and not toss her over my shoulder.

“I’ll see you later,” she called and started to walk away straight to a nail salon in town.

I had a ton of shit to do, too.

But it didn’t stop me from waiting around to see what color polish she chose because I knew that waiting to find out could have actually killed me with anticipation. I was positive it would have been a deep red with the way she’d eyed out the sexy vampire costume, or orange to go with the fall season.

But I should have known better.

My sunshine went with bright pink.

SIX

LUCY

“Oh my god! You are so pretty!” I fawned over the most adorable little fairy princess of the night. With her dark hair and light green eyes, she looked like she could have stepped out of a magical forest.

“Tank you!” she giggled as she reached into the pumpkin bowl filled with candy, choosing her favorite before stepping away and waving goodbye. I smiled at her and waved to her mom before shutting the door.

“Happy Halloween,” I whispered as I rested against my door.

Victor or Daddy or Daddy Victor had indeed decorated his door. He’d gone all out with caution tape and an inflatable that stood next to a bowl of candy that had been propped up on a table, next to a huge, intricately carved pumpkin.