Sleep came quickly for both of us. I couldn’t remember feeling more relaxed in my life than I did lying next to Harper. Her, cradled in my arms, a welcome respite from the tedious anxiety John Bell had caused us that evening.

Chapter Thirteen

Good Ol' Fashioned Nightmare

Callum

The next morning, I woke to an empty bed and panicked.

“Harper?!” I yelled, scrambling out of bed in a stiff pair of jeans.

“I’m here!” She called out to me from our kitchen.

I sighed in relief, heading for the bathroom to relieve myself. I hated sleeping in jeans. The next morning you always wake pissed a little that you forgot to take them off or, in my case, that you couldn’t just sleep in your boxers next to your wife.

I flushed and washed my hands, inspecting my wounds in the mirror. A good night’s rest helped tremendously. I wasn’t as sore as I was the night before but my eyes still looked disgusting.

“Why didn’t you wake me?” I asked Harper, rounding the corner into the kitchen before kissing the top of her head.

She was at the gas stove, flipping pancakes.

“You looked so pathetic there with your bandaged head. I wanted to make sure that you got as much sleep as possible.”

I sat and poured a cup of coffee for myself. She always made me coffee even though she never drank the stuff. Another reason I loved her so much, so thoughtful.

“What are we going to do?” She asked me.

“For now? We’re going to wait. We’re going to be extraordinarily careful. We’re going to stick to crowds and I’ll walk you to all your classes. We’re going to be alert and you will never go anywhere alone.”

“No where?”

“I don’t even want to be separated by a room.”

“Not even a room?” She teased.

“Okay, maybe a few rooms you can be alone in,” I said, laughing, making her laugh with me.

That’s how we lived day after day, after day, after day. For three weeks Harper and I lived a very tiresome existence. We spent an unbelievable amount of time with one another, sleeping together, eating together, traveled together. We went to school together. I walked her from class to class and, to be frank, we were growing weary of the worry John Bell was causing us.

The Friday of our third week, we got into a particularly rancid argument, our nerves frayed. Harper and I never name called, never. We never really shouted either but this day, there was a lot of shouting back and forth.

“If I went out with them but promised to stay with them at all times, would you let me go then?” Harper asked.

“No! Not one of those women could handle John’s girth. I‘m six-two, a hundred eighty pounds, Harper! And I’m in damn good shape! Even I can’t handle him completely! He’s a monster!” I yelled from my position on the couch. I was drumming my thumbs nervously on my thighs.

“I know that! You don’t have to remind me, Callum!” Harper yelled back from behind her door.

She was trying to get ready to have a girl’s night with Cherry, Kelly, Sam, and Marty and I wasn’t going to let her. I was going to tie her to the radiator if I had to. I felt it was too dangerous. I saw what John’s intentions were with her and he knew where we lived. Harper didn’t know that but I thought maybe it was time she did, especially if she kept insisting that she was going out ‘whether I liked it or not’.

I sighed loudly, hoping she heard. “Harper, why can’t you just stay in until they catch him?”

She opened the door, stepping out in some dress that made my eyes want to roll into the back of my head. I almost keeled over at the pleasure of looking at her.

“No,” she said succinctly. “I can’t live my life, looking over my shoulder every five seconds and I’m going stir crazy sitting in this house all the time.” She sat beside me, the skirt of her dress, tightening around her thighs, reminding me how shapely they were. All the more reason she should stay. “Listen, I love you but I need to get out of here. I need a break.”

I sighed. “I know, Harper, but you can’t go alone. Listen, I’ll compromise with you. How about I come with you...”

“No,” she interrupted. “I’ll be fine.”

Tags: Fisher Amelie Sleepless Romance
Source: readsnovelonline.net