When she was done cleaning, she picked up her empty cup and stared into its depths. She hadn’t had enough sleep. And now she couldn’t even blame the caffeine she had yet to drink for her nerves.
Hypervigilance. Her condition even had a name. Her doctor assured that this latest episode would pass. Many women felt unnerved after a nasty breakup. Especially if the ex-boyfriend continued to harass her with text messages and middle-of-the-night phone calls. She was told to ignore the calls and delete the messages unread. Within a few weeks most men moved on.
Unfortunately, that prognosis hadn’t made her less anxious for long. Though she had tossed away her disposable cell and bought another so that Eric could not reach her, she could not get rid of the feeling that she was being watched. Again her doctor assured her that only hypervigilance plagued her and it would subside with time.
That was a month ago.
Shay shook her head tightly. Not when it had become freakin’ obvious, after last night, that there was a very real reason for it to continue!
Eric Coates wasn’t most men. He had not sent angry messages or threats. He was more clever than that.
Eric had found her. Alone.
Who else would have been lurking in the woods watching this place? How had he found her?
Did it matter? He was out there, waiting.
Eric didn’t known about the cabin. No one in her present life knew about this place up on the state line. It had been her refuge since age fourteen, the one safe place in the broken world of her teenage years. That was a past she had run from, and was still running from. Even now, she’d do almost anything to protect herself from it.
Shay shook her head to dispel the band of fear threatening to tighten into a headache. She was an idiot to leave the city for an off-season cabin in the woods. She’d just provided him with the perfect place—.
“No.” She raised both hands as if she could physically chase away the negative thoughts. “No!”
The shock of a wet nose poking her behind the knee jolted her.
She glanced down as Prince pushed his weight against her leg and stared up at her in question, alert to every nuance of her feelings. Her world righted.
She wasn’t alone. She had Prince.
Relief slid through her as she bent and scratched her new pet behind the ears.
The fairy tales were right. There was a Prince Charming out there for her. He’d arrived in her life the day after she broke up with Eric.
And like in all fairy tales, he’d come into her life from an unexpected place, the animal shelter, in an unexpected guise, wearing a black mask with black ears, and sporting a thick black and golden doggie pelt.
They’d bonded immediately. He was extraordinarily attuned to her moods. While she didn’t always trust her own reactions these days, she quickly came to trust Prince’s without question. If he responded to sounds in the night, as he did last night, then she knew it wasn’t just her anxiety. She needed that assurance badly.
“Good boy.” She rubbed his back a couple of times in affection before straightening up. Prince was the best thing to happen to her, maybe ever. As long as she had him she was safe.
She picked up her cup and moved to put it in the sink. She hadn’t been able to force herself to return to bed after her night visitor had been chased away. Instead, she’d curled up beneath a throw on the sofa, where she could sleep with one hand on Prince’s back as he lay on the rug beside her, and hold her cell phone in the other in case she needed to call for help. If the sheriff’s office would believe her. The Raleigh police hadn’t.
The cup rattled hard against the porcelain sink, an indication that the adrenaline-charged anxiety attack had yet to recede. Shame splashed through her at the realization that after all this time, her body could still betray her in this way.
She should have recognized the signs sooner. From the beginning of their year-long relationship she was often uncomfortable in Eric’s presence. Yet, she’d never told anyone about her uncertainties about him. Life had long ago taught her to doubt herself. Besides, who would believe her? Eric could be outrageously generous and so charming. She was a lowly temp. She was lucky to have attracted the attention of a man with money and good looks, who took her on secret glamorous vacations.
Yet Eric could go from charming to complete asshole in the time it took to knock back a few tequila shots. Gradually, he became critical of her, avoided her friends, seldom took her out in public after the first few weeks of their relationship. She gave in more and more to his point of view because it was easier than facing his stern disapproval. But there was a deep well of resentment growing inside her she hadn’t realized was there until a few weeks ago. Even she had a limit.
Rough sex, he’d called it.
Shay clamped her teeth over her lower lip to stop its trembling.