Thrill Seeker Read Online Free Page B

slapper!’
    No, I needed to keep this to myself.
    But there was a second reason why I didn’t want to involve the law or mention anything to Liam: I liked this man being closer than I knew. I liked the threat. I’d told him I got off on the idea of being afraid and not knowing what lay ahead. And now it was happening, I liked the actuality of it too. Paradoxically, it made me trust him more. He’d tapped into the heart of my fantasies by making me vulnerable and afraid, by showing me he was capable of playing by uncertain rules. I remembered him saying, ‘It’s the psychological aspect I’m most drawn to.’ I guessed he was trying to mess with my mind.
    It was a good start and a bad one. He’d breached my privacy, had over-ridden the need for a conversations where you negotiate likes and limits. I mean, I’m not exactly immersed in the BDSM scene but, hello? Safeword, anyone? Oh, he’d overstepped the mark on so many levels. Warning lights should have flashed but, romantic fool that I am, I thought his intrusive actions meant he recognised the need for a corresponding leap of faith from me.
    Yup, this guy was so smart, so in synch with my sexuality we were practically telepathic. I could trust him to do the right thing, went my dubious, over-eager logic, because he was doing the right thing already. Besides, he was taking a major risk too. I could have called the cops. FancyFree, the dating site we’d met on, would be ordered to hand over his details, his ISP, or whatever it took to trace him, then bam !
    But I didn’t call the cops, did I? I even hid the note from my friend and made out everything was fine.
    Clever, crafty man. He knew I wouldn’t tell a soul.
    I had to wait until Liam had left mine the next morning before I could check the break-in wasn’t a dream. I knew it wasn’t. Ihadn’t slept so how could I dream? So maybe everything was a dream, even this part now where I was going down to the kitchen to check it was for real.
    The air was fresher after the storm. In the watery, late morning sunlight, my fears eased. I was careful to wear shoes in case we’d missed clearing up some glass. I opened the back door. Rory roused herself from the adjoining spare room and padded into the garden, white-tipped tail swaying loftily. I watched her tiptoeing among the foliage, tentatively sniffing plants as if the world were new to her and she needed to be on her guard. A puddle of water on the round table was molten gold, the sun caught in its mirror. Edging the garden walls, trees and ivy gleamed a deep, forest-green. Everything was calm and ordinary.
    Leaving the back door ajar, I dug out a pair of rubber gloves from under the sink and removed from the cutlery drawer his note, with its old school, ransom-letter aesthetic. A few water droplets beaded the plastic covering. Awkward in gloves, I removed the sheet of paper and held it up to the window, looking for clues.
    CLOSER THAN YOU KNOW
    I slipped off my right glove and picked at the edge of one of the glued, newspaper letters. I didn’t want to add too many fingerprints of my own in case the cops ever needed to dust the document. Underneath the glued letter were words from an article. I sniffed the paper, trying to scent the adhesive or him. I examined at the underside. Nothing but fragments from newspapers showing faintly through the white paper. I returned the note to its plastic envelope and slipped it into the drawer where I keep foil, string, birthday candles, receipts, vouchers and other stuff I should bin.
    I snapped open a tin of Felix so Rory would return and I scanned the garden. Empty. I locked the kitchen door and looked around me.
    Window closed. Check.
    Cat safe and sound. Check,
    All alone in the house. Check.
    I headed upstairs to the living room, switched on my laptop, sat on the sofa and logged on to FancyFree. Despite the warmth, my fingers were shivery on the keyboard. Would Kagami have contacted me?
    Hey Natajack32, you have seven new