Read Cuffed: A Novella for Free Online

eerie sense of deja vu as I started walking back to my
house. This was starting to become a habit I needed to break, quickly. I
couldn’t believe Shane. Why did he feel the need to continually make my life
miserable? What had I ever done to him? I wasn’t the one who had initiated
things last Friday night. That had all been Shane. So why was he torturing me?

 
    “Alexis Marie Thomas! Stop right there!” Shane called after
me.

 

Chapter 9

 
    I froze the moment I heard my name come from Shane’s lips.
He actually knew my full name? Wait, that didn’t matter, Shane was still an
asshole. Keep walking, don’t engage him . If you respond you’re letting
him win I told myself as I continued down the sidewalk.

 
    “Don’t walk away from me,” Shane called after me. I kept
walking.

 
    “Where are you going Shane?” I heard a feminine voice I
didn’t recognize yell in annoyance.

 
    “I’m doing something I should have done a long time ago.”

 
    “But, what about..”

 
    Shane cut her off, “I don’t care Rachel. Tell him whatever
you want to, but I won’t be there.”

 
    So the blonde had a name. I briefly wondered who ‘he’ was
but it wasn’t worth my time. I noticed curtains twitching in some of the houses
lining the street. Great, all their yelling was attracting the attention of the
neighbors. Just what I didn’t need. I walked a little faster. I really should
have driven home. I’d have been there by now, but with my luck Shane would have
pulled me over for driving impaired.

 
    I saw my house as I rounded the corner, finally. It had been
silent for about a block so I gave into temptation and glanced quickly over my
shoulder. Shane was about 500 feet behind me, walking like he didn’t have a
care in the world. His calm demeanor just served to elevate my anger. How dare
he? He had no right to act like he didn’t have a care in the world when he kept
disrupting my life. I wasn’t some toy he could play with whenever he felt like
it.

 
    I grabbed my keys from my purse as I approached my front door.
I needed to get inside before Shane could stop me or force his way in after me.
I heard the scrape of his shoes on the walkway behind me as I attempted to
slide the key into the lock. It wasn’t going in the lock; did I have the wrong
key? I glanced down and realized my hand was shaking. Damn it, I was not this
person.

 
    “Let me help you Lex,” Shane said softly from behind me. I
could feel him standing slightly behind me. I knew that I couldn’t win in a
fight against him for the key; my shoulders slumped in defeat as I gave in. I
hadn’t realized how tense I was until that moment. I dropped my keys into his
outstretched hand without looking at him.

 
    Shane reached around me and unlocked the door before handing
them back. I opened the door, dropped my things in their usual place on the
table by the door and headed straight to the living room. Once I was seated on
the sofa I looked up at Shane. He was standing just inside the living room
watching me.

 
    “What do you want Shane,” I asked tiredly.

 
    “Who do you think Rachel is?” He countered. I frowned at
him, did he really follow me here to playing childish games? I took a deep
breath to give myself a moment to compose myself.

 
    “Did you really follow me home to discuss your latest
girlfriend?” Then it dawned on me, he was worried I would tell her about Friday
night. “I won’t say anything to her about what happened.”

 
    Shane let out a sharp laugh that startled me. “She already
knows. I told her Saturday morning.” I sat there confused. It must have showed
on my face because he continued. “Rachel is my partner. She had left her
glasses in my car Friday and was picking them up.”

 
    “You were laughing… “ I started, letting the rest of the
sentence go unfinished when I realized how petty and jealous I sounded.

 
    “I had just told her about how I’d finally gotten you