One Taste of Crazy (A One Taste Novel Book 3) Read online

  She left before they could talk her into staying. She heard Zoe’s voice trailing her the entire time, but it did nothing to stop her from leaving. Yeah, she just acted like a bitch. She had no problem admitting that. Yeah, she could even be called hypocritical. She did give Zoe tons of shit when she first started dating Zeke. Who wouldn’t? He had treated her like a damn prostitute. He didn’t deserve a second chance. Of course, Zoe gave him one and now they were happily married. So she was wrong. He did deserve a second chance.

  So much easier to dish it out. Way, way easier.

  As she drove home, she knew she needed to call them tomorrow with an apology. She acted way out of line. Sometimes it was difficult to see their happiness when she had none. She had no one to blame but herself. She could have a little happiness if she gave one guy a chance. One sweet, sensitive, handsome man a chance.

  What was she scared of?

  Part of it was becoming like her mother. Part of it was just fearing the day when the happiness would be ripped away. It always happened.

  Every time a new boyfriend of her mother’s rolled into her life, she thought, this is the one. This is the guy who’ll stick around and be her new dad. It never took that long for the guy to roll back out. When she first started dating herself, she held that same hopeful anticipation. This was the guy she’d spend the rest of her life with. It never took very long for them to leave just as quickly as they entered. Part of that was her fault. She was loud and outgoing. Not every guy wanted a woman like that.

  Even her happiness with her friends was slowly drifting away. They were married. They were starting a family with kids. She was waiting for the day they decided their weekly drinks on Fridays would end. She knew it had to be coming soon. Zeke and Ben probably didn’t like them coming out every Friday with her. They probably didn’t even like her much. Not many people did.

  Whatever. When the time came, she’d suck it up like she sucked up every other disappoint in her life. That’s what she did. Sucked it up and moved on.

  Dee pulled into her driveway, sighing. Maybe she should call them tonight to apologize. She shouldn’t have left like she did. They both had a husband to go home to and they chose to hang out with her instead. What does she do? She acts like the biggest bitch ever to them.

  Her steps slowed as she neared her front door.

  Another rose, like earlier this week, sat resting on the mat in front of her door. Picking it up, she read the white note next to it.

  I’m sorry.

  Who kept doing this? She hadn’t seen her neighbor Mathias all week. Did he think his first apology didn’t work? Did he honestly expect her to knock on his door?

  It had to be him. Right?

  Of course it was. Who else would leave her a flower and a dumb note?

  She threw the flower and note into the trashcan on the side of the house as she did the first time and then went inside.

  She roamed around her kitchen for a minute or two before she decided it was bedtime. At seven thirty at night. Talk about pathetic.

  Having another drink wouldn’t solve her problems. Only make them worse. If people thought she was crazy sober, watch out when she was drunk. She was a million times crazier.

  The lights flickered off as she walked out of each room, plunging the house into darkness. The dark never bothered her. Even now, after those dumb flowers and notes left on her porch, it didn’t bother her. She refused to be scared. To allow anyone to frighten her. If that’s what the person was trying to do. Why did she think that? It had to be her annoying neighbor trying to be his obnoxious self.

  Turning on the small lamp on her nightstand, it cast just enough glow for her to be able to read a few chapters before going to bed. She didn’t always like to read, but some nights she needed the help to fall asleep, and a good boring book always did the trick.

  Seven thirty was way too early to go to bed. Having a drink was out. She needed to stop using shots of whiskey to chase away the pain, the anger. She should apologize to Zoe and Rina, but she’d wait until tomorrow. Her temper was still up a bit and she didn’t want to take any more out on them than she already did. That’s why reading a book was the perfect solution. It would calm her down. Or she could pull the bottle out. Just one little shot.

  She knew what else could calm her down. One person.

  A door creaked.

  Her head whipped to her bedroom door tightly shut. What was that?

  Another creak. This time, she thought it sounded like the second board in front of the hallway bathroom that always squeaked.

  She set the alarm. She was positive. There could be no doubt since she checked it three times to make sure. As she punched in the numbers, she couldn’t even figure out why the obsession to make sure it was set hit her. She didn’t scare easily. Maybe it was because she didn’t trust Mathias. Sometimes he had the weirdest look in his eyes. Could he be that upset she didn’t acknowledge the flowers he left?

  Swiping her phone from the bed, she cut off the lamp and dashed to the closet, closing the door as quietly as possible. Crouching behind her long dresses, which she didn’t have many because she preferred the short, sexy kind, she tried to hide as far back in the corner as she could.

  “Keep your shit together.”

  The phone shook in her hand as she scrolled through her contacts. Why? She was always calm and in charge. Her hand shouldn’t be shaking even a tiny bit.

  She hit dial. After three rings, relief swept in she hadn’t realized she needed.

  “Sauer, I need you.”

  “Dee, why are you whispering? What’s going on?”

  “He’s in my house.”

  “Who? What is…”

  The closet door swung open.

  The phone fell.

  Clothes rustled.

  “You stealthy little bitch. Come out, come out, wherever you are. I only want to play.”

  She was a bitch. How many times did people call her that? Didn’t she just act like one earlier tonight?

  She didn’t give two shits what people thought about her. She was confident in herself and everything she did.

  So why was she crouched in the closet just waiting for this douche to find her?

  Her hand brushed a heel. Her favorite heel, if she wasn’t mistaken. It gave her a good three extra inches to her height. And in her sexy black dress that scooped low in the front and barely reached her ass, the red high heels added just the right mixture to the outfit.

  Wrapping her hand around the shoe as tightly as possible, she lunged forward, crashing into the man. “Then let’s play, asshole.” There was no hesitation as she swung the shoe, connecting with his thigh.

  Chapter 6

  Blood running down. Screams filtering in the air. Grunts of pain. The sirens in the distance. It all replayed in her mind what happened only minutes ago. Mere seconds had to have gone by as she rolled around her bedroom floor fighting off a man whose strength scared her. If not for nailing him in the thigh with her heel, he would’ve overpowered her with ease. Thank god, she had such great aim. Although, her target had been his face, so her aim was actually pretty bad.

  One second he was wrapping his hands around her throat, and the next he was jumping up and running out of her room. She didn’t understand why until someone burst into her room, a gun waving in her face. She almost picked up her bloody heel to whip it at his face until she realized he was in a uniform. Officer Spencer. Decent guy, most of the time.

  He had helped her outside to the ambulance that arrived rather quickly. Or maybe more time passed than she realized. She didn’t know what was going on. Her head pounded. Her nerves were wired high. For the first time in her life, she felt truly afraid.

  “What are you doing?”

  Dee glanced up to a face filled with so much agony, if she hadn’t been sitting, she would’ve fallen to her knees. “Sauer?”

  He looked panicked before stepping into her space, his lips getting precariously close to hers. “You called me. Y
ou…put that damn gauze back on your head.” He grabbed her hand and shoved the gauze back to the small cut she received fighting with her attacker.

  Well, he didn’t exactly shove it, but the touch of his hand anywhere on her was a serious jolt to her body.

  “You’re bleeding. Don’t you dare take this off until it stops.”

  “Most of this isn’t my blood.”

  He leaned closer again, his eyes directly on hers. She noticed he couldn’t take his eyes away from her. Was it because he enjoyed looking at her so intensely? Or was it because he couldn’t stand to see the blood covering her body?

  “Dee…”

  “I’m fine.”

  “You are not fine. You were attacked in your home. You’re bleeding—”

  “I’m fine.”

  “And the man—”

  “I’m totally fine.”

  “Got away before—”

  “It’s not a big—”

  Lips covered hers, effectively cutting off more of her protests that she was fine. Who was she kidding? She wasn’t fine. She wasn’t even close to being fine. Not when Sauer’s lips were anchored to her as if she would sink to the bottom of the ocean unless he kept her afloat.

  And she needed him to keep her afloat. To keep her sane. In the same token, she didn’t want him to know anything that happened. She could take care of herself. Why did she call him? She could handle this problem on her own. She always did. She couldn’t be scared anymore because she had to take care of herself. Relying on a man like her mother did would not happen. Not to her.

  Oh, but this kiss. She couldn’t get enough.

  She increased the intensity of the kiss. If that was possible. Winding her arms around his neck, she pulled him closer. A soft groan echoed around them. He liked that. She liked it more. And she needed more.

  She attempted to pull him even closer, to align herself to every hard contour of his body when he pulled away. He grabbed her hand holding the gauze and slapped it back onto her wound.

  “You kissed me.”

  “I did.”

  “You stopped.”

  His hand increased the pressure on her wound. “Stop talking.”

  She grinned wickedly. “And here I thought you were this shy guy. You’re very demanding right now.”

  Eyes narrowing, he leaned closer, his hot breath enticing her to close the distance. “You scared the shit out of me. This is what happens.”

  “Maybe I’ll do it more often. I like this side of you.”

  He groaned right before he kissed her again. A kiss as sweet as the first, but so much shorter. He pulled away, resting his head against her forehead.

  “What happened?”

  She itched for his lips to touch hers again. Kissing was better than talking. Talking sucked, actually.

  “Dee…”

  “I don’t know. Some guy broke in and attacked me.”

  He stepped back as a paramedic cleared his throat behind him. “I’ll be right back.”

  She watched as he walked away without another word.

  What the hell? He kissed her and just walked away. God, the man could aggravate her without effort.

  And damn if she didn’t like it.

  ♡

  Sauer took a deep breath before stepping into her home. It felt so wrong to be entering her house without her permission, without her the one inviting him in just because. So wrong on so many levels.

  Officer Spencer stood by her bedroom door glancing in his direction as he got closer.

  “Yo, Sauer, what are you doing here? This isn’t a homicide.”

  Thank God for that. “Dee and I are friends. She called me right before he…” He couldn’t even finish that sentence. The minute he heard the muffled scream and what sounded like fighting, his heart stopped beating. He didn’t hesitate as he rushed to his house phone and called it in as he listened with bated breaths to the struggles on his cell phone. It was the worst thing he’d ever experienced in his life.

  Spencer nodded. “Susan’s here already. Dee’s okay. She’s one tough woman.”

  “Who got here first?”

  “I did. I was about two minutes away. Nobody was here when I arrived, except for Dee. The front door was wide open. I found Dee in her room just sitting on the floor. She didn’t say much to me when I tried to ask her questions. It was sorta strange. The few times I’ve interacted with her, she’s always been very talkative.”

  Susan popped her head out of the room. “She was attacked, Spencer. What do you expect?” She glanced at him. “Hey, Sauer.”

  “Hi, Susan. Find anything good?”

  Her brow rose, yet her eyes twinkled with tenderness. “Blood. She got him good in the thigh. He’ll probably need medical attention.”

  He could’ve figured that out on his own with the blood covering Dee’s clothes. It’d probably take years to erase that image from his brain.

  “Anything other than blood?”

  She smiled. “You’ll be the first to know. He disarmed the alarm somehow because Dee said she set it. I haven’t looked at it yet.”

  Sauer left them, deciding he’d better get back to Dee. He wasn’t sure why he walked away from her. Probably because he would’ve kept kissing her and kissing her until his heart stopped racing from the adrenaline rush. He never wanted to feel this panicked again in his life. He lived on the outskirts of Waite Park, a smaller town that merged with St. Cloud. He liked living in the country. The peace and quiet. The wide expanse of outdoors. The beautiful nature surrounding him.

  He sure in the hell didn’t like how long it had taken him to reach her house. It took him nearly twenty minutes to get here, and that was with him speeding the entire way.

  He approached Dee, immediately grasping her face. She didn’t shove him away. If anything, she tried to scoot closer to him. He held her face gently as he rested his forehead against hers. The wound near her temple had stopped bleeding, now patched up. He heard the paramedic say it didn’t require stitches, but it bled like a gutted pig to Sauer. Maybe it was just seeing any amount of blood on her that made it appear that way.

  Sighing deeply, he then inhaled the sweet scent he couldn’t get enough of when he was near her. She smelled faintly like vanilla and a splash of lavender. Perhaps from her shampoo. He loved it. He rarely got this close to her to enjoy it as he was doing now. How long would she continue to let him hold her?

  He couldn’t believe he was holding her to begin with. Where did this bravery come from?

  “Sauer?”

  He placed a soft kiss to her forehead.

  “I’m okay. As much as I enjoyed the kisses, you don’t have to do that anymore.”

  She was effectively telling him to back off. But she said she liked this side of him. His dominant side. Shit. He didn’t know he had one of those.

  Then he saw her.

  All of that blood covering her.

  He went into a panic. He wanted to strip her down to nothing. Needed to remove the evidence that someone attacked her. That someone tried to hurt her.

  Damn. He wanted to kiss her again.

  “Are you reverting to your shy self? Talk to me.”

  His lips left another kiss on her forehead. She shivered. A sign she liked that? Don’t hold your breath. Didn’t she just say he didn’t have to kiss her anymore? More like she meant, don’t kiss me anymore. Then why wasn’t she shoving him away?

  Her hands tightened around his waist, her fingernails digging in slightly. The pain was nothing. He’d endure any amount of pain just to have her hands on him. Her getting attacked is all it took to get her into his arms. Why? This wasn’t right.

  “Sauer, please…”

  He tilted her head to meet his gaze and answered her soft-spoken plea to talk to her—with a kiss. The kiss was gentle. Light and feathery. She needed tenderness right now, even as his body screamed to pull her roughly against him. The shock was close to consuming him. She needed to change her clothes. He couldn’t look down and witn
ess the blood.

  And the guy got away. As soon as he heard sirens in the distance, he fled. The only consolation was Dee got him good in the thigh with her shoe. Hence, the blood covering her. As soon as he got his hands on the bastard—

  Dee moaned.

  He slowed the kiss, unaware he had turned it more passionately than he intended. Nibbling her bottom lip, he then soothed the spot with his tongue before pulling away.

  He sought her gaze, waiting for her to open her beautiful brown eyes.

  “Why do you keep kissing me?” Her face turned stiff as she raised a brow. “You better start speaking before I get pissed.”

  “Do you want me to pack you a bag or can you handle it?”

  She jerked back, her brows dipping in confusion. “What?”

  “We have no idea why this man attacked you or if he plans to return. You’re coming home with me.”

  Sweet laughter filled the air. “Don’t be silly. I’ll be fine.”

  Leaning in, he got nose to nose with her. “You said you liked this side of me. Well, here it is. I’m not leaving you alone tonight. Not until I can calm down. I just might need a few more kisses to make that happen.”

  Her eyes clouded with desire. “You make it hard to argue with you.”

  “Then don’t argue.”

  She sounded breathless as she said, “Okay.”

  He nodded, so glad she decided to stop arguing. He didn’t know if he could take that. He couldn’t even believe he told her what to do, to pack a bag. But he didn’t lie. This is what ensued. The fear took a hold of him and made him act crazy. Just thinking about leaving her by herself sent him in a panic.

  “Can you tell me what happened?”

  “Like I said—”

  “Don’t give me that short version you gave last time. What did you do tonight?”

  The cringe that crossed her face confused him, but he waited patiently for her to talk. He had the most patience in the world, something that irritated people, especially suspects.

  “I went out for drinks with Zoe and Rina, and left early.” She hesitated, like she wanted to say more. “I came home and there was another dumb rose and note on my doorstep. I threw that shit away and went inside. I decided to go to bed because…” She stopped talking again. “And I went to my bedroom. Not a minute later, I heard a noise in the hallway. A noise I should’ve never heard unless someone was walking, so I grabbed my phone and hid in the closet. You know the rest.”