He was a tall, slim moccaccino with four sugars and extra soymilk froth.
For someone with those eyes, I expected something strong βsomething dark, black, and bitter. But for whatever reason, it seemed he liked things sweet.
How ironic.
I watched him carefully from my seat in the back of the coffeehouse. It was 12:17, and I should have been making my way to a 12:30 class, but instead, I was hunkered down at a booth, pretending to read the newspaper. I peered over the edge at my target, and desperately tried to convince myself I wasn't a stalker.
I didn't know he'd come here,
I reasoned.
But now that he is, I might as well get a good look.
I shifted the paper down to the table and fished for a pencil in my bag. As I dug through my purse, I snuck brief glances to the table in front of me where he sat, adding more sugar to his drink. By the third extra packet, I wanted to vomit just watching him.
What a child...
Once I found a pencil, I let the tip hover over the crossword section and pretended to fill in items. Occasionally he would look up to glance at my table or out the window, and I went through a range of motions β sipping from my empty coffee cup, glancing at the couple at the booth next to me, and scratching overtly sexual nonsense into empty squares on the paper.
When I was gifted with another opportunity to glance again, I made sure to glue my gaze to his face. I had to make sure that he was the same man I'd seen leaning against the windowpane the night before. With distance and darkness obstructing me, I hadn't been able to tell that he was Asian, but those eyes were something I just couldn't forget. Dark, rich, intense.
That morning, however, they seemed a bit bored and tepid.
He definitely wasn't boring-
looking
, though. He was actually...kinda cute.
For a rapist.
He appeared fairly young, probably in his early thirties, with straight black hair cut just below his ears. The real length was in his bangs, which drooped over his eyes when he moved his head or leaned forward to let his chin rest on his palm. Those little acts coaxed my gaze to his sharp jawline, and the height of his cheekbones. He had a distinct look β from the smooth, suntanned shade of his skin to the slight roundness of his nose, but I couldn't bring myself to look away.
Despite what I'd witnessed him doing the night before, I couldn't help but wonder what it would feel like to have that skin against mine.
For the third time in five minutes, he ran a hand through his hair β a restless attempt to shake a few strands out of his eyes. It was a cute tick, like Blaine's hair blowing, but the sight of it made me remember the careless way he'd smirked and repeated the motion before grabbing that blonde by her roots.
The longer I stared at him, the more vivid the scene became. I could see her breasts again, those puffy, pink nipples and the clamps pinching them tight. I touched my own breasts absentmindedly, and could feel the nipples tightening. Out of nowhere, I was overtaken with another hot flash.
Embarrassed, I looked down at the newspaper once more and tried to shake the image from my head. I'd never before been consumed by something so easily. All I could think about was that woman, and how helpless she seemed.
It was kind of...
"You're doing the puzzle?" A smooth, masculine voice invaded the privacy of my thoughts.
Grudgingly, I began to think of Mark, but then tensed up. The voice was much different than his. It was lazier...more humorous.
I looked up and found myself face to face with the stranger, his dark eyes boring into mine. He smirked at me, and I was unable to speak.
"I love these things. Let's see..." he sat down casually and pulled the sheet in his direction. "Boston Hockey team...six letters..."
My gaze darted to the paper.
"Waitβ
"β
cock
," he read the word with a smirk on his lips. "Silly...you must know that's only four letters."
"Give it back!" I demanded.
"And what's this?" he laughed, a bitter, teasing laugh. "This crossword's pretty interesting. You've got down cum, cumdumpster, slut, fuck, hardcore, and what's this last one here? Oh! gaβ
"βstop reading that!" I struggled to keep my voice at a whisper. "If you don't, I'llβ
"βyou'll what?" he leaned into me, so close that I could smell the sweet coffee on his breath.
I pushed back and up from the table. "I saw what you did to that girl last night. I'll call the cops."
He leaned back in his chair with a laugh. "Oh really? I didn't know sex was illegal in 'these here parts.'"
"Youβ
"βI mean, I know
peeping
sure is."
I flushed again, and was glad he couldn't see it in my face. Up until then, he was the pervert, not me.
"It's okay," his tone suddenly became more serious. "I saw you, too."
When I didn't say anything, he took it as his cue to continue.