His Secret

Chapter 4

Evelyn had never felt so embarrassed when she woke up and realized that she was completely nude under her sheets. The previous night's events were a giant blur as she tried to remember just how she got into this situation. Her mind could only make out the silhouette of who she had had sex with. Tall, dark hair, and husky. With a racing heart and, her breathing coming out erratically, she tried to think of anything else to help identify the man.

She couldn't even remember his name or if he had even mentioned anything about himself. 

Running her hands over her face, she felt herself slowly calming down. Her heart was still beating widely. There was no way I had hooked up with a mystery man. She thought, noticing the way her whole body ached as she climbed out of her bed, and over to her closet to grab some clothes to change into after washing away the grime from her body.

The hot shower did nothing to help the ache in her lower region, nor did it quel her heart, especially when she caught sight of the black ink on her ring finger. 

"No." Evelyn gapped in horror when she realized that she had screwed up royally. A one-night stand she could cover and forget about, but getting a tattoo on her hand was something completely different. And even on that finger. What in the hell did drunk Evelyn do? Her thoughts were jumping and flashing with fuzzy remembrance.

The delicate 'R' was written in cursive, and couldn't have been any bigger than a nickel, but the sheer fact that it was on an exposed body part made Evelyn's anxiety arise again. 

A soft meow had her moving her eyes away from her hand, giving her orange Tabby, named Tabby, and Tubby, her Tuxedo bicolored cat a look. It was well past their feeding time and she knew that one of the two was a little brat when he wasn't fed.

Choosing to deal with the fallout of her night later, she finished getting dressed and followed behind the two furballs as they ran for the kitchen. As she came into her living room, she found her discarded clothes scattered across her living room floor. On her counter sat her phone, neatly placed next to a note.

Had a good time tonight, baby girl. Take care, R

Ripley ventured back to his house after his staff meeting on the opening night. He hadn't had an ounce of sleep since he awoke in Evelyn's bed. When he first made it home, he had showered and changed into pajama pants, hoping that when he climbed into bed sleep would lull him.

It didn't. Instead, his mind would replay everything from the hours before. Even pinpointing that he had seen the other tattoo Evelyn had in his haste to pleasure her. The words seemed to jumble together but the colorful stack of books with black and grey flowers around it stood out. No wonder she acted like it was nothing to have a needle poke repeatedly into her finger.

Staring at the cursive 'E' she had written out made his heart squeeze. He knew that none of it should have happened. A sweet girl like that didn't need to see the darkness that Rip's heart held. He couldn't expose her to more of his life. It was dangerous. He was dangerous. Anyone he was close to had either left or was taken from him by a damn feud.

The feud that Donnie Parker and Ripley Walker held went back to their fathers, and even grandfathers. Supposedly it started over a woman, but as Ripley grew older he learned that it went even worse than that. The woman in the story was his great-grandmother, and she had been murdered by Donnie's family for supposedly stealing money from their hotel too many years ago. Now the fighting had been reserved between the two men, as they were the only ones left from both sides. It didn't matter, Rip was going to do anything he could to break down Donnie before anybody on his side saw Evelyn with Rip, he knew she was as good as dead just to get one over on him.

That's why he called Dave after leaving her apartment. Rip needed to know if he made the mistake, or if she needed to be watched. The information he received convinced him that he entangled himself with a vulnerable woman. When he found out that she was alone in this world, just like he was, he felt obligated to watch over her, but now knowing that he was putting her in danger decided for her to be watched as a number one priority.

Dave was more than an advisor for his business, he was Ripley's right-hand man. Anytime there was trouble, he had Dave there and ready.

Driving his dark blue Ford truck up his driveway, he couldn't help but wonder how Evelyn was when she woke up this morning. The guilt ate him up. Dave had told him that he had seen her coming into her shop late in the afternoon, even opening up to a couple. The woman had bought a few books, but the guy seemed to be the chatterbox of the two. He didn't think he was of harm, and when the two went on their way twenty minutes later, Dave notified Rip about it.

There was nothing out of the ordinary so far, so maybe Donnie or his clan of assholes hadn't seen him. Maybe he could have Evelyn in his life, but how would he even begin to explain the bullshit he did behind the scenes? Rip took all of but a second to turn his truck around and make his way back into town. He just had to see her.

The way Rip's body lit up with anticipation at the thought of the woman being close to him again was something he couldn't explain out loud. Drumming his fingers against the steering wheel, Rip tried to get the image of her underneath him out of his mind. It wasn't something he needed to have running wild when there wasn't anything he could do to alleviate the tension.

Pulling him from his thoughts, the song on the radio changed from an upbeat tune to one of Rip's favorite singers.

"Not so sure about that, Chris," Rip spoke to no one. Hearing the bearded man sing 'Think I'm In Love With You.'  It was a little early for the universe to be giving signs like that. But would he have done this for any other woman he would meet?

Rip wasn't a hook-up man, or even getting tattoos of initials. Sure, he had some ink on his back that meant the world to him, but this was the first one he had gotten completely sporadic for a woman. Nothing that he had done the previous night was normal for him.

When the song ended and the cab filled with another unexpected love song, Rip went to flip the song but his surroundings became familiar to him, causing him to leave it alone. Evelyn's apartment was just up the street.

Stopping across the road, he was glad that his windows were tinted.  He silently cursed when his heart fluttered seeing her through the shop glass. She had her hair up and a big sweatshirt covering herself as she placed books on some shelves.

'Got me catching feelings
I wasn't even tryna feel this
I don't know how you started stealing my heart
Like you are in this bar but I'm glad that you are
'Cause I just thought that I'd - '

This time, he couldn't ignore the universe telling him that he had met Evelyn for a reason, no matter how hard he tried to keep himself away from her. In under four hours, the blue-eyed woman had completely captured Rip's heart (he tried like Hell to say attention but it wasn't right) and turned what he thought he wanted, upside down. 

"Well, fuck."