Vigilant by Angel Lawson

organizing the closets. It was after midnight when she carried her third bag of garbage out the back door, tossing it into the can—and missing. The bag hit the rim and fell on the patio.
    “Motherfudger,” Ari said. Just as she kneeled to pick up the bag, she heard the fence creak and she jumped to her feet. She had a foot halfway in the back door when she called, “Who’s there?”
    Davis perched on the top of the wooden fence that separated her house from the neighbor. She could barely see him in the dark, but the zipper from his hoodie reflected the soft glow from the kitchen light. He crouched effortlessly, like a cat.
    “Jesus, Davis. Are you kidding me?” Ari’s heart pounded in her chest.
    “Yeah, this is not really how I saw this happening.”
    “Saw what? Me finding you creeping around my house? At midnight?”
    “Can I come down?”
    “Are you going to murder me?” She said it as a joke, but there was a hint of truth behind her words.
    “Of course not.” Ari waved him down and he landed noiselessly. “I’m not here to hurt you.”
    “No, you’re just a stalker or something?”
    “Really? You think I’m the stalker?” he says dryly, obviously noting her nights at the club. “I’d hoped we would see each other officially, like at work or back at the club, but you’ve been hiding from me. I didn’t have any other choice.”
    “I wasn’t stalking you,” Ari defended.
    “What were you doing then?”
    Ari leaned against the back porch railing. “Blowing off steam.”
    “I understand that,” he said. “But alone and looking like that? Seems a little dangerous.”
    “I told you, I’ve never done anything like that before.”
    “Like what?” he asked, taking a step closer. “Gone to a club alone? Had an immediate attraction with another person?”
    “Sucked face for an hour with a guy I didn’t know?” And embarrassingly realize he’s a colleague the next day? she thought. “Nope, that was the first time.”
    “I haven’t stopped thinking about you since,” he confessed, easing toward her. He placed his palm flat against the side of the house but kept his eyes steady on hers.
    Ari’s stomach burned with desire. “How does this even work?”
    She knew, though. She knew the answer. Because she felt alive for the first time in days. Her heart beat strong and the hair on the back of her neck rose in excitement. It didn’t matter how this worked. It only mattered that he pushed the numbness away.
    “No strings?” she asked, because she couldn’t get into something with this guy. Not with how things were going with Nick.
    “None,” he agreed, closing the space between them. He waited for her to kiss him first and Ari didn’t waste any time. Their mouths were warm against the cold night air but she let out a shriek when his freezing fingertips grazed the skin on her back.
    “Shhh…” she said, as though he had been the one to make the commotion. “My roommate’s asleep. Plus my neighbor is ninety-eight years old. She’ll call the cops on you in a heartbeat.”
    “I’ll be quiet,” he said, leaning down for another kiss, harder this time. Ari felt the connection from her head to her toes, zipping through her like a bolt of lightning.
    “Do you want to come in?” she asked foolishly.
    He nodded and breathed, “Yeah,” into her mouth and it felt nice not to be turned down. It felt amazing to be wanted. She ushered him into the house and shut the door to the backyard thinking how awesome it was to feel alive.
    * * *
    He touched her stars. All of them. The three on her hip. The one on her foot. The scattered constellation on her shoulder. He didn’t ask her about them though, because that counted as a string and Ari refused to go there. Not with this guy. He was heat and fire and, well, sex.
    “Mmmhmmm,” Ari breathed, biting her fist to keep quiet. Davis rolled on his back with Ari straddling his hips. His hands grazed her skin, her breasts, keeping every nerve on