Page 7 of She's Mine

“Hey, are you listening to me, or have you fallen asleep over there?” He takes his eyes off the road for a second to look over at me and meet my flushed face. “Do you think my sister is going to believe you have this paper due?”

“Maybe…we shouldn’t be doing this? I don’t want to lie to Kat or have to feel like I’m doing something that is going to piss her off.” I look up at him, but he’s turned his attention back on the road. “It just doesn’t feel right, you know.”

He doesn’t answer me back and instead keeps a frown on his face the entire way there, doing nothing to settle this awful worry inside. He pulls into the driveway of a house that sits at the end of a little undeveloped subdivision. There are a few houses on his road but not many. It drives home the fact that I allowed myself to go with someone I don’t really know. And aren't most serial killers’ families kept in the dark about what they do and who they kill?

I slide my eyes over to him and find that he is looking at me and not even trying to hide the pursual. “I promise you aren’t going to end up on one of the murder shows you guys like to watch so much.”

“How…? Kat told you we like watching that stuff?”

“Yeah. I don’t know how you girls listen and watch that shit, but I know I’m not pushing a woman who can come up with at least ten ways to murder someone and how to hide the body after. I’m more at risk from you than you are from me.”

My mouth starts to twitch into a smile, and I completely relax.

“And what’s worse is now you know where I live. So, yeah, I’m not going to try to tick you off.”

I laugh out loud at the look on his face. I can’t help it. Bear has a great sense of humor and makes all the fear and anxiety melt away. “Come on, Killer. Let’s go figure some of this shit out.”

Chapter Six

Bear

I watch as she takes in my house wondering what she thinks about the little bungalow. “Come on in. It’s…a little messy…” I start picking up the loose shirts that I have a bad habit of leaving lying around my house.

“Oh look!” I hear the excitement in her voice as she takes in the little window seat that runs the length of my living room and my chest swells with pride. “This is so beautiful.”

“You like it?”

“It’s perfect. You can totally lay here and take a nap or read. Oh and look at this!”

She’s running her hands over the stone fireplace that I kept from the original home. “You want to look around.”

I show her around the whole house and we eventually end up in the kitchen. “This place is so pretty. You remodeled it all by yourself?”

“Well, I have an electrician buddy that helped me with the wiring but for the most part, yeah.”

“You did a really great job. I like how you made a room for your sister just in case she wanted to come and stay with you.”

“It’s a little small but I think she’ll like it.”

“Kat’s not seen it yet?”

“Not since I remodeled it.”

“Oh.” It’s a simple statement but I can hear the hint of sadness in it. I guess because she knows about it and Kat doesn’t or maybe she’s worried me and Kat aren’t spending enough time together. I know my mom worries about that.

“You want something to eat or drink?”

“Um, no. Well, maybe something to drink. Actually, no. I don’t want to have to pee in that bathroom, it was really nice and clean.”

This time I’m the one laughing. I grab her a bottle of water and set it in front of her. “You can pee in my bathroom anytime, Bea. Really, I doubt you could do anything to make it bad. You might make it better actually.”

I think back to the tantalizing scent that clings to her. I wouldn’t be mad if my whole house smelled like that.

“What…what exactly do you wear?”

“Excuse me?” She looks at me with a creased brow like she’s lost track of what we were talking about. And maybe I’m not doing a great job explaining myself but how the hell do you tell a woman she smells good enough to eat without sounding like a creep?

She unconsciously touches her shirt and my eyesight is instantly drawn to the spot where her hand is resting, which happens to be right next to the curve of her breasts. Way to be a perv, old man.

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