Page 9 of Now You See Him
Derrick pointed down the stairs to the basement. “Tina, do you want me to have a look at the light? We have to head downstairs anyway for me to take a look at the hot-water heater.”
“Oh, ah, sure.”
He must’ve seen the way she hesitated, because the next words he said were laced with a soft patience. “You don’t have to come with me. I’ll be back in a minute.”
“No, I can’t avoid my basement because the light flickers and the door creaking is…unexplainable,” she said. “I’ve never been one to believe in the spooky things that go bump in the night.”
There was that jaw flex again, she thought. She was sure she saw him flinch this time. When he didn’t respond, she motioned to the stairs. “After you.”
He started down the stairs, his broad shoulders stretching across the width of the stairwell, filling up most of the space. After a beat, she slowly followed.
“So what made you want to move out here into the woods from New York?” he said over his shoulder. He was making small talk. She could tell it was a distraction technique, and she wasn’t embarrassed to admit that she appreciated it. Her skin was already alive in goose bumps, and she could feel the hair raise on the back of her neck with memories from the last time she’d been down here.
“My fiancé has family that lives in the next town over,” she said. “He started to visit them more over the last two years, and on one of the trips where I accompanied him, I saw the For Sale sign in front of the house. It was…perfect. The house, I mean. It was something that I didn’t know I wanted. My fiancé was against it. He is a city-boy convert. The compromise was that I would buy it and we’d give it a shot for the next six months.”
“Mhm-hmm.” Derrick’s noncommittal sound had her pulse jumping once they reached the bottom of the stairs.
“Meaning?”
He glanced at Tina again as he crossed the large, empty concrete room to the gray breaker box. There was a sheepish smile on his handsome face. “Oh, nothing.”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “No, you can say it. I know everyone is thinking it already.”
His look was assessing. Penetrating. He flipped open the breaker box while keeping eye contact. “If you were my fiancé, not only would you get the house you wanted, but you sure as shit wouldn’t be buying it on your own.”
“Yes, well Logan and I are…different. We’re practical. That’s how we first connected. There has always been no nonsense between us.”
He raised an eyebrow, his mouth parted. There was awareness in his eyes. Recognition. Shock. “Did you sayLogan?”
Tina nodded.
Derrick turned to face the breaker.
“Why? Do you know him?” she asked.
There was a long, intense pause. “I knew a Logan once. Probably not the same person. The Logan I knew wouldn’t come back to town after leaving the way he did.” Derrick scanned the breakers and shut the box. “It looks like everything is in order here. I’ll just check the hot-water heater, the lights, and?—”
They were plunged into darkness so deep that even shadows were invisible.
“Derrick?” Tina couldn’t control the panic in her voice. It was high-pitched, reedy, as her heart began to pound, threatening to push through her rib cage.
“I’m here.” The words were a whisper, and they sounded raspy. Like Derrick but different.
That’s when she realized they were spoken from over her shoulder instead of across the basement.
Fear snaked up her spine as a blast of cold air brushed against the nape of her neck, then the shell of her ear. Her skin instantly felt hot and flushed. From one blink of an eye to the next, her knees went weak and she was hornier than she’d ever been. It consumed her body until she was overwhelmed with a desperate need to come.
“I’ll take care of you.” This time she wasn’t sure who spoke because it was clear there were two voices in the room with her.
Something caressed her lower back, and she bowed into the contact. There were loud footsteps. Thunderous. A grunt.
“D-Derrick, what?—”
Lips landed on hers, bruising and carnal, as she was yanked up against a hard chest. In the inky darkness, she could only feel the way this man tried to dominate her mouth, the way his scruff burned her skin and his big hands gripped her ass and pulled her until she was pressed against his erection. She’d never been kissed like this before. Like she was a five-course meal and every bite was a delicacy that needed to be both savored and devoured.
The lust was too strong, too insatiable, and she couldn’t resist, as if she were possessed by it. At that moment, all she wanted was this man who was wrapping her ponytail around his fist and yanking her head back so he could control her.
His tongue plunged deep inside, licking her up, and in one swift move, he tore at her shirt, ripping it in half, sending buttons flying everywhere. The sound of each one hitting the concrete was barely audible over her gasps for air.
