Page 7 of All Wrong
CHAPTER THREE
CORINNE
Corinne spent Sunday morning the way she usually did—in ratty, old pajama shorts and an oversize tee that had been washed so many times that it was like wearing nothing at all.
She started the first of several loads of laundry, then made herself a full breakfast of eggs, bacon, and toast, adding a small glass of OJ and a large mug of coffee. Then, it was down to the serious business of vacuuming, sweeping, dusting, and cleaning—all the things she didn’t have time to accomplish during the week. By the time she got home every night, shewas too exhausted to do anything besides make a cup of tea and crawl into bed with a good book.
Yeah, my life is brimming with excitement and passion and adventure, she thought with a snort as she took the electric scrubber to the grout in the shower. Her thoughts were as mundane and consistent as the rest of her schedule.
Well, not all of them. One pale-eyed enigma had been hijacking her thoughts—and not for the usual reasons. He’d been the last thing on her mind before she fell asleep and the first thing she’d thought about upon waking.
Nick Milligan. The quiet man with the dark past. He might not say much in terms of words, but his expressions conveyed a lot. The calm acceptance while being arrested. The grim determination when he’d stepped out of the police station. The confusion in his eyes when they’d parted ways, as if he couldn’t comprehend why she’d done what she did and was looking for an angle.
Granted, they hadn’t been close, but they had been orbiting in the same space for a long time. He should know her better than that, shouldn’t he? Just as she knew without a doubt that those kids had come to him for a good purpose, not a bad one.
He was a mystery for sure. Another puzzle. What was really going on?
She knew what she had seen, but appearances were often deceiving.
And sometimes, they’re exactly what they look like,a voice said in the back of her mind.
Not in this case.
She didn’t believe Nick was dealing to kids. Being a lifelong resident of Pine Ridge, she’d heard the conjecture. But that was all it was—conjecture. Vague, unsubstantiated rumors, predicated on his looks and general antisocial behavior.
To be fair, he was rocking the whole mysterious, dark, and dangerous vibe. Or, as she preferred to think of it, theI’ll do bad things to you, and you’ll love every moment of itvibe.
That was something she kept to herself—for obvious reasons.
She laughed, thinking that in her family, she was considered the wild one. She supposed she was, compared to her older siblings. Lacie and Brian were as wholesome as they came, and as the baby, Corinne was the one to push boundaries. Compared to Nick Milligan, however, she might as well have been in training for the convent.
The thought gave her shivers. Mildly scary, desirous, excited kinds of shivers.
She’d harbored a secret attraction for a long time. Nick Milligan was the embodiment of what she found attractive in a man. Striking good looks. Protective of those he cared about. Simmering with wildness that his diamond-like eyes only hinted at.
Which prompted her to recall being with him in the confined space of her car the night before. How his big body had been within inches of hers. How his silence had commanded more of her attention than an in-depth conversation with anyone else. And how his scent—a heady combination of leather and subtle dark spice—had lingered after he got out.
What was that anyway? Soap? Deodorant? His natural scent?
Corinne gave herself a mental shake. Personal reveries and secret fantasies aside, Nick was a friend of circumstance, nothing more. Barely more than an acquaintance really. An acquaintance who probably hadn’t said more than fifty words to her over the past year even if they did play a secret game of Eye Tag now and again.
Beneath that bad-boy exterior, Nick was a good guy. Corinne knew that to the depths of her soul.She’d gone out with enough bad boys in her rebellious younger days to be able to tell the difference.
Not anymore though. She’d learned her lessons well. Among them: not everyone was destined for acroie.
She finished cleaning the bathroom and moved to her bedroom. She had nothing to complain about. It wasn’t as if she sat at home, pining every night. She had a stable job with decent benefits—even if she didn’t like it very much at the moment. She volunteered at The Zone, took fitness classes, and stayed active. Her life was full.
It could be fuller,she thought as she stripped her sheets and pillowcases, which were no more mussed than expected for a lone sleeper and carried no scent besides her own.
She snorted again. That wasn’t likely to change anytime soon, not unless she was willing to settle. She wasn’t. Not after seeing what a real love match was like. Her parents had been married for more than four decades and loved each other as much as, if not more than, when they were newlyweds. Lacie had Shane, who was the other half of her soul, and Brian had Tori, the woman who had brought him back from the edge and given him a reason to want to live again.
Corinne didn’t begrudge them their happy endings. If anyone deserved them, Lacie and Brian did. Both had been to hell and back. The universe had owed them that and more.
Her? The universe owed her nothing. She’d had a perfectly pleasant life. No kidnappings, no obsessed admirers, no betrayals, no being kept in a cave and tortured foryears.
For the record, she was totally okay with that. But a little spark ofsomethingevery now and then to break up the monotony wouldn’t be unwelcome.
Like last night, for example. For a little while, she’d felt a twinge ofsomething.
