Page 17 (1/2)
Author: Roni Loren
She washed and dried her hands, then took a deep breath Tiet back to Wyatt She didn’t knohat else he had planned for tonight, but she wasn’t sure she could survive another round with him The experience in the shower had flayed her Her emotions felt raw and exposed, like shredded power lines writhing and sparking with danger She’ddinner, but beneath her sether, slapping duct tape on broken shit and hoping it held together
She needed to figure out how to hold on to some shred of control in all of this Otherwise, she wouldn’t survive him She kne she could be In the past, she’d fallen too hard and too fast And always for the wrong men Her heart was entirely untrustworthy She needed to keep that part of her out of this Sex she could do To endure those three days with Davis, she’d figured out how to shut off her e to be used She didn’t need to go that far with Wyatt, but if she’d learned anything over the years, it was how men wouldn’t look too far past that physical stuff She could play the vixen, the seductress, and that was enough for a guy And someone like Wyatt, a man who treated his interactions oements, would probably be more than happy to keep it at that level, too She could let the other stuff stay tucked away out of sight
She turned off the light in the kitchen Wyatt had told her he had a few phone calls toroo at the flatscreen TV that was perched above the massive stone fireplace The weather radar filled the screen, coreen blotches and an ominous swath of red The television was on mute, but words ran across the botto okay?" she asked, stopping behind the crealanced her way, then back to the screen "They’ve just issued a tornado warning A wall cloud was spotted a few miles west of here You see that little dot of blue over there" He pointed "That’s the lake not far fro whine of the county tornado sirens started up outside--faint at first and then blaring as the siren rotated in their direction Kelsey hugged her elbows, the sound familiar but no less eerie every tih this ritual ht through her "Where’s the best closet to hide in?"
Wyatt got to his feet and held out a hand to her "Coot a better place"
The rain turned froainst the s as Wyatt led her down an interior hallway and past a number of doors At the final door on the left, he stopped and turned the knob "Watch your step The stairs are a little narrow"
"You have a basement?" she asked in disbelief That was about as rare as having a snoer in this part of the world
"Sort of," he said, leading her down the narrow staircase and shutting the door behind them The steps were carpeted and as they went lower, the sounds fro a thick silence behind
When they reached the bottoht side wall, bringing the dark rooth from above and illuminated the posh leather couch and chairs in the center of the roo packed froe screen gracing the main wall It was a o of her hand, shifting his stance and looking a little uncoround level in here So we should be fine if anything coh"
"This is so the thick red carpet and walking over to the wall of shelves Rows and rows of DVDs filled the spaces More than she’d ever seen in one place before She scanned so the spines "Wow Did you buy out Blockbuster?"
He cleared his throat "I have a bit of a thing for file of embarrassment in his tone Wyatt Austin could be sheepish about so? Who knew? She’d never seen even a chink in his collected facade, but she found the little gli "I would say so"
She went back to scanning There was obviously some prescribed order to the collection, but it definitely wasn’t alphabetical Her finger ran over a group of foreign films, then what looked to be Acadehties teen movies: Back to the Future, The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Dirty Dancing
She grabbed the last one and spun around, s? Tell the truth You only have this one to oht man voluntarily owns this movie"
He rubbed a hand over the back of his head "For the record, I’ve never taken a date down here But truth be told, I got that one for when my sister, Leila, corinned "She andBrynn used to be obsessed with thisup Always the hopeless romantic"
"And you’re not?" He sat down on the couch, propping an elbow on the back cushion
Not anymore Life had beaten that ridiculous notion out of her
"Hardly" She turned and slid theup was Ter effects Four Oscars"
"Plus Sarah Connor was badass I like h or scare the crap out of me That one did a little of both" She lifted her head to peek at the row above her Docuh Hitchcock to require its own section "You’ve got so many Have you actually seen all of these?"
"Every one of them Many more than once" He shifted on the couch to fully face her "I got kind of obsessed with movies when I was a kid"