I wanted so desperately to take the focus off me and move it back to him. I wanted to learn everything about this man.
He must have sensed my body tensing. “Don’t you dare,” he said.
I wiggled my eyebrows. “On your marks.”
We grinned at each other.
“One more lap,” he said.
“Fine.”
“And one more thing, and this is really important—” He dunked his head and shot off the wall.
“Cheater!” I yelled, but he was already gone.
Chapter 19
Fear holds you back.
KIM
The swim with Devlin was cleansing. When we were relaxed around each other it felt like we were old friends. That’s how it felt being with the SWS. The girls and I could go months without meeting up—once we even went almost a year—but then the second we were back together, it was like no time had passed. With Devlin too it was as though our souls were old friends. Only my evolving desire for him felt new.
The shower that followed our swim melted my bones. I fell into bed in a pair of his sweatpants and the T-shirt I’d worn the night before. I was just on that happy verge of sleep when a bang rattled the house. It cracked through the air out of nowhere.
My eyes shot open with my heart pounding in my ears. My arms gripped the comforter as though they could keep me from whatever danger approached. My sleep-addled brain couldn’t comprehend the sound until a second later when the room lit up as lightning flashed, followed immediately by a clap of thunder that rattled the windows.
I flipped over to scream in the pillow, kicking my legs. I was so tired. My body was desperate for sleep but—
CRASH!
It wasn’t that the thunder scared me. It just stirred up memories from that final night at camp. Normally, I’d just crank up the music or put on headphones. But I didn’t have my headphones.
A second later, I chucked off the blankets and ran into the hall. The lights flickered with the next flash and crash. I yelped and gripped the wall. I wasn’t scared. It had startled me. There was a difference. This was fine. I was totally fine. I might just wander the house to see if Devlin was awake or go to the music room and play. Not that I needed company but—
Another flash and rattling boom.
“Eep!” I quickened my pace. The living room was the central point of the house. I’d make my way there and decide what to do next. Where did Devlin sleep? Not that I was going to bother him; I just wanted to make sure he was around.
He had to have a bedroom. An image of him hanging upside down like a bat in his music room flashed through my eyes. But no, if anything, he probably didn’t sleep. He probably just hunched over his giant piano composing brilliant music while the rest of us mere mortals slept.
The living room was cold and dark. The fireplace sat empty. The whole room loomed large in the dark. Thankfully, his fancy house was full of motion detecting lights. The first few scared me but after feeling my way into a couple rooms the automatic lights brought me comfort. If I could find the remote for the sound system, I’d play some loud music and wait for the storm to blow over. It wouldn’t be like I was alone at all.
Despite the lights coming on and the sound of crashing rain against the windows, I was still very aware that this was a huge house. Somebody else could be living here, and I wouldn’t know. Devlin had to have people who cleaned and cooked while he locked himself away for hours at a time. What if he had a humpbacked assistant that would come lurking around a corner, dragging a leg behind him?
Chills wracked my body. Seriously, where the cluck was this man’s room?
I hated how scared I felt. I hated that I was basically a little child. I hated that I wished more than anything I was home where I could knock on my parent’s bedroom door. I was an adult, for crying out loud. An adult who was so sick and tired of being alone.
A loud thump somewhere behind me injected me with adrenaline. The lights flickered again. Back-up generator. It would be fine. I wouldn’t be in the dark. I made my way back to the fireplace and picked up a fire poker. Gretchen had instilled the comfort of wielding heavy objects in me.
Another thump and soft shuffles.
“Oh my God,” I whispered.
My fear ratcheted up to brain-clogging hysteria.
Something was getting nearer. I backed up until I was tucked behind the corner of a long hallway. Only one way in. Along with a wicked sense of curiosity, I had been cursed with an overactive imagination, and now all I could picture was a serial killer that had been hiding in the house for months headed toward me with murder on their mind.
