Page 19 of Come A Little Closer

“I’m sure Sayra told you all sorts of fun things about me.”

“No,” she said quickly, but it was too fast.

I cocked an eyebrow at her as I showed her around the upper level of the house. “Good try, but no dice. What’d she tell you? I’d love to know the latest juicy gossip about myself.”

“It’s nothing really,” she said. “We mostly talked about what it was like working for the company. She seems happy, which is an encouraging sign given how long she’s been with you.”

“Well, I suppose I should just take the win, then.” I had noticed she’d answered my question by deflecting a little, but I let it slide. I didn’t want to make her uncomfortable by pushing too hard. “Sayra is a good person at the company for you to befriend, actually. She knows how we operate and she’s been working the festivals almost since the first one I put on.”

“I’ll be sure to remember that.”

I led her into the theater room. She suddenly came to an abrupt stop, smoothing out her black shirt as if trying to give her hands something to do while her teeth sank into her lower lip.

I almost groaned at the sight of her biting that part of her flesh I wanted so badly to nibble on myself, but I shook myself out of it and gave her a questioning look instead. “What is it?”

“I, uh, I just realized you have an actual theater. When you said you had one, I think I kind of thought of it as just another TV room, but this is not that.”

I chuckled, but I liked that she was finally starting to realize who she was dealing with. She seemed suitably impressed, which was great. It was what I’d been aiming for. Unfortunately, she still didn’t seem intimidated.

This was something else that looked a lot like the first traces of her arousal, which was unfortunate because there wasn’t anything I could do about it.

No, that can’t be right. She can’t be turned on by a theater room. Unless she’s turned on by the idea of watching movies in here with me. In the dark.

I motioned at the fridge. “Feel free to help yourself to anything you’d like to drink or eat. I’ll get the movie ready. Have you given any thought to what you’d like to watch?”

“The Blair Witch Project if you have it,” she said. “I’ve been taking some walks around the plantation and I’ve got some ideas, but it’s been a while since I’ve seen the movie. I’d just like to get the details clearer in my head.”

“You got it,” I agreed and grabbed a soda for myself before I headed over to one of the two chairs in the center of the front row.

Sitting down, I popped my footrest out and then reached into the compartment between the recliners for the remote. Tallulah loaded up on snacks and chose an orange soda for herself before coming over to sit down right next to me.

As soon as she was seated, I turned out the dim lights with the remote and started the movie. I liked to think I didn’t scare easily, but as we watched and while she was busy taking notes, I almost jumped out of my chair a few times.

By the end of it, I was tense as hell, sweaty, and really not enjoying myself anymore. I wonder what she’s going to torture me with next.

“Did you get everything you wanted from that?” I asked, hoping my voice didn’t give away just how on edge I was right then.

Tallulah shrugged. “I think so. I might watch it again in a couple days just to be sure, but I’ve definitely got a clearer idea now than I did before. Can you find The Conjuring next?”

And that’s about it for me. I did my best not to show it, though. “Sure. What do they conjure up in that movie?”

She shrugged. “Nothing, now that I think about it. Other than about a billion dollars in ticket sales.”

I laughed and nodded. “I can’t argue with results like that.”

I searched for the movie and never before had I been so pissed at myself for subscribing to every service imaginable. I didn’t even have to look hard to find the damn movie, and since she didn’t move, there was no getting away from the fact that I had, in fact, found it.

Fuck.

Pressing play, I settled back in my seat, but from the word go, still creeped out from the previous movie, my teeth were practically chattering. I glanced at her, sitting calmly by my side, and wondered for the umpteenth time just what the hell was wrong with this woman.

She was tossing pieces of popcorn into her mouth, munching on them seemingly without a care in the world. Every so often, she reached for her notebook on the chair beside her and jotted down a bunch of notes before setting it down again.

Meanwhile, I had to fight the constant urge to cover my eyes. Fuck knows how I’m going to sleep tonight, but the lights are staying on. That’s for damn sure.

About halfway through, as I closed my eyes instead of covering them, she suddenly reached for the remote between us and hit the pause button. When I looked at her, she spoke before I could even ask what was going on.

“Why are you so scared?”