Page 20 of Come A Little Closer

“I don’t get scared,” I lied.

She rolled her eyes at me, then arched a steep eyebrow and pursed her lips as she ran her gaze across my face. “You’ve been terrified since about fifteen minutes into the first movie and you look like you’re about to crawl out of your own skin.”

“You’re entitled to your opinion,” I muttered, but she might’ve had a point.

She cocked her head to one side. “Just tell me why you’re so scared. We don’t have to watch it if you don’t want to. You said you were interested in watching these with me, but if you’ve changed your mind, why don’t you choose something else and I’ll just watch the rest by myself at home? I’ve already seen this like ten times.”

As I stared into those eyes, I realized I had some questions of my own, so I decided to throw it back at her. “Why aren’t you scared? Why do you love all this super scary stuff, but you’re afraid of the dark, of all things?”

“I’m not afraid of the⁠—”

I gave her a look that clearly said I wasn’t buying it. “I saw your face when you came down those stairs the other night, Tallulah. I heard you scream, remember? You were petrified and I know it wasn’t of the storm, because when we were watching it together, you were fine again.”

Her chin came up defensively, but the longer she stared at me, the more that initial instinct to deny it seemed to drain out of her. Eventually, she exhaled and gave me a one-shouldered shrug. “I just don’t like being alone. That’s the gist of it. When you’re in the dark, it’s just you. You’re alone. No matter how many people are around you, if you can’t see them, it’s like they’re not there at all.”

Shit. Instantly, I felt bad. “I’ve been alone for most of my life. I guess you get used to it eventually.”

“It shouldn’t be that way,” she said quietly, but something told me I’d struck a nerve.

Unsure of what to say, I reached for the remote and turned the movie back on. With my thoughts back to being mostly on her, I found my attention drifting so much that I tuned out the rest of the story completely.

All along, I’d suspected that there was a lot more to Tallulah than met the eye, but this was the first time my suspicion had been confirmed. Of course, there was a lot more to most people than met the eye, but it was different with her.

It was almost like her tough, sexy, bubbly, always-happy exterior was a cover for some kind of darkness lurking either within her or in her past.

I just don’t like being alone.

As those words repeated through my head on a loop, I concluded that whatever it was, it was in her past. She wasn’t some kind of serial killer after all. Something had happened that had made her feel alone, and she hadn’t liked it much.

When the movie was over, the sound of her clearing her throat made me refocus on reality instead of all the different scenarios running through my mind about what might have happened to her. “I should get ready to go back to the plantation.”

“It’s a long drive,” I said, quickly checking my watch. “It’s pretty late. You’re welcome to stay if you’d like.”

With both of us still sitting in our armchairs, I hadn’t realized how close we’d gotten to one another until I noticed her glancing at my lips. While I’d been lost in thought, it seemed I’d leaned toward her, and when I’d turned to look at her after she’d cleared her throat, it’d put my face only about an inch away from hers.

Because she’d wound up leaning toward my side as well and neither of us had moved.

With her tongue peeking out from between her lips, she suddenly shook her head. “It’s probably not a good idea for me to stay.”

She was still staring at my mouth, and I swore my body turned molten at the realization. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”

Even as the words left my mouth though, I was leaning in and so was she, and then we were kissing and all thoughts of her leaving flew right out of my head. My blood turned hotter than the surface of Venus when my lips crashed into hers, my cock suddenly doing its best impression of a tree.

I hadn’t been planning for this to happen, and yet somehow, it felt like it had always been inevitable. Ever since that very first time I’d found her in the hallway—at the end of which she would’ve found a second set of stairs that led up to my bedroom.

That day, as soon as I laid eyes on her, I’d wanted to drag her up there with me. Right now, I had a feeling we weren’t even going to make it that far, but the rumors of someone being chained to a bed in this house might just turn out to be true after all.

If I ever did get Tallulah there, I just wasn’t sure I’d be able to let her leave. Not when even just kissing her could make me feel so much more than doing everything with someone else ever had.

9

TALLULAH

Niall’s lips were soft but firm against mine, his kisses hard and hungry. I had no clue how we ended up here after just agreeing literally a few seconds ago that it wasn’t a good idea for me to stay, but that wasn’t enough to make me pull away.

The fact of the matter was that I’d wanted to kiss him, and I’d wanted him to kiss me. Those lips had been taunting me since the first time I’d seen him, and I’d been wanting to push my fingers into his hair for just as long.

Now that the moment had arrived, it didn’t disappoint. My hands moved of their own accord, my fingertips sliding across the strong contours of his face before I slid them into his hair. It was thick and longer than I’d ever realized, giving my fingers plenty of silky surface area to hang onto.