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“You do?” she murmured.
“I do.”
She licked her lips and appeared hesitant before she finally said, “Let’s go back to my place and just see what happens.”
“All right,” I said. She was being cautious, and I could respect that. I wouldn’t push, but I wouldn’t back down from the opportunity she was granting me.
I helped her right her clothes, and when I reached for her hand, she didn’t shy away. We walked back to my car, and I held her door as she slid into the passenger’s seat. When I got into the driver’s side, I noticed immediately a significant difference in the atmosphere from when I’d picked her up. There wasn’t nearly so much tension as there had been before, and what tension there was sprang mostly from the tempered sexual desire burning between us.
As we drove back to her house, we didn’t touch each other, but I wanted to. I kept my hands firmly on the steering wheel, not wanting to invade her space while she decided what she wanted to happen between us when we got back to her house.
“I don’t want there to be any confusion between us,” she said, breaking the silence.
“I know,” I assured her. “I have no expectations one way or another, Sam.”
“Okay.” She was nervous and needed to talk her way through this. I’d help her do whatever she needed to. Answer whatever questions she asked, or give her whatever assurances she needed. “Okay, I just want to make sure we’re on the same page, all right? If this happens, it doesn’t mean we’re together.”
“I understand.”
“Good, that’s good,” she murmured. “II just want us to be sure…”
I reached over and took her hand, finally breaking the invisible barrier between us.
“Sam, I promise, I don’t want to put any pressure on you,” I told her. “On this. Whatever this is, or whatever you want it to be. All right?”
She looked at me and gave me a small, relieved smile.
“All right. Thank you for letting me ramble and freak out a bit.”
I grinned at her. “You can ramble and freak out with me whenever you want.”
She chuckled and shook her head. “You’re ridiculous, you know that?”
“You kind of like it, though, don’t you?”
She shrugged. “Maybe I do.”
We reached her house at that moment, and I hurried out of the car to help her out as well, pulling her in for a quick kiss. She laughed and kissed me back. Slipping my arm around her shoulders, I turned us back around to her house, and we began walking to her porch. When we reached the first step leading up to it, though, I froze, and Sam let out a startled gasp.
We both stared, stunned, at the slashes of red paint staining her front door. There were no words written, only violent looking marks, like streaks of blood.
“What the hell?” Sam whimpered, clinging to me. “Who would do this?”
I hugged her tight, and my stomach clenched. I didn’t know who could have done this, but I instinctively knew it wasn’t meant for Sam. It was meant for me.
Chapter twenty
Samantha
“Doyouhaveanyidea who might have done this, Sam? Any enemies? Any ex-boyfriends you might have upset in some way?”
I shook my head at Officer Martin, who was standing in my living room taking my statement. Ryan and I sat on my couch while other cops inspected the house and collected whatever evidence they could. Squeezing my hand, Ryan gave me a look I couldn’t quite understand, but I appreciated that he was there. God, I don’t know what I would’ve done if I’d come home alone and found the door looking the way it did.
Shit, what if I hadn’t gone out at all? Would whoever had done this have done more than vandalize my front door?
I shivered and shook my head. “I have no idea who might have done this. I don’t have any exes, and I don’t think I have any enemies.”
“It could just be a prank,” another officer said, moving to stand next to Martin. “Some kids going around, thinking it’s funny to freak out residents in the neighborhood or something.”
