AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Great.” Eyes warming with pleasure, he leaned in to press a quick kiss to my lips. “Wear something nice.”
He started to pull away with a happy grin, only to come back and give me a second,longerkiss.
I wrapped my arms around his neck and put everything I had into it.
Damien was breathing hard, and his eyes were slightly unfocused when he stepped back. “Tonight,” he promised before winking and turning away to stroll off.
I heaved up my shoulders and then released a big, dreamy sigh as I watched him go.
But, damn…
He certain knew how to leave girl eager for more—
“Oh my God!”
Yelping out a startled scream, I whirled toward the voice screeching behind me.
When I found Jaylani there, I hissed out my relief and pressed a hand to my heart. “Cheese and crackers, woman. You gave me a heart attack.” Then I remembered…ooh!
“Jay!” I launched myself at her to give her a huge hug. “I can’t believe you’re here! I’ve missed you so much.”
There was a ton I hadn’t told her, too. We needed a serious catch-up sesh.
“Yeah, yeah,” she said distractedly, gripping my arm to yank me off the sidewalk to get out of the way of a group of girls walking past. “Me too. Was that your psycho killer landlord I just saw eating your face?”
“Uh…” I blinked over her accusative tone, only to snap, “You really need to stop calling him that. Damien wouldn’t hurt a fly. And he—”
“Oh my God,” she uttered, clutching her stomach as if nauseated. “You’vesleptwith him, haven’t you?”
“And by the way,” I went on, ignoring that question. “You know all those psychology classes you saw him going to? That’s because he’s a forensic psychologymajor. He wants to catch bad guys, not become one.”
When I rolled my eyes at her, she only snorted and lifted her eyebrows right back at me.
“Or…” she countered. “It’s because he alreadyisa merciless serial killer, and he takes all those classes to learn how to stay hidden so others can’t catch him.”
“Wow.” I heaved out a sigh. “You don’t give up, do you? Listen, he’s only interested in catching murderers because someone close to him was murdered, and the killer was never arrested.”
That finally caused Jay to falter and lower her brows. “Say what now?”
“I think it was his aunt,” I started, only to lift a hand so she didn’t go quoting me on that detail, though I felt pretty confident I was right. “She makes the most sense, anyway. He said it was someone close to him, and she—”
“Wait.” Jay waved her hands to stop me. “Wait, wait, wait. Back up. So someone in his life was seriouslymurdered? Yeah… I need details. Stat.”
I gave them to her eagerly, and the only question she had after hearing everything was, “So he knew who the killer was?”
I squinted. “What?No.” Where had she gotten that idea?
“But he said the killer was never arrested, right?”
“Yeah…” I drew out slowly, squinting at her. She was starting to get on my nerves about this whole situation. “Exactly. Because they don’t know who the killeris.”
She rolled her hand impatiently. “Or… he said it that way—instead of,the killer’s identity was never discovered—because he knew who the murderer was, as in maybe your boy actually did it. And he escaped jail time somehow.”
“Jaylani… Sweetie…” I said, pressing my hands together to beg her. “Damien didn’t kill anyone. He’s becoming a criminal psychologist in the hopes of somedaycatchingthe killer because no one else could figure out who it was. No one knowswhodid it.”
“But—”
“I mean, you just need tomeethim,” I added, lifting my voice to speak over her. “And spend, like, two minutes in his company. Then you’ll understand a hundred percent what I’m saying right now. You’re no longer being cute and funny with this. It’s gone too far. And now, you need to give your paranoia a rest.”
