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I began to eat while King went through the stations on the television. Then, he pressed something, and Netflix came up. I didn’t know how he had done that, but it didn’t really matter. I rarely watched the television. I preferred books.
“Action, romance, thriller, horror—what’s your preference?” he asked me.
I finished chewing and swallowed before replying, “Doesn’t matter. Whatever you want to watch.”
A loud clap of thunder outside, followed by hard rain that was blowing against the east side of the house, startled me.
King raised his eyebrows. “Might not matter soon. I doubt the electricity out here holds out for long.”
I continued to eat, and he put the remote down, then stood up and went to a window to observe. The lightning outside was so bright that it lit up the living room brighter than the lamp in here ever did. The thunder that trailed it was startling as it vibrated through the house.
“I’ll unplug the television. Wouldn’t want that to get hit,” he said to me before going over to it. “Do you have anything important plugged up? Computer?”
I shook my head. The only computer I had ever been allowed to use was the desktop that Hill had put in the office. Not his office, just the office in the house. One that was rarely used.
King walked through the rest of the small house before returning to the sofa and sitting back down. “Everything looks good,” he informed me, then picked up his burger. “So, what do you think of the burger?”
“It’s delicious,” I assured him.
His pleased grin before he took another bite was mesmerizing. Jerking my gaze off him, I stared down at my food before reaching for my glass of wine and taking a long drink.
“Weather making you nervous?” he asked.
I shrugged. “A little,” I lied.
With King here, I wasn’t even thinking about the weather. I was too focused on how close he was sitting, how good he smelled, and how he made me almost lightheaded when he smiled.
He took the bottle of wine and filled my almost-empty glass this time. “Drink up,” he said, then nodded toward the glass. “You’ll be relaxed in no time.”
Wanting that to be true, I drank some more.
King took a fork and jabbed it into the fries, then held it out to me. “You haven’t tried these.”
Obediently, I opened my mouth, and he slipped the fork inside. I was sure I had never been fed before. It was almost as if someone was taking care of me. I liked it. I shouldn’t, but I did.
His blue eyes watched me closely as I chewed. He was right; these were really good. The buffalo sauce and what I assumed was goat cheese since it didn’t have a strong bite to it mixed well together. I swallowed, then smiled at him, unable not to. He looked so anxious to know what I thought.
“Wonderful,” I told him, although that was probably too strong of an adjective. Being fed by him was the wonderful part.
The lights flickered as rain beat against the windows and thunder rolled across the sky.
King set the fork down and stood back up. “We are gonna need some light soon,” he said, then headed in the direction of the bedroom.
I heard a door open and figured it had to be the closet. Then, I heard something else open and waited, staring at the doorway for him to reemerge. The doors closed, and then he came walking back in with two oil lamps.
He held them up. “I’ll get these lit.”
Those had not been in the closet. I would have seen them before.
“Where did you find those?” I asked him.
“Secret storage inside the closet,” he replied before he disappeared with them into the kitchen.
I hadn’t known about a secret storage inside the closet. He hadn’t shown me that when he gave me the tour. Why did they have it, and what all was in it? Just lanterns? That seemed odd.
Both lanterns were lit when he returned to the living room, and he set one down on the coffee table and another on the table where the television sat. He was almost back to the sofa when the electricity went off with the newest round of thunder.
“Just in time,” he said as he sank back down on the sofa beside me.
