Chapter Twenty Eight

Thomas and Teegan were enthralled by the action unfolding on the computer screen. The woman’s head bobbed as she struggled to open her eyes. The room had dirt walls.

“Probably underground bunker or some sort of root cellar,” Thomas mused aloud.

The man had covered his face with a black hood. Moving steadily and efficiently, he meticulously wrapped a thick layer of plastic wrap and then a top layer of gauze around the woman, entombing her form from head to toe.

“The hood and the wrapping are both kinks,” Teegan said in a low voice.

“And what do you know about kink?” he whispered.

Teegan could feel the heat starting in her chest and moving up her neck until her cheeks warmed and grew flushed.

“Aw, is little Teegan embarrassed?” It was a taunt, revealing the colder side of her new roommate.

“Are you having fun? At my expense? This whole thing of you running hot and cold has got to stop if we’re going to be roommates.”

“Oh, my innocent little Teegan. We are much more than that. Roommates don’t fuck like we do. Unless they’re friends with benefits and that is definitely not what’s going on here.”

“And just what is going on?”

“You’re mine. That’s what’s going on. Simple.” His look was direct, brooking no argument, before he tilted his chin toward the screen. “Now, watch. We’re trying to catch a killer.”

“You expect me to watch him kill her?”

“Yes, I do. It’s the only way you’ll truly realize just how serious this is.”

As if on cue, the killer wrapped his arms around Evie’s neck and began squeezing. Teegan gasped in horror as the woman’s body twisted and jerked in an unsuccessful attempt to free herself from his merciless hold.

“Oh God…I can’t watch,” Teegan wailed, covering her eyes. She was shocked when her lover tugged her onto his lap. She’d seen enough so he didn’t stop her when she pressed her face against his neck. She’d never seen a dead body before and she’d never witnessed a murder.

Thomas smelled clean, like linen and something crisp and clean with dangerous, mysterious undertones that she couldn’t quite identify. She needed him, and she trusted him to keep her safe. She couldn’t count on anyone else.

There was a dark side to this man who had so thoroughly and unexpectedly bewitched her. On the outside he looked like the epitome of success and prosperity, but beneath that professional façade was a man who would kill to keep her in his arms. It made no sense but she was finding it impossible to put up a meaningful fight to keep her sanity where this man was concerned.

He ran his hand over her long silky hair as if petting her, in a simple reassurance he would protect her and keep her safe. He pressed a kiss to the top of her head and kept his lips there as he spoke softly against her hair. “Teegan, I love you. I don’t know when it happened. I don’t know how it happened. All I do know is that I feel this fist in my chest twisting the breath out of me when I think about losing you. I don’t trust myself when it comes to you. The thought of losing you makes me feel…lonely, in a way that I’ve never felt before.”

“I love you, too. And I’m not going anywhere, Thomas.”

“No, you’re not,” he said, his voice grim.