She was his sister. It was his sister. The girl was his fucking sister. When I turned and saw Levi Strickland with a woman on his arm, a different one than the one I had seen him with the last time I’d been at the house, I was just about ready to cry. Cry, scream, anything to get him to leave me alone.

The last girl, the blonde—that definitely was not his sister. The one he walked in with, that beautiful girl, once he mentioned they were related, I sort of saw it. Their hair was the same, well, it looked like it would be the same once his grew back in; black and thick. The eyes. She was lovely. She was so nice; how were they siblings? And Levi too, how could he stand there introducing me to his sister like he hadn’t asked me to join him and his girlfriend in bed the last time I saw him?

Did she know? Did his sister know? Were they just there to laugh at me? Is that something you talked to your siblings about? I didn’t know. I was getting carried away. I had work to do.

The appraisal. Yes, that was why I was there. I had to get a good idea of what was in there; numbers, sizes, weights, so we could arrange the shipping.

This place was my wet dream. I’d been so bitter about having to go to Marin but who knew Jackson Strickland lived like this? Architecturally it was a nightmare. Unabashedly hideous. It had definitely been heavily modified but wouldn’t you too when you had a collection that extensive? I hadn’t even finished seeing everything yet. There was a whole other level upstairs.

Jackson Strickland was me. We were the same person. Why did he live in my dream house? Why had this dead man literally lived my best life? How many years had it taken to collect everything? How much money had he spent on art and antiques in his life?

I walked into what looked like yet another living room and was stopped cold. The room, from the floor to the walls, covering all the shelves was filled with taxidermy. Given the money and resources; I would live like this. I loved taxidermy. Insects were all I could afford to fit in my apartment and afford financially, but now I had something to aspire to. I walked through the room. The walls were off-white. Stag and antelope heads looked down at you from wall mounts. He had everything in there—birds, cats, bears, freestanding mounts, wall mounts.

A peacock perched on what looked like an artificial tree in one corner. I reached out a hand to touch its brilliant tail feathers. Two to five thousand dollars easy, I thought. Two thousand would be its fucking starting bid. It was perfect.

“Do you like them?”

I jumped hearing a male voice, wheeling around, snatching my hand from the bird. It was Max. He walked into the room. He had on a black button-down shirt and pants.

“Huh?”

“Do you like it?” he asked again, tilting his head towards the peacock.

“Your father had quite the collection. Are you sure you or any of your family members don’t want to keep any of it?”

“No. Not really my taste,” he said walking up to me. “What about you?” I looked at him. This was probably something like what Jackson Strickland had looked like when he was younger. He was pretty tall, his hair coppery red. It reminded me of Brandon a little—no fault of his. If his father had just died, he had just inherited an obscene amount of money. Not the house, though. I wondered why.

He had asked me a question. Did I tell the man that I collected dead insects or not? It sounded so gross when you said it like that.

“I appreciate it as an art form,” I said quietly. I ran my hand over a bell-shaped dome with taxidermy blue butterflies in it. Morphos didius butterflies. Their wings were iridescent blue, frozen like they were in flight. It was gorgeous.

“You can have that if you want,” he said. Have what? The dome? No.

“What? I couldn’t.”

I could. I could. I could.

“I insist. It will just end up at auction, anyway.”

“Where it is supposed to end up. I can’t take this.”

“Consider it a gift. I want you to have it. Take it.”

“I can’t just take items from lots that appeal to me,” I said laughing. That was called theft. Auction houses worked on a sort of honor system. A typical lot could value in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Consignors basically trusted you not to make off with their stuff. I tried to temper the envy and just enjoy it. When would I ever? No, I would likely never get to hang a Joan Miro original on my wall, but I could help hang them on other people’s walls.

“You said we could take whatever we didn’t want auctioned off? I want that, and I want to give it to you,” he said, smiling easily. I shook my head smiling. Another voice interrupted us before I could reply to him.

“Max! There you are. Your mother just tried to jump into Dad’s casket.”

I didn’t need to turn to see who it was who had just walked into the room. It was him. I smiled at Max before scooting past him to look at another piece. It was a freestanding white lion. Incredibly lifelike. Museum quality. It couldn’t have been more than five years old. The lion’s mouth was open, and all its teeth were perfectly intact. Fifty grand, easy.

I put as much distance as I could between the men and myself without looking like I was trying to run away. I was, but I was going to do it a little more stealthily this time. The arrangement of the pieces in the room made it difficult to maneuver. When the conversation ceased, I didn’t look to see what had happened. Natural. I was trying to act natural. I was there to do a job.

The footsteps were slow but steady, coming towards me. I found myself standing very still, the way you were supposed to when cornered by a predator. I knew it was him, I fucking knew it. I could feel him, almost; his presence felt like it literally took up space.

“Do you do that a lot?” he asked. I took a deep breath before turning to look at him. He walked up to me. His eyes looked me up and down.

“What?”

“Take things that don’t belong to you?”

I was blank.

“I don’t know what you’re referring to.”

“The butterflies? Everything in this house belongs to me. Max has no right to pass things off to people,” he said.

“I’m sorry,” I said thinking it wasn’t worth it to defend myself. I wasn’t going to take it. I couldn’t, but I didn’t want to engage him any more than I needed to.

“Do you want it?” he asked. I opened my mouth then shut it again. Was there some way I could answer this question incorrectly? It was a direct question, a yes or no would have sufficed, but I didn’t like knowing what he was going to say in response to either of those. The truth? Yes, I wanted it. It was gorgeous. I was willing to bet it was old too, nineteenth century at least from the weight and density of the dome.

“Nope,” I said shortly. I turned away from him. I had to leave; I wasn’t doing this with him again.

“You can have it, all you have to do is ask,” he said. I turned. He was smiling, not really that, like smirking a little bit. He looked mischievous like he was playing a trick. What would he do if I said yes? I shook my head.

“No. Thank you.”

“Why are you embarrassed? You wanted it from Max, but not from me?”

“Mr. Strickland, I should really get back to work,” I said. I didn’t know when the dead Mr. Strickland’s funeral was, but it was best if the auctions followed as soon after the ceremony as possible.

“Stop that. Bashfulness is not attractive,” he said. Speechless, once again. Did he just neg me? “You don’t get things by pretending you don’t want them, Audra,” he said, coming up to me. I wanted to move, but space was a little limited. If I did move, I would back into a giant albino moose. It was heavy, but I didn’t want to risk any damage lowering its potential price.

“Of course not,” I said.

“Why’d you say no to me?” he asked.

“I don’t want the dome.”

“No. When Debbie was here. Why didn’t you come join us?” he asked. He was too close. I hazarded a step backward but stopped myself. He would just get closer. He was brazen; he had proven that already. Running away would only make him chase me.

“Am I the first girl that’s ever told you no?” I said, whispered. Really, I barely got it out. He smirked when I did, though.

“You don’t get that honor. It doesn’t matter what you said. You don’t mean it. I know what you want,” he said.

“Hm, presumption. That’s not attractive, Mr. Strickland,” I said, using his line on him. He scoffed and leveled his gaze with mine. He moved closer, so our bodies nearly touched. He smelled like something delicious, masculine and expensive.

“You’re doing it again,” he said. His hand went to the back of my neck. I gasped. He was practically scruffing me. This was how the vet held the cats when they had to get shots. “You don’t get what you want if you don’t ask for it. Unless of course, you take it,” he said.

I couldn’t say anything back because his mouth crashed down over mine. His tongue was insistent against my closed lips. I felt paralyzed until I felt the pain. His hand pulled the hair at the back of my neck as he held me steady, hard enough to make me part my lips to protest. He deepened the kiss immediately, pushing his tongue into my mouth. His other arm circled my waist and held me flush to his solid body, nearly lifting me off my feet.

My hands fisted handfuls of his shirt. His kiss was like a jolt through my body. I couldn’t stop myself from responding. My first instinct was to push away. Was Debbie his girlfriend? If she was, I couldn’t do this with him. Between his scent and his hold, I felt he completely surrounded me. The only place I lacked him was inside of me.

Another tug. I moaned into the kiss feeling his hand squeeze my ass. I ran my hands up his back, over his nape and the back of his head. His shaved head felt bristly under my fingers. I felt heat course through me. Both of us were fully dressed, but I felt like every time he touched me, it was on my bare skin.

“Lee? Levi, are you in here?”

My eyes flew open. I pushed against him to get him to stop. It was a woman who had called for him. I didn’t know whether she could see us, but I couldn’t see her. It was enough that she was in the room, however, so I left, or at least tried to. Levi’s hand grasped my wrist.

“We’re back here, Mom,” he called. If I wasn’t embarrassed before I was mortified now. His mother? I tried to move again, but he pulled me back into him. I looked up into his eyes.

“Let me go,” I said. His thumb ran along my lower lip; I bet it was swollen from the kiss.

“You don’t want me to,” he said. He kissed me again, holding my face in his hand. Slower that time but it made me just as hot. We separated, and I watched his face morph from predatory and lustful to neutral and calm.

“Mom,” he said, straightening up and smiling at whoever was behind me. I turned and saw a raven-haired woman in a black dress and heels. His mother. She looked like an older version of his sister, very beautiful and exotic looking. “This is Audra Francini; she’s from the auction house.”

“Audra, you’ll be helping us get this madhouse under control,” she said offering her hand for me to shake. I was so flustered I had forgotten to myself. I shook hers and tried to remember what she’d just said.

“Yes, Mrs. Strickland. I’m so sorry for your loss,” I said. She shrugged her slim shoulders and tilted her head to the side.

“He was ill for a long time. Now he can finally rest.”

“We’re working to get the things all cleared out of the house as soon as possible.” Her son’s hand was on the small of my back. I wondered whether she could see.

“Do tell me if there’s anything I can do to help,” she said.

“Is there any chance that Mr. Strickland had accompanying documents and cites for any of the items?” I asked.

“I used to keep a lot of them for him, but I don’t know whether he kept up with it after the divorce.” I blanched. The divorce? I’d just called her Mrs. Strickland.

“Oh my God, I didn’t realize you had parted. I’m sorry-”

“It’s alright, really. Come with me. Levi, they need you in the great room,” she said.

He told her he’d go. He turned to me and offered his hand for me to shake before he left like he hadn’t just had his tongue down my throat. I shook it, afraid of what he’d do in front of his mother if I didn’t.

“You’ve been sending all my messages to Max. He might have gotten the auction house, but this house is mine. Kindly make sure you contact me directly next time,” he said professionally. I thought women were the only ones who swung hot and cold like that.

“Yes sir,” I said shortly. He smirked, and for a second I thought he would kiss me again. He released my hand and nodded at his mother before leaving the room, just like that. His mother was nearly out of the room before I remembered she had asked me to follow her.