How the fuck did I allow myself to be talked into this?

Oh that’s right. You jumped at the chance to spend a few hours alone with Sophia, you stupid asshole.

I steered my car into the parking lot of the warehouse Sophia had given me directions to and shut off the engine. To say I was dreading what was to come was a gross understatement.

“Hey! You made it.” Sophia headed my way, a beaming smile on her face as I pushed open my door and climbed out. That gorgeous smile almost made what I was about to endure worth it. Almost.

I scanned the poorly lit parking lot before turning to her, a fierce scowl marring my express. “Were you waiting out here all by yourself?”

Christ, she was sexy, even when she was rolling her eyes at me. “Yes, and I was perfectly safe.”

Like hell. “I don’t know Seattle well, butterfly, but I’m pretty sure it’s safe to assume this is a shit part of town. You shouldn’t have been out here alone. Don’t do it again.”

I hadn’t realized until I stopped barking orders at her that I’d slipped and called her “butterfly.” But as I studied her face for a reaction, I saw that the name didn’t make her tense like it had just a few weeks ago. She didn’t even correct me about using it.

“This neighborhood is perfectly safe, I promise. It just looks a bit sketchy, that’s all.”

She took me by the hand and started pulling me toward the warehouse entrance. Normally my body would’ve reacted to her touch, but I was too focused on the creepy-as-fuck sign hanging above the doorway, warning people to beware. “I can’t believe I let you drag me here,” I muttered under my breath. Leave it to my girl to find one of the only haunted houses that stayed open well past Halloween.

“Come on, Dom. This is going to be so much fun. I haven’t gone to a haunted house in ages!” Her carefree laughter barely worked to melt a bit of the stiffness in my shoulders.

“Having someone shove a toothpick up my pee hole would be more fun than this.”

She burst out laughing at that. When we reached the front of the surprisingly long line, a pimply faced kid with a bored look on his face took my money and directed us inside with a droll wave of his boney hand.

“Swear to God, baby, if I get in trouble for punching someone this time, you’re the one who’s paying the fine.”

With her hand still in mine, she yanked me into the freaking house of terrors. “Aw, don’t worry your scared wittle head. I’ll protect you,” she baby-talked, adding insult to injury. I’d have given her a killing look if I weren’t so busy scoping my surroundings, trying to anticipate where the first nightmare was going to jump out from.

“Ahhh! Son of a bitch!” I shouted, nearly jumping out of my skin when a bastard dressed as a zombie doctor came at us from behind. “Back off, asshole!”

Sophia giggled as the fucker hissed and slunk back to his hiding spot.

We walked farther, the strobe lights and eerie music occasionally broken up by the screams of the other people ahead of us. I could feel myself growing tenser the more we walked. When we passed a hospital scene where a doctor was cutting into a patient who was still alive, I had to swallow down the bile that rose up my throat. “Jesus, Soph, where do you find places like this?”

She smiled brightly. “It’s a talent.”

We’d probably made it three-quarters of the way through, and I wasn’t too proud to admit that I used her as a shield most of the time. I’d done a relatively good job of making it through, only screaming like a chick a handful of times and throwing Sophia at the jackasses who popped out to scare us twice. I was eagerly searching for the exit sign, praying it was close, when it happened.

Some demented fucker in a clown suit wielding a fake chainsaw popped out in front of us and started charging.

“Oh shit,” Sophia yelped.

“Motherfucker!” I yelled. “No! Get away from me!”

But the dickhead didn’t stop.

* * *

“Oh my God!” Sophia doubled over, holding her stomach as she laughed her ass off. “That was… I can’t….” Tears ran freely down her face as I shook out my throbbing hand.

The clown had exchanged the chainsaw for an icepack and was currently staring daggers at me from behind his rapidly swelling nose. “What the fuck, man?”

I held my hands up in surrender. “Look, I said I was sorry, but you wouldn’t stop coming at me.”

“It’s my job!”

I shrugged insolently, only feeling the slightest bit bad for breaking the dude’s nose as I stuffed my hands in the pockets of my jeans. “Maybe you should be in a different line of work. I’m sure I’m not the first to throw a punch.”

Sophia snorted from beside me, her laughter renewed. I refused to look at her; this was her fault after all.

“Look, man, just pay the fine and get outta here,” the pimple-faced kid from the front stated, still sounding as bored as ever.

Despite what I’d told her earlier, there was no way I was letting Sophia pay. I pulled out my wallet and threw enough bills at the kid to pay my fine with a bit extra for the psychotic clown to cover any potential mental distress.

Hooking my arm across Sophia’s shoulders, I began leading her toward the parking lot. “How about some dinner?” I suggested, loving the feel of her pressed against me.

“Oh no you don’t.” She poked my side playfully and grinned up at me. “Have you forgotten the second part of our deal?”

I tossed my head back and groaned. “I was hoping you’d have forgotten. Or were at least willing to cut me a break after the trauma I just endured.”

“Nope.” Her lips popped loudly on the P. “You have a scary movie marathon to make it through before you get your shot at that trophy. Unless”—her expression turned wicked—“you’d like to admit defeat now.”

I scowled down at her and tightened my arms around her shoulders. “Never. My place or yours?”

“Mine,” she offered. “And we can get Chinese takeout.”

“Sounds like a plan.” I dropped my arm and turned to face her, leaning down to press a kiss to the tip of her nose. I didn’t think I’d ever get used to just how beautiful this woman was. “I’ll meet you there.” I started backing away, heading for my car when I spoke one last time. “Oh, and you’re buying dinner. You owe me.”

With a wink, I spun around and hit the button to unlock my car. The rest of my evening might be full of terrible scary movies, but the silver lining was that it would give me an excuse to keep her close.

At least there was that.

* * *

Sophia

I slowly crept back into consciousness, the sleepiness slipping away as I took in my surroundings. I was on my couch, wrapped around Dominic’s large frame. The warmth of his body provided more comfort than any blanket possibly could. I wasn’t sure how long I’d been out; I fell asleep sometime between finishing The Conjuring and starting Abigail, two of my favorite scary movies. I glanced at the TV to see it was still playing, near the end of the movie.

My skin prickled with awareness. My stomach felt like a million popcorn kernels were popping. When I first made my bet with Dominic, I’d done it thinking about nothing more than how fun it would be to see him freak out. He’d always dreaded my love for all things creepy back when we were together, but just like tonight, he’d catered to that love. Sure, he complained endlessly, but he went along with anything and everything I planned.

What I hadn’t counted on was how easily it had been to slip into the routine we’d had over a decade ago. Not once the entire night had I thought about the fact that he’d broken my heart.

And that was what terrified me so much, how easily I was letting him back in and forgetting all about the past.

“Hey.” His gentle voice pulled me from my musings. “You awake?”

I lifted my head from where it rested on his chest. My arm was draped around his waist, all my weight settled into his side. I looked up at him and those honey brown eyes smiled back at me. “Yeah. Sorry. I didn’t mean to fall asleep.”

My body shook as his chuckle vibrated through his chest and into mine. “I’d say it’s all right, but truth is I’ve had to take a piss the past forty-five minutes and have been too scared to move.”

It took a second for his statement to penetrate my sleepy brain, but once it did I burst into an uncontrollable fit of laughter.

His arm around my back squeezed, pressing me tighter into him as I giggled hysterically. “Glad I could amuse you, baby.” His voice was flat, but when I was finally able to get ahold of myself and open my eyes, he was smiling brilliantly.

“Do you need me to go with you? Protect you from any dolls that could pop out of the shadows?”

“Don’t joke about that,” he grumbled irritably. “That fucking thing was creepy as hell.”

I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing again, then stood from the couch so he could get up and go to the bathroom. I took the alone time to pace my living room, unable to stay still thanks to my jumbled emotions. I’d had more fun than I could remember having in a long, long time. I wasn’t ready for the night to end, but at the same time, I was scared of what that meant.

I couldn’t lie to myself any longer. I wasn’t developing feelings for Dominic—they were already completely developed. Hell, they might have just been lying dormant this whole time, waiting to come back to the forefront.

It wasn’t smart. Not at all. In fact, falling for him again was probably the stupidest thing I could possibly do, but I couldn’t help it. Despite the years of pain he’d put me through, I still wanted him.

His footsteps on the hallway floor alerted me to his return, and I quickly tried to bottle up the turbulence swirling around inside of me. “Oh good. You made it back safe and sound,” I teased, trying to lighten my own mood.

“Ha-ha.” He glowered as he stepped closer. “I had a great time tonight, butterfly. You know, in spite of the fact that I won’t be sleeping for a week.”

The sound of my nickname rolling off his tongue warmed my chest, when just a few weeks ago it set me completely on edge and made my veins run cold with ice. I liked hearing it too much to correct him. “I did too,” I replied softly. I wasn’t sure what to do, what to say.

Should I ask him to stay? Should I make him leave? Do I want him to leave?

No. The answer to that last one was a definite no. I wanted him to stay, but before I could say as much, he pulled me into his body in a strong hug, whispering, “Next time we do what I want to do,” in my ear.

And my heart sank.

“You’re leaving?” I couldn’t have hidden the disappointment in my voice if my life had depended on it.

“I think it’s the smart thing to do,” he answered confusingly.

My head cocked to the side, my eyebrows forming a deep V as I studied his gorgeous face. “I don’t even know what that means.” But I did know one thing for sure: the rejection I felt at that very moment stung like a bitch.

But then he spoke again, and what he said was like a balm, soothing that hurt until it disappeared. “It means I want you more than I want my next breath, but you’re still unsure.” I opened my mouth to argue, but he cut me off. “I can see it in your eyes, beautiful. And what we have right now is good. I don’t want to fuck it up. I want the chance to earn your trust back, take that good and turn it into something really fucking great. So I should leave. But I need you to know that I don’t want to.”

I placed my hands on his chest and stared at the dark plum of my fingernails against the light gray of his cotton shirt. “You have a real way with words, Dominic Abbatelli.”

His voice was heated with pleasure as he said, “Good to know. Now give me a kiss goodbye. It’s hard enough walking away from you when I want more, but I can’t leave here without that.”

Fighting him didn’t even cross my mind as I lifted on my toes and gently pressed my lips against his. He kept the kiss restrained, soft. His tongue licked across the seam of my lips, and when I parted them, he slid in at my invitation. But it was just a short, quick taste. That was all I got before he pulled back and released me from his strong embrace. However, it was still enough to make my belly flip.

“Good night, butterfly,” he whispered. “Have sweet dreams.”

“You too, Dom.”

Then he was gone.

And sure enough, when I lay down later that night and drifted to sleep, I had nothing but sweet dreams.