Her Shadows, His Secrets

“That seems lonely. You must be a very lonely man, Theo. Maybe that’s why you’re so cool to everyone other than your sister.” She turns to face the waiter who approaches, and I watch her order. “I’m just going to have a water and the house salad, no dressing.”

Is that a joke?

“Excuse me, she must have fallen and bumped her gorgeous head. She will have the steak with mushroom sauce, a side of the house fries, and a Coors on tap. I’ll have the same,” I speak over her. The waiter says something to us both, but I don’t hear it, too busy watching my puppet fume again. This is fun. I could play this game all fucking night if she let us.

“I was fine with a salad. You didn’t have to take over like you were never taught any manners.”

I take another nut, look up at the screen with the game on it, and respond, “Sure you were. I could tell you were just salivating over it while you ordered.”

“Maybe I’m allergic to mushrooms and hate the taste of fries,” she retorts.

“Are you?” Taking my eyes from the screen, I quirk a brow at her.

She rubs her lips together, her eyes forming slits. “No.”

“Good. Now let’s focus on eating, then I will get to what I brought you here for.”

“Oh, what, you didn’t bring me here to proposition me for sex while manhandling me in the parking lot and picking my food like you’re the founder of the damn patriarchy?”

Goddamn. She’s not fucking submissive. That’s for sure. Breaking her just might be the best part of this whole plan.

CHAPTER TEN

HANNA

I can feel his eyes on me, watching me. And normally, I would say he is judging me, but instead, it’s as if he’s trying to memorize me, learn my habits and movements—understand all my tics.

I ate—but not all the food. I didn’t want to come off as some slob who eats like she won’t get another meal. Theo, however, cleared his plate. How is that fair? I work out—but not intensely. An afternoon walk a couple of times a week. I watch what I drink and basically starve myself to attempt to lose weight. And he can down a hearty, buttery, and calorie-filled meal and still look the way he does.

Science sucks or God has favorites. Either way, I was on the shitty receiving end of creation. We talked a little while eating. He asked me about work and settling into Cherry Hill, and a little about JD.

That is always a sore topic for me. Because the more people I meet and talk to, the more they ask questions about my grandfather that I don’t know the answers to. In turn, this makes me feel even more out of my element and truly uncomfortable. Living in his house, knowing he knew of me and never tried to contact me except in the event of his death, still hurts.

Why wouldn’t he have tried? Did he hate me for some reason, and his last F-you was giving me his home? That way I could feel this? The hurt. The embarrassment. The never ending what-if questions. I guess I’ll never know, since he left me nothing but a giant home, an astronomical amount of money, and two dogs. The most important thing he could have left—answers—are nowhere to be found.

“You think you want to stay here?” Theo breaks the silence, pushing the plates aside for the waiter.

“I think so. I have nowhere else to go.”

“No family back home?”

“I think you know that.” Brenda is a gentle soul. She’s fierce and loud, but I’ve noticed when it comes to others, especially people she considers friends, she is gentle. There is no way she didn’t already tell Theo a little bit about me. Most likely, she would have done it in attempt to make him leave me alone.

“Fair,” he responds.

“Theo…” I’m exhausted over all the cat-and-mouse, back-and-forth crap from tonight. “What do you want? Can you just say it so I can go home?” I came tonight, knowing I would turn him down. But I knew, until I heard him out fully, he wasn’t going to back off.

“You sure? We can make some more small talk before I throw this at you.”

“No. I don’t want to make small talk. It’s pointless. You and I both know that.” I’m not an idiot. I’ve been made to play the poor fat girl all my life, the butt of every sick joke.

“Fine.” Adjusting in his seat, he leans forward, and those honey-brown eyes pierce mine, paralyzing me. “I want you, Hanna. I want to fuck you so goddamn bad. I want you to be mine while I’m here for a job. I want to break you and do very fucked-up, dirty things to that perfect body of yours.”