“I do recall there was one night when I poured you and your friends into the 4Runner and drove you home. You did say I was gorgeous. And hot is another word you used, I believe.”
“Did I say it in the bar?”
He nodded. “Several times. Straddling my lap. You kissed me twice. That was about the time I decided you’d had enough and I was taking you home. I could only take so much. Don’t get me wrong, sweetheart, I was enjoying every second of it, but things were getting out of control.”
She closed her eyes. “I was really hoping all the things I thought about doing to you, I didn’t actually try doing to you.” She opened her eyes. “I did, didn’t I?”
“I just picked you up and hauled your ass to the rig. Believe me, sweetheart, the only one suffering that night was me.”
“And then you nearly got killed the next morning.” She frowned and stroked her fingers over the sketchpad. “Do you remember what happened the weekend before? What we were doing? The nightmares started earlier. If the catalyst really was seeing you and me getting together, then we had to have been showing signs of that earlier in the week, Sam.”
Her stomach muscles knotted. She didn’t want her memory to be the same as the one he might name. She had kept this one sacred moment close to her, something special, when she had so few. She didn’t want to think a serial killer had started murdering because he may have witnessed that “private” intimacy between them.
His expression softened. Sam was hard edges. Hard angles and planes. When he looked at her with that particular look, the one he didn’t give to anyone else, she knew he was hers and he made her feel safe and wanted.
“Stella, we’ve been together for over two years. We go into town together all the time. We buy supplies for the resort. We stand close when we’re looking at your list that is written in some kind of gibberish no one can possibly understand but you. I’ve got my hand on your shoulder or around your waist. You’ve got your hand on my arm when we’re walking. We’re comfortable with each other. We eat together every meal in town unless you’re meeting one of your posse, and half the time I’m sitting at the table three feet from you looking out for you. Everyone knows how I feel about you. Everyone. I make it clear.”
She nodded because everything he said was true. They did go into town together. Sometime over the last couple of years that had just evolved. It still didn’t explain what would have been different enough to trigger someone into becoming a serial killer. But she was afraid she knew. She hoped not, but she was afraid it was their first kiss— the kiss she had initiated.
“How do you make it clear that you feel something for me? No one can read your expression, Sam.” She put it off one more time, struggling to make the killer have other reasons to stalk her.
“Men can read me loud and clear when it comes to you, Stella. There’s a big stay away sign. Haven’t you noticed the lack of males asking you out?”
“I put off vibes that say I’m not interested in dating.”
“Did that stop them three years ago?”
She frowned. “Maybe not. I don’t know. But if you were giving males the warning to stay away in some mysterious bro code that I missed completely for two years, why didn’t the obsessed serial killer start his murder spree back then?”
“Because you were still closed off, sweetheart. You were slowly letting me in, but no one could see it but me. At first he thought we worked together and had to spend a lot of time together. Then we were friends. You have a lot of friends, and quite a few are males. You didn’t seem to treat me much different than you did the others. At first. I suppose our relationship changed over time so slowly that he got used to it, just like you did.”
Her frown deepened. “I don’t understand.”
“A lot of careful planning went into those two years. Looking over your shoulder to read your list, for instance. I’m taller, so I had to bend down. That required putting my hand on your shoulder to steady myself.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “You never lose your balance. Not in any situation.”
For the first time ever, he actually grinned at her, and her heart reacted by nearly skipping a beat.
“No, I don’t typically lose my balance, but I suppose it could happen.”
“You were getting me used to you touching me.”
He raised an eyebrow without a hint of remorse. “It worked. What do they say? All is fair in love and war. Courting you was a little of both.”