Chapter 8

8

NIALL

W hy am I freaking out like I’ve never been on a date before when this isn’t even a date?

Standing in front of the full-length mirror in my dressing room, I fixed my tie, loosening it a little so I didn’t look like I was on my way to a funeral.

This was ridiculous, but I was genuinely nervous for Tallulah’s arrival.

My heart had even done a little twist when I’d called to find out if she was ready. As if my entire existence had hinged on her saying yes. On the other hand, inviting a woman over to my house was out of character for me. I honestly never brought women here unless it was for a one-night-stand after picking them up in some posh club.

I didn’t do dinners or lunches, or even breakfast after the night before. I hardly ever hung out with women unless it was a business meeting, and that didn’t really count as hanging out. I’d never had a casual movie night or a hookup with a coworker, and yet, I was looking forward to doing exactly that with Tallulah. I just didn’t understand why I was doing it or why I was so nervous about it.

After turning away from the mirror, I strode out of my bedroom and headed to my in-house theater to make sure it was up to snuff. As if I hadn’t done that three times already in the last hour.

As I walked in, I leaned against the door and looked around, surveying the space once more like it was the first time I was seeing it. I wanted to look at it as if through her eyes now, attempting to figure out what she would think when she walked in here.

Large, reclining armchairs took up most of the space in the room, with a snack counter running along one of the side walls. Underneath it was a fridge that I kept stocked with all kinds of drinks, and tucked right into the corner, I’d recently added a popcorn machine.

Since I’d switched that on before I’d gone to grab a shower, the room was starting to smell like fresh popcorn and the lights were already turned down low. I nodded slowly as I looked it over from top to bottom, but I was satisfied we had everything we needed. I also thought there was a chance I might impress her tonight which, for some godforsaken reason, felt important to me.

As I headed downstairs and started puttering around to kill the time until she got here, I was lost in thought. Tallulah had been heavy on my mind all week, and that was new for me too.

All of it was new for me, but perhaps the most disconcerting was it crossed so many of the boundaries I’d set up for myself. I’d been a bachelor for my entire life and I liked it that way, but simultaneously, watching a movie or two with someone felt like a nice change of pace.

I’d always been set in my ways, though. Changing it up didn’t come naturally, nor had I ever done it for anyone else.

The front door opened and I heard my driver’s voice filtering into the kitchen from the foyer. “Have a good evening, ma’am.”

“Thank you,” she replied, sounding surprisingly shy.

It made me smile, knowing I wasn’t the only one who was feeling a little out of sorts this evening. Tallulah had hardly struck me as the kind of person to be shy, so I knew she was probably second-guessing our arrangement for this evening as much as I had been.

Thankfully though, she’d shown up and I hadn’t canceled. Something we had in common, it seemed, was pushing through the discomfort simply to rise to the challenge of having escaped our comfort zones.

Feeling instantly more at ease, I left the kitchen and met her in the foyer just as the driver was shutting the door behind him. “You know, I was wondering if you were going to follow through with this.”

She spun to face me, a smile appearing on her lips, but not before I’d seen the nerves in her eyes. “It’s for work, right?”

“Of course,” I said easily, motioning for her to proceed me. “Can I give you a tour or would you like a drink first?”

“I’ve already had a tour, remember?” she teased lightly. “That’s how we met.”

“How could I forget?” I allowed my tone to match hers for once, happy to banter with her now that we were alone, off the clock, and on my home turf. “It’s not often that I happen upon beautiful women skulking around my halls.”

“You thought Cathy was beautiful?” she asked without hesitation.

I shook my head. “I suppose she was fine too.”

Tallulah’s hazel eyes widened and a rosy flush spread across her cheeks. “Oh.”

A smirk started creeping onto my lips until I remembered that she was supposed to be just an employee here to do research for the festival. I cleared my throat. “In any event, you haven’t seen the more private spaces yet. That’s the tour I was offering. The parts of the house the public guides aren’t authorized to go into.”

“Like the bedrooms?” she guessed, glancing at me with something not-so-professional in her eyes.

Lust suddenly burned in my veins when I realized it was a flicker of flirtation. Perhaps even an invitation, but I swallowed past the desire and nodded. “The upstairs bedrooms, yes. There’s also my office, several living areas, the kitchen, and the theater.”

“Right.” She blinked a few times rapidly, the flirtation gone and replaced with what I assumed was professional interest when she smiled up at me. “Of course, I’d love to see them.”

I contemplated taking her arm for the tour but eventually, I just stuck to her side and slid my hands into my pockets so I wouldn’t give into the temptation. “Now that your first week is done, what do you think of your new job?”

She shrugged, but she couldn’t really hide her excitement from me. It lit her whole face, making her seem radiant in the low light of my passage. “It’s okay. It’s been really fun. I met another one of the guides today and she was nice. We had dinner.”

“Sayra?” I guessed. It was an educated one though, considering that she’d been doing the Saturday tours at the Carmichael Plantation for a number of years.

Tallulah’s lips parted in surprise, but then she giggled. “Of course, you know her. Sorry, I’m not sure why I was surprised.”

I winked at her, surprising myself more than she’d just surprised herself, I was sure. “She is nice. I agree. I should’ve thought to introduce you two.”

She nudged my elbow with her own as we walked. “Oh, you think she’s nice, do you? Do you also know that she’s taken?”

I frowned. “Yes. Andrew, if I’m not mistaken. I’ve met him on a number of occasions. He’s nice too.”

It was only as I said it that it occurred to me that she’d sounded a little jealous, which I liked far more than I should’ve. My hands twitched in my pockets, begging me to let them reach for her and show her just how nice I thought she was, but I held back.

Alone with her in a great big house with no chance of interruption for the second time in just one week was proving to be a little more challenging than I’d expected, however. It was inappropriate to even be thinking that way, but I certainly felt like there was some kind of chemistry between us.

“I’m sure Sayra told you all sorts of fun things about me.”

“No,” she said quickly, but it was too fast.

I cocked an eyebrow at her as I showed her around the upper level of the house. “Good try, but no dice. What’d she tell you? I’d love to know the latest juicy gossip about myself.”

“It’s nothing really,” she said. “We mostly talked about what it was like working for the company. She seems happy, which is an encouraging sign given how long she’s been with you.”

“Well, I suppose I should just take the win, then.” I had noticed she’d answered my question by deflecting a little, but I let it slide. I didn’t want to make her uncomfortable by pushing too hard. “Sayra is a good person at the company for you to befriend, actually. She knows how we operate and she’s been working the festivals almost since the first one I put on.”

“I’ll be sure to remember that.”

I led her into the theater room. She suddenly came to an abrupt stop, smoothing out her black shirt as if trying to give her hands something to do while her teeth sank into her lower lip.

I almost groaned at the sight of her biting that part of her flesh I wanted so badly to nibble on myself, but I shook myself out of it and gave her a questioning look instead. “What is it?”

“I, uh, I just realized you have an actual theater. When you said you had one, I think I kind of thought of it as just another TV room, but this is not that.”

I chuckled, but I liked that she was finally starting to realize who she was dealing with. She seemed suitably impressed, which was great. It was what I’d been aiming for. Unfortunately, she still didn’t seem intimidated.

This was something else that looked a lot like the first traces of her arousal, which was unfortunate because there wasn’t anything I could do about it.

No, that can’t be right. She can’t be turned on by a theater room. Unless she’s turned on by the idea of watching movies in here with me . In the dark.

I motioned at the fridge. “Feel free to help yourself to anything you’d like to drink or eat. I’ll get the movie ready. Have you given any thought to what you’d like to watch?”

“ The Blair Witch Project if you have it,” she said. “I’ve been taking some walks around the plantation and I’ve got some ideas, but it’s been a while since I’ve seen the movie. I’d just like to get the details clearer in my head.”

“You got it,” I agreed and grabbed a soda for myself before I headed over to one of the two chairs in the center of the front row.

Sitting down, I popped my footrest out and then reached into the compartment between the recliners for the remote. Tallulah loaded up on snacks and chose an orange soda for herself before coming over to sit down right next to me.

As soon as she was seated, I turned out the dim lights with the remote and started the movie. I liked to think I didn’t scare easily, but as we watched and while she was busy taking notes, I almost jumped out of my chair a few times.

By the end of it, I was tense as hell, sweaty, and really not enjoying myself anymore. I wonder what she’s going to torture me with next.

“Did you get everything you wanted from that?” I asked, hoping my voice didn’t give away just how on edge I was right then.

Tallulah shrugged. “I think so. I might watch it again in a couple days just to be sure, but I’ve definitely got a clearer idea now than I did before. Can you find The Conjuring next?”

And that’s about it for me. I did my best not to show it, though. “Sure. What do they conjure up in that movie?”

She shrugged. “Nothing, now that I think about it. Other than about a billion dollars in ticket sales.”

I laughed and nodded. “I can’t argue with results like that.”

I searched for the movie and never before had I been so pissed at myself for subscribing to every service imaginable. I didn’t even have to look hard to find the damn movie, and since she didn’t move, there was no getting away from the fact that I had, in fact, found it.

Fuck .

Pressing play, I settled back in my seat, but from the word go, still creeped out from the previous movie, my teeth were practically chattering. I glanced at her, sitting calmly by my side, and wondered for the umpteenth time just what the hell was wrong with this woman.

She was tossing pieces of popcorn into her mouth, munching on them seemingly without a care in the world. Every so often, she reached for her notebook on the chair beside her and jotted down a bunch of notes before setting it down again.

Meanwhile, I had to fight the constant urge to cover my eyes. Fuck knows how I’m going to sleep tonight, but the lights are staying on. That’s for damn sure.

About halfway through, as I closed my eyes instead of covering them, she suddenly reached for the remote between us and hit the pause button. When I looked at her, she spoke before I could even ask what was going on.

“Why are you so scared?”

“I don’t get scared,” I lied.

She rolled her eyes at me, then arched a steep eyebrow and pursed her lips as she ran her gaze across my face. “You’ve been terrified since about fifteen minutes into the first movie and you look like you’re about to crawl out of your own skin.”

“You’re entitled to your opinion,” I muttered, but she might’ve had a point.

She cocked her head to one side. “Just tell me why you’re so scared. We don’t have to watch it if you don’t want to. You said you were interested in watching these with me, but if you’ve changed your mind, why don’t you choose something else and I’ll just watch the rest by myself at home? I’ve already seen this like ten times.”

As I stared into those eyes, I realized I had some questions of my own, so I decided to throw it back at her. “Why aren’t you scared? Why do you love all this super scary stuff, but you’re afraid of the dark, of all things?”

“I’m not afraid of the?—”

I gave her a look that clearly said I wasn’t buying it. “I saw your face when you came down those stairs the other night, Tallulah. I heard you scream, remember? You were petrified and I know it wasn’t of the storm, because when we were watching it together, you were fine again.”

Her chin came up defensively, but the longer she stared at me, the more that initial instinct to deny it seemed to drain out of her. Eventually, she exhaled and gave me a one-shouldered shrug. “I just don’t like being alone. That’s the gist of it. When you’re in the dark, it’s just you. You’re alone. No matter how many people are around you, if you can’t see them, it’s like they’re not there at all.”

Shit . Instantly, I felt bad. “I’ve been alone for most of my life. I guess you get used to it eventually.”

“It shouldn’t be that way,” she said quietly, but something told me I’d struck a nerve.

Unsure of what to say, I reached for the remote and turned the movie back on. With my thoughts back to being mostly on her, I found my attention drifting so much that I tuned out the rest of the story completely.

All along, I’d suspected that there was a lot more to Tallulah than met the eye, but this was the first time my suspicion had been confirmed. Of course, there was a lot more to most people than met the eye, but it was different with her.

It was almost like her tough, sexy, bubbly, always-happy exterior was a cover for some kind of darkness lurking either within her or in her past.

I just don’t like being alone.

As those words repeated through my head on a loop, I concluded that whatever it was, it was in her past. She wasn’t some kind of serial killer after all. Something had happened that had made her feel alone, and she hadn’t liked it much.

When the movie was over, the sound of her clearing her throat made me refocus on reality instead of all the different scenarios running through my mind about what might have happened to her. “I should get ready to go back to the plantation.”

“It’s a long drive,” I said, quickly checking my watch. “It’s pretty late. You’re welcome to stay if you’d like.”

With both of us still sitting in our armchairs, I hadn’t realized how close we’d gotten to one another until I noticed her glancing at my lips. While I’d been lost in thought, it seemed I’d leaned toward her, and when I’d turned to look at her after she’d cleared her throat, it’d put my face only about an inch away from hers.

Because she’d wound up leaning toward my side as well and neither of us had moved.

With her tongue peeking out from between her lips, she suddenly shook her head. “It’s probably not a good idea for me to stay.”

She was still staring at my mouth, and I swore my body turned molten at the realization. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”

Even as the words left my mouth though, I was leaning in and so was she, and then we were kissing and all thoughts of her leaving flew right out of my head. My blood turned hotter than the surface of Venus when my lips crashed into hers, my cock suddenly doing its best impression of a tree.

I hadn’t been planning for this to happen, and yet somehow, it felt like it had always been inevitable. Ever since that very first time I’d found her in the hallway—at the end of which she would’ve found a second set of stairs that led up to my bedroom.

That day, as soon as I laid eyes on her, I’d wanted to drag her up there with me. Right now, I had a feeling we weren’t even going to make it that far, but the rumors of someone being chained to a bed in this house might just turn out to be true after all.

If I ever did get Tallulah there, I just wasn’t sure I’d be able to let her leave. Not when even just kissing her could make me feel so much more than doing everything with someone else ever had.