9. Hannah

Chapter 9

Hannah

I followed him around while he shut and locked all the windows and made sure the doors were locked. I didn’t remind him that I’d done this already, that it hadn’t stopped someone from entering the building while I sat in my tub.

While I fretted in the front parlor with the lights blazing around me, Reylor walked through the entire building, joining me about twenty minutes after he’d arrived.

I stood when he walked into the room, feeling a bit foolish wearing only a towel, but he still held a cushion in front of his groin that did nothing to cover his amazing ass I couldn’t help gaping at whenever he turned in the other direction.

“Find anything?” I asked, struggling to keep this all business. Even if he was interested in me, I wasn’t going to allow anything to happen with him. Once burned, and all that.

“Nothing.” His heated gaze traveled down my body, and I’d have to be dead not to tingle from his perusal. Warmth flooded my bones, and my stupid clit started throbbing.

At least he couldn’t tell I was attracted to him.

His nostrils flared, and he tipped his nose up, scenting the air before his gaze narrowed again on me. “Hannah,” he groaned.

Apparently, he could tell I was attracted to him because there was no missing something in his groin area poking against my front porch chair cushion.

“I’ll shift and go get some clothing, then come right back.”

“I have some super big sweats you can wear if you’d like.”

He scratched the back of his neck. “You’re a lot smaller than me.”

They’d belonged to my ex and when I found them while unpacking, I’d tossed them onto a chair in my room. I hadn’t had the chance to put them in the trash yet.

“I’m sure they’ll be fine,” I said. “I’d feel better if you stayed for a bit, if that’s okay. This has shaken me.”

“Alright.”

I scooted to my room, and he followed, where I lifted the sweatpants off the chair.

“Interesting bureau.” He frowned as he took them from me.

“They’re clean. I promise.” During our relationship, I’d done the laundry, so I was sure about that.

With a nod, he tugged them on and hiked them up over his hips. My ex was six feet tall and good-sized, but the sweats coated Reylor’s body like a second skin. He tossed aside the cushion, and he sure filled my ex’s sweats out nicely.

I needed to stop gaping at the muscles rippling across his chest and shoulders, his taut abs, and that bulge below his waist.

“Thanks.” He pivoted and padded from my room on bare feet. “I’ll let you get dressed. Join me in the parlor after? We need to talk.”

“Do you want slippers?” I called out to him.

He turned, and his gaze cut to my fluffy pink ones beside my bed. The curve of his smile made my heart speed up. “I’m all set.”

Maybe I should ask Monsters, PI if they had any other available detectives. If I was lusting after Reylor within such a short time, I was going to be in trouble before this investigation was over.

I’d think about it.

He left the room, shutting the door behind him, and I hurried to my bureau, where I tugged out a pair of flannel pajamas, donning them quickly. After stuffing my feet into my fluffy slippers, I joined him in the parlor, perching on a chair near the unlit fireplace, opposite the one he’d taken.

He leveled me with a long look. “I want you to move in with me until we finish this investigation.”

“Excuse me?” I lifted my eyebrows. “I’m fixing this place up, which means I need to be here, not at your place.”

“I’m worried about you here alone.”

“Do you have a spare room at your place?”

He paused. “No. I thought you could take my bed. I’ll sleep on the couch.”

“You’re six-four or so. No couch is big enough for a guy like you.”

“Six-seven, but I’ll make do.”

I shook my head. “I’m safe enough here alone.”

“Someone got into your place tonight, and they’re playing games with you. Nothing’s stopping them from turning those games deadly.”

Chills peppered my skin, and I crossed my arms on my chest to hold in my quivers. “You think they’d physically hurt me? So far, it’s only been pranks.”

“You said they wrote leave, or else on a mirror?”

“I could be mistaken.”

“Were you?” he drawled.

My shoulders slumped. “No. I read it just fine.”

“My guess is that whoever’s doing this wants to drive you away. They hope you’ll leave and sell the place—to them, no doubt.”

“Why, though?”

“The location’s gorgeous. You said you got it at a great price. You can’t be the only one to see its potential.”

“If I stay and show them I’m not afraid, they might give up.” Yes, I was stubborn, but this was also the chance I’d been waiting for. The price had been amazing, but even more, after a short time in Mystic Harbor, I felt like I’d found a new home. I didn’t want to sell this building, and I didn’t want to slink back to the suburbs of Boston.

“And if they don’t?” he asked. “What if they take this further? You could be hurt.” His snarl ripped out. “I’m not allowing that to happen.”

“I appreciate that you feel protective of me, but—”

“I will destroy anyone who so much as scratches your skin.”

Whoa. “I don’t believe something like that’s in our contract.” We hadn’t actually signed one yet. My assumption was the business would mail one to me or call and ask me to come in and fill out a bunch of forms.

“Fuck the contract.” He leaned forward, bracing his palms on his knees. The intensity of his gaze made my body overheat.

I was gushing down there, and I was not a woman who ever gushed, something my ex had complained about. Lube worked wonders; he just refused to use it. One more reason I should’ve ditched him before he could burn me.

“You can’t fuck the contract,” I said. “Which I still don’t have, by the way.”

His hand flicked out, dismissing my statement. “I will protect you with my life.”

Definitely not in the contract. “I can’t let you do anything like that.” I lowered my voice. “I appreciate your willingness to help me, to give your life for me.” Swoon. No guy had ever acted this protective of me before, and honestly, it made my pulse flutter. “I seriously doubt someone will try to hurt me.”

The lights went out, leaving us in darkness.

I sensed rather than heard Reylor rise and move through the room. He wasn’t a dragon shifter, he was a panther gliding through the forest, tracking down prey.

Shivering, I tucked my feet up on my chair and wrapped my arms around my legs. I shrunk into my seat, hiding.

Maybe I should move in with him until this was settled. There was no way I’d be able to sleep if I remained here alone.

The lights came back on, but Reylor had left the room. He returned a few minutes later.

“Someone shut your power off at the breaker,” he said.

“That’s in the basement.”

“There were no tracks in the dirt near the panel.”

“It could’ve been Justin.”

“A chilly breeze in a closed-up room? Maybe a ghost. But a ghost isn’t messing with your electrical panel.”

“You said you don’t believe in ghosts.”

“I don’t, but that pocket watch I left by your door? I found it sitting on my kitchen table when I got home.”

“Justin’s a prankster, but he hasn’t done anything to frighten me.” So far. “He might think making the lights flicker is funny.”

“What do I have to do to convince you that you’re not safe here alone?”

“I don’t want to be alone. That scares me too. But it makes more sense for you to move in with me. I’ve finished a few rooms, and you can have your pick of them.”

I didn’t expect him to take me up on my offer, though I meant it. I’d feel better if someone stayed here with me. Although, I couldn’t afford to hire round the clock security.

I held up my hand. “Forget that. I’ll find someone to move in with me.”

He stepped right up to me, close enough I caught the fresh scent wafting off his skin. “A man?”

“Or a woman.”

“Who?”

“I’ll ask around town.”

“Me, Hannah,” he rasped. “It’s going to be me.”

“You don’t get to decide.”

He held out his arm with the dragon tattoo I’d noticed earlier. “This says I do.”

“Nice. Kind of cute, don’t you think?”

He frowned. “Why cute?”

“Dragon shifter. Dragon tattoo? It’s almost a cliché.”

“This is a mating mark.”

I gulped. “Mating . . . What?” I barked out the last.

He stepped closer, and honestly, I hadn’t realized there was much space between us, but now he filled it. “It appeared the moment I met you.”

“What does that, um, mean?”

“You’re mine, Hannah. All mine.”