Page 9 of Sweet Temptation

I never had nightmares.

I reached for my robe, on the chair by my bed, and slipped it on. I had a little nightie on, but I had a feeling I wasn’t alone. Probably Ashley had crashed on my couch downstairs and was staggering around drunk, trying to find himself another beer.

I dragged myself into the bathroom, gradually waking up as I went to pee. I hadn’t even turned on a light, but I didn’t need to. The moon was full and crazy bright; the clouds had cleared, and it was shining through the windows like a lighthouse beacon.

When I was finished in the bathroom, I glanced at the clock on my bedside table. It was two-forty-six a.m.. I hadn’t been asleep all that long.

I headed downstairs, and that was when I remembered: Ash would be with Danica. He hadn’t crashed here since they’d hooked up. I wondered if they’d both stayed over.

Obviously, someone had.

I walked into my living room, expecting to find someone sprawled on the couch. I stopped in the middle of the room.

It wasn’t as bright down here, but I didn’t need to turn on any lights. The trees surrounding the house blocked some of that intense moonlight, but I could see that there was no one in the room.

“Ashley?” I said. I was so fucking sure someone was here. “Danica?” I called out, as I headed down the hall beyond the living room, where the guest bedrooms were. I peeked into each room. The doors were open and no one was there. I checked the guest bathroom.

Then I went back up the other hall toward my bedroom, where the music room was, and peeked in there, too.

No one.

As I walked slowly back into the living room, where the evidence of tonight’s party was strewn about, a shiver went up my back. And I remembered what I’d said to Elle.

I swear, someone is sticking pins in a tiny little Summer doll today.

It had been a small, chill party, and no one had stayed very long. I’d walked Xander and Courteney out myself, before I went up to bed, around two o’clock. Or maybe it was one-thirty. I hadn’t really paid attention. There were only a few people left, including Ash and Danica.

Now, there was obviously no one in the house but me. Yet I couldn’t shake the lingering feeling that I wasn’t alone.

I went into the adjoining kitchen, looking around, for what, I had no idea. I kept telling myself I was just freaked out because of my stuff getting stolen after last night’s show, and then getting woken up by my neighbor’s alarm last night…

No one was here. And nothing was out of place.

There were some bottles and glasses still sitting on the tables in the living room and on the bar. Someone had cleaned up a bit, organizing empties into boxes by the fridge. Danica, probably.

I got a glass out of the cupboard and poured myself a water. I took a sip, just trying to breathe and shake off the creeped-out feeling.

Since when did I get creeped out in my own house?

It was a bad dream or something. I didn’t normally have those, but maybe those three green apple martinis I’d drank with the girls weren’t sitting so well. I took another sip of water, turning to go back to bed.

And I heard a noise.

I stopped.

I definitely did not imagine that. It was coming from the sunroom at the back of the living room.

It was the sound of something scratching on glass.

Goosebumps rippled across my skin.

I stepped slowly around the bar that separated the kitchen from the living room, and peered through to the glass-walled sunroom. Moonlight partly illuminated the room, but it was half-dark, too, the trees outside throwing eerie shadows.

And there it was again. A brief scratching sound on glass—and a dark figure moving outside.

There was a man in my backyard.

My body froze as ice-cold fear tore through me. It was instinctual, primal. Even as my mind started racing for an explanation, my body knew there was something deeply wrong here.

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