Page 264 of My Sweet Dollie, You Have to Love Me
CHAPTER 62
Ambrose—present day
The chainsaw-wielding psycho in the movie attacks his third victim just as the battery flashes its ten-percent warning.
“Oh, I’ll get the cable. It’s probably in the reading room somewhere.”
Dollie jumps from the sofa. To my surprise, she pauses the movie on her way out. It’s almost like she wants to see what happens next.
Rummaging comes from the next room. Then her voice. “I can’t find it!”
Thunder roars across the sky, and the house turns black while we’re still in separate rooms.
My ears ring as my name is screamed at the top of Dollie’s lungs. It echoes through the walls, from one room to another. I almost fall from the sofa as I jump from it, my feet not moving as quickly as they need to.
Either I or the next louder clap of thunder startles Bubbles, and she finally abandons the sock she’s carried around and played with for most of the day. She barks and runs to the window, where she continues to make noise.
Rushing through the kitchen, Dollie crashes into my chest with the force of a bullet and knocks the wind from me.
She screams again as my arms slowly come up around her. My pounding heart feels like it could explode any second.
Fingers wander over her back because I can’t stop touching her, feeling her against me. Her breasts press harder against my sternum with the rise and fall of each breath.
I pull her that bit tighter, one hand moving to her head, weaving through her pretty pink hair. The scent of coconut shampoo drifts up my nose as her cheek meets my chest.
Feeling over my body, all the way up to my neck, fingers trace each scar that’s embedded into her memory as well as my skin, and she calms.
I calm slightly, my heart still beating wildly in my chest.
“The lights are out. And your heart is pounding.”
I nod, but I doubt she sees it.
“I guess the charger is pointless then.”
I nod again, and this one also gets lost to the dark.
“There goes our movie.”
A better idea hits me, and I guide her back into the living room. I sit us down on the sofa, both beneath the comforter. We share a sofa cushion because she’s still plastered to me when we kick our feet up onto the table.
I’ll worry about the germs there tomorrow.
Tonight, I’ll enjoy the closeness.
I steal a glance at her, catching her at the very moment she’s looking up at me.
One of us kicks over Shane’s tablet, and we lose the light of its screen to the floor. Dollie’s eyes, instantly on it, have me leaning forward, checking it for damage and moving it to safety.
As I sit back, I feel her tremble.
The tablet is fine.
Another crack of thunder crashes through the sky, interrupting us as her eyes shoot to the window. I wait for Bubbles to bark at it, but she resettles in the corner of the room after spinning pointlessly twice before curling into a ball.
Dollie tucks herself in closer, fingers moving on my sweats and Duggan’s tie.
I don’t interrupt her as I reach for my phone and open my favorite reading app. It’s loaded with classics. Tilting it towards Dollie, I let her select whichever she wants.
