Page 4 of Hooked on a Witch
“It’s Merck.” He didn’t smile. Didn’t look even remotely pleased. His clothes were simple, a long-sleeved dark T-shirt, bunched up on his strong forearms and jeans. Odd dress for the summer when iced tea and air conditioning were essentials to surviving the sweltering heat. The shirt pressed tight to the ripped muscles she’d ogled in the bar. Colorful tattoos stretched down to the tops of his hands in skeletonlike stylized lines, broken by foreign lettering.
His eyes were so blue they reminded her of Mediterranean Sea pictures.
She’d never forgottenthoseeyes orthoselips.Stop thinking about his fricking eyes and mouth. He kidnapped you.“Why am I in handcuffs?”
A few more dramatic wrist tugs didn’t inspire him to unlock them.
“You were hallucinating. I worried you’d hurt yourself.”
If that were true, then he would’ve bound her ankles too. He must know what she was and didn’t want her escaping via dimension hop.
No, he couldn’t know. She wanted to believe him about the hallucinations. Good Lord. Staring at his eyes, she had a hard time reconciling her memory of the rebellious, yet considerate, teenager she’d crushed on for years and the man before her who’d evolved into something dangerous and dark.
He continued to stare at her as if she were an out-of-control flame he wasn’t quite sure he wanted to extinguish but found fascinating.
“Take the handcuffs off. Please.”
“How do I know you’re in your right mind now?”
She granted him her best squinty-eyed glare.
“There’s the Shannon I remember.” He twisted the Oakleys hanging on a black neck cord from his front to rest against his back. He’d done the sunglasses rotation hundreds of times while they’d waited for the bus together in high school.He may not be that guy anymore.
“The Jason I remember wouldn’t have put me in handcuffs.”
He smiled. “It’s Merck. I’ve been waiting for you to wake up so I can drive you home. We’re going in the same direction,neighbor.”
His smile lit up her body like she was still sixteen all over again and at the mercy of a crush on the out-of-her-league, hottest guy in school. No amount of air could steady her heart or nerves, but she sucked in a lungful.
You’re twenty-eight, not sixteen and getting kissed by him. He might be your enemy.“Why am I here if you planned to take me home?”
“I didn’t know if you wanted whoever was home to see you this way or if anybody would be home at all. Couldn’t leave you by yourself like this.”
“Right,” she said sarcastically.
“Are you visiting down here alone?”
None of his business who may or may not be down here with her. If he’d been acting out of altruism, he would’ve taken her home. The fact he didn’t meant he had an agenda.
“What do you remember about last night?” His smile faded. Furrows creased his forehead. Her gut believed his concern was legitimate. Yet, she was here and restrained. Even if not evil, Merck may be after the same item she sought.
“Did you slip me something last night?”
“I didn’t give you anything. I swear. Tell me what you remember.”
She jiggled the cuffs.
This time he moved forward and unlocked them, stepping away the moment he freed her.
With a jump, she grabbed the piece of glass off the table and held it toward him.
He didn’t look impressed by her threat. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
“Tell me how I got here.”
“You’ve been passed out for about,”—he rolled his wrist to view his watch—“fifteen hours.”
“What happened?” She glanced around again, her gaze snagging on a gun safe in the corner.
