“I hope so, but there is not a single thing we can do from in here except wait. Whose phone is this?”
“I think it’s Marlie’s. I’m not sure, she just handed it to me.”
He flicks it on and starts going through the contacts. “Yeah, I think it’s hers. I’ll try Kenai’s number.”
He dials the number but no one answers. He tries again. Then he tries Kaity’s number. No one answers. Half the place has probably gotten their phones jumbled up running around trying to figure out what the hell is happening, it’s not a wonder we can’t get hold of anyone.
“So we just have to sit here and wait?”
He squeezes me softly. “Calling out could put us in danger. If no one is coming in here then we want it to be that way. Help will come, we just need to wait and keep quiet. There is nothing we can do. Panicking won’t help. Kenai is tough and so is Marlie, they’ll be okay.”
“Okay,” I whisper, knowing he’s right. “Then let’s talk about something because I need a distraction or I’m going to keep freaking out.”
Things seem to have quieted down a little downstairs, which I’m not sure is a good or bad sign. Still, I try to relax a little.
“What do you want to talk about?” he asks, making circles on my belly again.
I want to deny it, but I can’t—my sex clenches. I can’t help the reaction, not when his hands are making small circles on an area of my body that’s so close to it. I hate that it’s happening, especially right now, so I squirm a little, moving so his fingers aren’t so close. I decide to start talking or I’ll get even more distracted.
“Tell me something about yourself, anything. Have you ever been married?”
“No, I haven’t.”
“Have you ever been close?”
He shrugs. “I thought about it once with a girl I went out with for three years. I loved her, but I don’t know . . . it just wasn’t quite right, you know? It was a situation where I just don’t think we were meant to be, in the long run. She wasn’t a terrible person or anything, but there were just things about her that I didn’t admire in a woman.”
“Like?” I question.
“Like the fact that she wasn’t really a good mother. She had two kids, and she just . . . didn’t put them first. She didn’t really care what they did or who they spoke to. She was selfish like that. She cared a lot more about herself and that should have been a sign. Still, when you love someone, you tend to overlook the things that are really quite obvious from the start.”
“Yes, I know what you mean. I ignored some of the things Terry did, too. Those things came back to bite me in the ass.”
“Like what?” he asks, circling his fingers a little lower.
“Like his possessive side. I thought it was sweet at first, how he’d get all flustered when someone else looked at me, but then he started imagining it. He thought every man wanted me, every man was looking at me, and he became paranoid. Then he started taking it out on me, saying I was smiling at them, or encouraging them. Honestly, I never even noticed there were men paying attention. I don’t even think they were.”
“There are always men payin’ attention, darlin’,” he murmurs near my ear. “But a confident, normal man knows the girl is his and he does right by her to make sure it stays that way. What he does not do is carry on, become controlling, and abuse her because of his own insecurities.”
I swallow and nod. “Yeah, you’re right.”
“How long did he hurt you for?”
I don’t really like talking about this, but with Oliver, I’ll tell him because, for some reason, I trust him. He’s the kind of man you trust, because you can feel it in your gut, right down deep in your belly. He’s a good guy. He’s put together right. That radiates off him. It never radiated off Terry, but that didn’t seem obvious to me until this very moment.
“A couple of years. It all started when I tried to break it off with him. He stalked me, followed me around, and begged and begged until I came back. It only got worse from there. Going back was the worst mistake I ever made.”
“It always is,” Oliver agrees. “People always say they’ll change, and sometimes I think they do try, but with something that severe, I don’t think there is a chance of true change. When someone is that intense about something, there is usually something psychological going on and because of that, change is very difficult to do.”
“Yeah, I see that now,” I admit. “But at the time, I thought I’d give it a chance, I believed him when he said he’d changed. When he started getting physical with me, I knew there was no chance of it getting better so I left again, for a final time.”
“Guessin’ that didn’t go very well?” Oliver asks.
“No, it certainly didn’t. It was twice as bad as it was the first time, and I honestly couldn’t shake him for a while there. Finally, I managed to free myself from him and get my life together. It’s been two years now, but yeah, it wasn’t a great thing to endure.”
“No, I don’t imagine it was. I’m glad you broke free of it.”
“Yeah, me too,” I whisper.
His hand keeps circling on my belly, sliding lower, just a little, and my entire body lights on fire. I honestly don’t like feeling so much passion at a time like this, but what else are you supposed to do when you’re trapped in a closet with a man and a bunch of crazy people outside? My breath hitches and he must notice, because his mouth grazes my earlobe
