“Wait until midnight one night…” Bryce winked, before turning away. “Then come get me.”
Five
KARISSA
Three hours later I was tired but awake. Physically exhausted, but still mentally charged up from my encounter with Bryce, which I kept running again and again through my head.
Is this really such a good idea?
The voice of reason in the back of my mind was nagging and annoying, but it was also right. I was about to go off with one of my three hot employers, to parts of the manor that would be silent and secluded. Alone. At midnight.
Holy shit.
Of course, I could just as soon crash until morning. Sleep on the whole idea, and not have to worry about what might or might not happen. Seeing things in the light of day might bring some much-needed clarification to this important decision. It might talk me off the ledge. Keep me from making a potential mistake.
Or you could stop being a coward and just see what happens.
And that was it, really. The devil on my other shoulder giving me full permission. Telling me to run off and fulfill my own base urges, and as always, worry about the repercussions later on.
What do you want though?
The answer to that question took all of two seconds. I wanted him. Or to be brutally honest, even Camden, or Roderick too. All three of my employers were well beyond gorgeous, and any sane, red-blooded girl with an above-average libido would be thrilled to bed any one of them. Yet for some strange reason there wasn’t a girlfriend in sight.
This intrigued me, when I’d first been hired. I’d even explored the possibility that one of the guys might be dating another. But no, the more interaction I had with them, the more I realized they were most certainly straight. I’d caught all three of them giving me the once over, usually when they thought I wasn’t looking. I’d even heard Bryce and Camden in a heated discussion about whether my naked ass would be tight enough to bounce a quarter, dropped at arm’s length.
It was an experiment I wouldn’t mind taking them up on.
But no, the guys had always been professional. Always courteous. They’d showered me with nothing but praise over the job I was doing, and had given me free license to take the renovation and run with it. Their credit card never once reached its limit, and they never provided me with a budget. Still, I was frugal in how I spent their money. I did my best to squeeze every ounce of labor from our current resources, which meant keeping on top of numerous crews, all of which were looking for shortcuts.
Which is why it’s probably best not to bite the hand that feeds you.
I definitely wanted to bite something. That was for sure.
Pushing the voice of reason aside, I nuked a bag of microwave popcorn and headed into the living room. The couch had been beckoning all day, and I meant to answer the call. Maybe I’d fall asleep, and I’d miss my rendezvous. Or maybe I’d find something interesting enough to keep me up, and I’d be knocking gently on Bryce’s door at the stroke of midnight.
Either way, I was going to let my body decide.
I walked the carpeted hall, through something the guys referred to as ‘the sitting room’ and into the makeshift living area. Camden was already there, one foot up on the leather ottoman. He was munching on a bag of Sun Chips; Garden Salsa, the flavor I liked.
“Movie night?” he smiled, as I walked in with my bowl.
“Sure. What’s on?”
He flipped me the remote, stretching back to interlace his fingers behind his head. It brought out his beautiful biceps. They looked like two giant potatoes, perched atop his tanned, well-muscled arms.
“Do you really want to put me in charge of the remote?” I laughed, as I sank down beside him.
“Why? You’re not gonna put on The Notebook are you?”
“Nah.”
His grin widened. “Kate Hudson? Matthew McConaughey?”
I ignored him, flipping through channel after channel. The guys had an impressive array of add-ons, I had to give them that. Finally I settled on an obscure movie I loved, then pushed the remote out of reach.
“Prince of Darkness?” Camden blinked twice.
“Ever see it?”
He shook his head.
“Get ready to be scared.”
Horror had always sort of been my thing. Not so much the jump-scare bullshit they were putting out today, but more of the slow burn, suspenseful type movies that really immersed you in the story.
“You can hold my hand if you need to,” I joked, popping a handful of popcorn into my mouth.
“Here…”
Shifting closer, Camden pulled a blanket down from behind the couch. He threw it over the both of us, until it covered us from the waist down.
“Don’t get any ideas,” he winked, as the movie started up. “This is just so you don’t get popcorn all over me.”
I chuckled, then pointed to a mess of crumbs all over his chest already. “You sharing those Sun Chips with your shirt?”
Camden blushed, but only a little. “Maybe.”
I scooted closer and plopped my bowl down between us. “Well share some with me, and I’ll let you dig into my popcorn,” I told him.
When his smile turned up at the edges, I added:
“Just my popcorn.”
Six
KARISSA
It didn’t happen all at once. But it definitely… happened.
It started with getting cozy and comfortable, leaning against one another as the snacks were finished and the movie wore on. The college kids wandered the creepy church basement. Alice Cooper shambled in, looking even more ghastly than normal in zombie-like makeup.
Sometime between the second dream sequence and the possession, we were holding hands under the blanket. I was pressed against Camden’s lean body, the fingers of his opposite hand traveling lightly up and down the inside of my arm. Normally such a motion would’ve put me to sleep. In this case it made me shiver with excitement,
