He rose a brow, finishing the new glass off. “Oh? That’s a far cry from ‘twin flames’.”
I shrugged, pulling the glass closer. Love was overrated. What I needed was to blow off steam in the way of massacres and forbidden sex.
“Do you have any guesses as to who the serial killer is yet?” Jake asked, leaning against the bar.
The door to The Club opened and I glanced over long enough to register who it was before I turned back, every muscle in my body tightening. Dammit. “I have a pretty good guess, yeah.” I was hoping I wouldn’t see him today. I didn’t need anything else to fuel my delusions. Because that’s what they were. Delusions fueled by my overactive imagination, just like Steven had said. He wasn’t actually following me, it was just my mind playing tricks.
Jake glanced his way before turning back to me. “Let meguess, the main character?”
“It switches between he and the woman,” I said, lowering my voice. I didn’t want to talk about it. Not when I was still contemplating if the guy I based the main character off of was actually a serial killer.
But what were the chances I would meet one in real life? Especially just right off the street? Incredibly slim if there was any chance at all.
He was just some creep.
Some really good-looking creep who I was having delusions about. God, I needed some sleep.
His eyebrows lifted. “Last time you were here, you said something about a rom-con. Don’t tell me she falls for the guy who’s going to kill her.”
I swallowed, pulling my glass closer. “It’s hard not to fall for someone who acts that obsessed with you. Even if they are a terrible person.”
He straightened, disbelief in his eyes. “You’re telling me that if Ted Bundy walked in here and said the right things, you’d let him rail you?”
My cheeks warmed, the man’s eyes burning across my bare shoulders. “There’s a reason he was so prolific,” I said under my breath, giving him a warning look. “I’m not saying women aren’t crazy, I’m saying that there’s a reason we fall for that bullshit.”
“You would?”
“I wr—read the books,” I explained carefully. “I get my rocks off that way. Can you lower your voice?”
He glanced around The Club. “You don’t want people knowing you read serial killer romances?”
I leaned into the bar, trying to get closer to him, my hardened gaze unwavering. “I don’t need the world thinking that their crazy will get their dick sucked. Because it won’t. We go to books because it’s safe. We’re not stupid enough to think that we canearn the respect and the obsession of a psychotic crazy person without getting ourselves brutally murdered,” I said under my breath. “I’ll keep reading my books and you keep drying those glasses like some compulsive dick who believes you can dry the shine right off.”
He pressed his lips into a thin line and ripped the towel off of his shoulder with a purpose. “I can.”
I sat back, glaring after him as he went to greet the man in the mask sitting a few stools down from me.
I rolled my eyes and turned back towards the curtain. Nobody understood discretion anymore.
I couldn’t hear a sound from beyond the worn fabric, I never could.
What happened back there? Who was back there? Was there another part of the bar just for those with secret lives?
With a quiet breath, I turned back to my glass and took a drink, the warmth of the alcohol settling in my bones. I pulled out my phone and pulled up another book I was reading only to close it out when I remembered where I had been before closing it out last.
Interrupted in the middle of a scene that had gotten me so worked up, I had to deal with it right there on my couch.
No way was I going to start reading that here with Jake constantly hanging over my shoulder.
As if on cue, he reappeared. “So, you don’t like pranks and you like reading weird books, what else?”
I lifted my eyes, brows furrowing. “What else what?”
A small smile tilted one corner of his lips up. “What else? Who is Olivia Rose?”
I straightened, eyeing him. “I’ve been coming here for a few weeks and you’re finally asking about me?”
He shrugged. “You always talk about your books. You order the same thing every time you come here. Oh, you like wearingdresses.”
