Page 32 of Austin

“Don’t worry; I won’t touch you until you want me to. I’m your boss, remember?” He smirks and heads toward the staircase that leads up. To where, I have no idea.

“We’re already on the top floor. Where are you going?”

“You trust me with your life in my car. Don’t you trust me here?”

“It’s not exactly trust that drives me when it comes to you. Besides, that first night, I was forced into your Camaro. You don’t take no for an answer.”

He turns around and backs me up into the door—not forcibly but rather protectively. He’s so close, I feel his heart beating through his shirt, and his warmth penetrates all over my body.

“Last night, you asked me to stop making assumptions about you. I think it’s time that you abide by the same rules. I have never and would never force a woman to do anything she didn’t want willingly.”

My eyes open wide, and I swallow.

His knuckle grazes my cheek. “All you had to say was no, and I would have left you safely with Gregg. But you wanted to be in my car, just like you want to be in my pants right now.”

My eyes narrow as I do a double take at the words he just uttered. “You mean, you want to be in my pants,” I correct.

“Way to deflect. I like this about you, Pyle.” He steps away from me and turns toward the stairs.

“Why do you keep calling me Pyle?”

We start ascending.

“That’s what happened when you decided not to give me your name.” He’s already ten steps up and about to turn the corner.

“You know it now, so you can stop.”

He pauses his steps, glances down at me over the railing, and winks. “Where’s the fun in that?”

I huff and continue, shaking my head in frustration at this man.

We reach the top of the staircase, only to realize there’s no door. Just a small room of three walls with the only light coming from the stairwell we just walked up.

“How is there a staircase that leads to nowhere? What is this place, the Winchester Mystery House?” I ask.

He points at a ladder that’s up against the wall with a shit-eating grin covering his face.

“Um, yeah, that ain’t happening.” I look down to my pencil skirt and high heels. “I can’t climb that in this.”

“You can’t, or you won’t?” He cocks his head to the side, crossing his arms over his chest.

I shake my finger back and forth at him. “Oh no, I don’t fall for that shit. The whole if I dare her, she will crap isn’t working on me.”

“You’ll do just fine. Here, hand me your shoes. You can climb barefoot.”

“You must have taken a lot of girls up here to know I’d do better without shoes.”

“Quite the opposite,” he says, causing me to raise a brow. “I figured, if you’re going to know my secrets, you might as well see my hideaway.”

My head twitches in contemplation, but I try to recover quickly. I’ve realized it’s best not to overanalyze anything Austin says or does.

“So, are you going to come or not?” he asks.

I look around the dark room. Behind me is the staircase going back to our floor. In front of me are cylinder blocks of a four-by-four-foot room with a ladder hanging on a wall.

The little devil appears on my shoulder and urges me on. He’s not going to kill you on the roof. He knows he’s too pretty to go to jail.

For once, I listen to the red lady.