Bound to Her - Deborah Pin (books for 9th graders .TXT) 📗

under her chest. She could feel her heart thudding and when she glanced to him, his focus was on the raw and abraded skin across her stomach just above her bellybutton. When his eyes moved up to hers, they stared at each other.

His breathing was deep and calm but hers was anything but.

“I’ve got what I need. I’ll be in touch, Detective.” She turned and walked from the room. Katrina couldn’t seem to stop staring and her breath was coming in shallow gasps. His fingers reached to her hands, which were still holding her shirt in place and he tugged the hem of the

shirt gently down to cover her stomach.

“Oh…sorry.” She wasn’t sure what else to say. Sorry for forgetting she was half naked in front of him? Sorry for letting her brain shut down? He reached a hand to her and she let him pull her up to sit. “I should call a cab.”

“I’ll drive you.” He didn’t wait for an answer before he turned from

her and started walking from the room. She hopped down from the

gurney and followed him back out to his car. Well this promised to be awkward as hell.

It was. It was a painfully nerve-racking awkward with a touch of

erotic need thrown in for fun. She wasn’t stupid. She trusted him. She absolutely trusted him. He was Seth’s father, he’d been in the community

for many years and he was a cop. She literally had no reason not to trust

him and so she trusted. Under the circumstances and after her night, the

feel of that trust was intoxicating. He made the terror she’d felt suddenly

feel better. The relief, his subtle show of concern, his desire to help her all pushed her very female buttons. What other reason were Sandra Bullock

and Keanu Reeves attracted to each other in the movie Speed? Duh. She got it. Were she just some sap of a woman on any other day without having experienced some lunatic trying to kill her, she’d feel nothing for

this man. Oh who the fuck was she kidding? She’d not been able to pull

her eyes away from him after the moment she met him!

“Where does Seth stay when you’re working?” Well she had to break

the tension somehow.

“My sister. She’s divorced. Jake Sayors? You taught him too…”

“Oh sure. Your sister is…uh…” She was snapping her fingers.

“Molly.”

“Yeah. I like Molly. She seems fun.”

“She is. She reminds me a lot of you actually.”

Her gaze flashed to his before she could stop herself and he glanced

to her before she could wipe the quizzical expression from her face. What

the hell does that mean?

“I just mean she’s quirky. Good sense of humor.”

“Oh.” Apparently he didn’t intend to say she was gorgeous like her—

but then that would be weird.

She gave him directions to Imogen’s mansion on Mercer Island and as

they neared, her heart sped. She wasn’t sure why she wasn’t ready to give him up tonight. He made her feel safe and while she was sure she’d

be perfectly secure and comfortable in Imogen’s house with high-tech security and even a security gate, she still wasn’t ready to see him go.

They pulled up to the keypad entrance and she sat like an idiot for a

moment as options raced through her head. She was panicking.

“You can either tell me the code or crawl onto my lap to enter it yourself. Your choice.” He smirked at her and she shook her head in mortification. She wanted to crawl into his lap—but she gave him the code instead.

“Thank you for driving me. I appreciate it.”

“Sure.” He looked at her a moment without speaking. “I’ll be in touch

soon. I’m sorry, Katrina. You didn’t deserve this and I know how

difficult it can be to cope with being the victim of a crime.”

Her eyes were suddenly flashing with tears and she turned to look out the window rather than share her pathetic emotions with him. But when his fingers touched hers, she sniffed and turned back to him, giving up on hiding it.

“You are very lucky but you’re also very strong.” He let go of her hand quickly, pulling his hand back to rest on the steering wheel. “We’re

going to be spending a lot of time in your neighborhood for a while.

We’re going to increase the patrols and check in with you regularly once

you’re back in your house.”

“Thank you, Detective.”

“Dillon.” His brow flinched and he dropped his gaze to his lap as though he’d said something wrong. All Katrina could think was just how

much he’d said right. She climbed from his car, tossing a quick wave to

him as she bounded up the steps toward the front door. Imogen was already pulling the front door open as she approached and the moment

she saw Detective Handsome Ass backing up, she smirked before pulling

Katrina into a hug.

* * * * *

“Seth go to bed at a good time?” He was talking to Molly on the phone. There was no sense waking him up when it was after midnight.

“Oh ‘bout nine or so. You done for the night?”

“Yeah. At least for the time being.”

“Why do you sound weird?”

“I haven’t said anything!”

“You don’t have to. Spill it.”

“You know I can’t do that. Good night. I’m letting you go.” He hung

up quickly, collapsing on his bed.

She was attracted to him. Fuck. Not fuck because he wasn’t attracted to her, not even fuck because he was attracted to her. Fuck because he was so fucking attracted to a woman he wasn’t allowed to be fucking attracted to. Just…fuck! Oh yeah and fuck because he suspected this wasn’t the last they’d see of the masked Looney Tune intent on hurting

her. That was the biggest fuck he had at the moment and it left his heart

racing.

He liked her. And not just because she was nice to look at. She was feisty and smart, she was quirky and silly but she was sweet. She was kind and good except when she was pissed at him. But he’d deserved that.

He fell asleep without even undressing—who knew if he’d be lucky

enough to sleep the rest of the night without another call. But he didn’t

sleep—at least he didn’t sleep through the night. When he woke, he was

covered in sweat and his heart was pounding in near panic. He’d

dreamed of her and not just of her. He’d dreamed of a monster intent on

killing her, taking her away from him. In his dream, she belonged to him

and that incredibly possessive and arousing ownership he felt for her was being threatened.

He didn’t even bother trying to go back to sleep after that. He rose, showered and left his home at three o’clock in the morning. He drove to

her home and sat in his car staring at her little house that looked eerily

terrifying even to him. He didn’t believe for a second they’d seen the last

of the dark intruder.

Chapter Five

 

She couldn’t seem to get enough coffee into her body to stay alert the

next morning but she was there. When Imogen popped her head into the

teachers’ lounge about ten minutes before first period was to begin, she

offered a sympathetic smile.

“You sure you want to be here today, Trink? I mean, no one really expects you to be and you look like hell. Did you actually look in the mirror this morning, love?” She was being Imogen—with a sarcastic

sense of humor that always brought a smile to Katrina’s day. Of course

smiling actually wrinkled her brow on this day and left her head aching.

She filled her coffee mug for the third time and headed out of the lounge toward her classroom. She knew no one expected her to be there.

The good news had traveled fast once Imogen entered the building with

her that morning and within fifteen minutes, ten teachers and the

superintendent had stopped by her room assuring her they could get a sub for the day and telling her she was crazy for coming to work.

What they failed to realize was she had no interest in being anywhere

alone at the moment—not even Imogen’s overly secure house on Lake

Washington. She needed to be at school. She needed to be around people.

She’d mentally committed herself to going home that night and she

was dreading it. She loved her home. It was small, quaint and she’d poured her sense of style into every last nook and cranny of the place.

She spent a small fortune on an old railroad-cart coffee table she loved.

She’d thrift-store-shopped and antique-shopped her way into an

incredible eclectic design which literally made her smile every time she walked through her door.

She relaxed every time she thought about the smell of her home and

the comfort of her small world that belonged to just her. She couldn’t lose

that. She simply couldn’t give it up. What she could give up was a bit of

money to have the locks changed and two motion sensor lights installed

at the front door and the side door. The workmen were scheduled to arrive that afternoon and though Imogen had glared at her over lunch in

the teachers’ lounge as she called and scheduled the installer and locksmith, she’d held her ground.

“Imogen, I appreciate you offering to let me stay, but I have to do this.

I can’t let this thing stop my life. I like my life too much to see it sullied by this.”

“You sound like such an English teacher when you say shit like

sullied. But you also keep saying this thing. It’s not a thing you can just ignore. It was a man. A man who had no business being there or trying

to hurt you and you need to take this seriously!”

“And you don’t think I am? Come on, you know me better than that.

Why do you think I’m changing the locks when there’s likely no reason

for it? Why do you think I’m installing the motion lights?”

Imogen studied her. Katrina wasn’t used to Imogen being so serious

—ever. It just wasn’t her style. “I’m just worried about you.”

“I know, and I appreciate it.” They were interrupted by a couple other

teachers who came in jabbering on about a problem student who was driving them nuts. She wished a problem student was all that worried her today and as Imogen’s brows shot up and she rolled her eyes, she made it clear she understood just how much deeper her worry went on

this day too.

Katrina didn’t have a class during the last period on Mondays,

Wednesdays and Fridays and she usually moderated a study hall but on

that day, she found another free teacher to cover the hour and she left early so she could be home in plenty of time to meet the installer. She took a cab from school since she had no car and as it pulled up in front of

her home, her heart started pounding, her hands got clammy and she started to panic.

Could she really do this? It looked like her home. It really did look exactly as it always did but it felt so very different. But she couldn’t sit in the cab all night and as the cab driver’s eyes met hers in the rearview mirror, she saw the awkward way he watched her as though he

suspected she might just be crazy. She didn’t want to be crazy and so she

stepped from the cab, paid the man and turned toward the largest

investment she’d ever made in life. She desperately hoped she wouldn’t

ultimately end up hating it.

It was on a deep breath and a sigh that she started the trek up her

lawn toward the front door. She rarely used the front door but for whatever reason she couldn’t seem to bring herself to use the side door.

She unlocked the door and just stared.

She could smell the scent of her life she loved so much and it was like

longing for something she couldn’t quite reach. It looked like her home,

in a slight state of disarray but still. She almost expected the place to explode when she stepped across the threshold but she didn’t make it that far until she heard a car pull into her driveway.

She turned to see Detective Adler pulling in behind her car and relief

hit and started to