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“To forget about him.”
“Is it bad if I say yes?”
“There’s nothing wrong with that. We all have someone we’re trying to forget.”
It’s the way he says it. It’s in his voice, the forlorn look in his eyes. Like he’s hurting the same as me. My heart aches and I wonder what he might’ve endured.
Wait. Why do I feel bad for him? I don’t even know this guy. For all I know, he could be a jerk. It’s always the ones who seem nice and make you trust them before they rip your heart out.
Come to think of it, he was sitting alone in the bar. There aren’t any pictures of family members hanging on his walls. My stomach drops as I realize I’m in a stranger’s apartment and no one even knows I’m here. I could be in danger.
I take a step back. “Uh … are you a serial killer or something?”
TJ’s eyebrows dip. “What?”
“I just realized I don’t know you. You’re a stranger.” I continue taking small steps away from him. “You could be some crazed murderer or something. You don’t have any pictures on your walls.” I take another step back and bang my ankle on the leg of the coffee table. Crap. This is how it happens. The girl always gets hurt or falls right before the killer closes in on her.
TJ’s grinning. It’s not an evil I’m going to kill you now grin, but more like an I’m laughing at you because you’re acting ridiculous grin. “For the record, if you’re trying to escape, you shouldn’t back yourself into a corner. It’s pretty much the first rule of survival.”
I glance over my shoulder. Yup, I’m in a corner. “Maybe I have a plan you don’t know about. Maybe I know karate.”
“If you can do karate, then I can do ballet.”
I chew on my bottom lip. “I’d like to see you do ballet.”
TJ advances toward me. “Oh, I’ve got moves. They might not be ballet moves, but I’ve got ‘em.”
Pricks of apprehension sting my mind as I’m reminded why I’m here. “Are you going to show me your moves?”
“If you’ll let me near you.” He continues inching closer and my shoulder blades hit the wall. He tilts my chin with his finger until I’m looking into his eyes. “I’m not going to make you do anything you don’t want to do, but I can assure you: You’re going to want me to do all the things I’m going to do to you.”
Every bone in my body turns to Jell-O. The reservations I had going in to this evaporate into the air. His confidence is intoxicating and it courses through me, stripping me of my inhibitions.
“For the record,” I whisper, “I had an escape plan.”
TJ leans in so his lips brush against mine as he speaks. “For the record, I don’t have Eye of the Tiger as my ringtone.”
“For the record, I don’t believe you.”
He laughs, low and raspy, the sound reverberating inside me. He begins unbuttoning my blouse, slowly, without breaking eye contact.
My breaths are short, skin humming with the flick of each button. He opens my blouse and slips the chiffon down my arms. He unzips my skirt next and it falls at my feet.
I’m standing before a stranger in nothing but my plain cotton bra and panties. “I would’ve worn something sexier if I’d known I’d be having sex with a stranger tonight.”
His eyes glide over every bare part of me. “You are an incredibly sexy woman, and it should be a man’s privilege to see you like this.”
Another wave of his confidence crashes over me. “Maybe I’d feel more comfortable if I wasn’t the only one half-naked.”
TJ lifts his T-shirt up and over his head, his baseball cap coming off with it.
And I’m dead.
I died.
TJ took off his shirt to reveal the most spectacularly carved set of abs I’ve ever seen. Elaborate tattoos span his chest and continue down each side of his ribcage, disappearing into the waistband of his shorts. His cubed abs are ink-free, which makes them stand out even more. I reach out to touch him, my fingers moving of their own volition to trace the artwork that continues along his skin.
“Wow,” I say on an exhale.
