Incipient A Dark Paranormal Romance - Bianca Scardoni Page 0,53

long and hard about how I was going to go about this and who I was going to involve. The slightest misstep and Dominic would see me coming from a mile away and that was the last thing I needed. If he even suspected I was coming for him…I shivered just thinking about what he’d do to me and the pleasure he’d take from doing it.

The doorbell rang, interrupting our conversation and not a moment too soon. Trace stood up, grabbing his wallet off the table before shuffling out of the living room. I grabbed the remote control from the coffee table and flipped through the channels looking for something interesting to watch before settling on a horror movie. Seemed fitting with Halloween right around the corner and all.

“Nice,” said Trace when he walked back into the room with a large pizza box in hand. “Part two is my favorite.” He tossed the pizza box on the coffee table and then sat down.

“Smells like heaven,” I said as I watched him open the box and spin it toward me. I quickly grabbed a slice and curled back on the couch with it like a squirrel that just scored its winter meal.

Trace grabbed a slice and folded it in half before flopping back on the couch beside me—slightly closer this time. I tried not to pay attention to the fact that his forearm was touching my leg or how nice it felt to be close like this, just eating pizza and watching a scary movie like normal people do.

For the first time in a really long time, I felt content. Possibly even…happy.

“You gotta watch this part,” he said, bouncing a quick glance at me. “It’s the best scene in the whole movie.”

I smiled as I tried to focus on the scene playing out before me. My attention, however, kept returning to Trace and the way his dimples deepened when he took a bite of his pizza. The way his ebony hair picked up the light from the screen, making it look almost blue-black. The way his arm rested comfortably against my leg as though we’d always been this close. As though there were no other way for the two of us to be.

Frankly, it was damn near impossible to pay attention to the movie.

The doorbell rang again, pulling me out of my stare-fest.

Trace looked over at me with his eyebrows pulled together. “Are you expecting someone?” he asked, his eyes on the hallway now as his jaw hardened into a line.

“Me? This isn’t even my house,” I reminded him stupidly because he obviously knew that.

“Wait here,” he said as he tossed his slice of pizza back into the box and stood up from the couch.

But I was already up and tugging at his arm before he could take a step in either direction. “I’m getting a really bad feeling about this,” I said as my stomach stirred with anxiety.

“Yeah? That makes two of us.” His eyes were trained on the dark hallway, as though he were expecting our unexpected visitor to make an appearance there.

The anxiety intensified, coiling out of my stomach and into the rest of my limbs. “Okay, so let’s just ignore it then,” I suggested, wishing we could just go back to our one normal evening of doing normal teenager stuff. “They’ll go away if we don’t answer.”

“What if it’s one of our friends?” he asked in a tone that told me he didn’t remotely think it was one of our friends.

“At twelve o’clock at night? I’m sure they would’ve called first.”

The doorbell rang again, twice this time.

“Only one way to know for sure.”

I tightened my hold on his arm, my nails digging into his flesh. “I think it’s him. I can…feel him.” I knew I didn’t need to say his name for Trace to know that I was talking about Dominic.

Trace looked down at me, the edges and lines of his face all business. “Don’t leave this room until I come back.”

My eyes swelled as I dug my nails deeper into his bicep. “You’re not answering that door, Trace!” My shrilly voice sounded foreign, like it didn’t belong to me anymore.

“I’m not scared of that leech, Jemma. Besides, he can’t come inside here.”

“I know that…and so does he.”

“So, what’s your point?” he asked, not following my train of thought.

“Well, if he knows he can’t get inside here then what’s he doing here in the first place?” I wondered aloud as my stomach twisted itself into an uncomfortable