Free Spellbound in His Arms by Angel Sefer

give her only the facts. He couldn’t possibly tell
her the whole truth. He felt her tensing and saw her face frowning. “I’m not
sure who he was,” he continued. That much was true.
    “But you have suspicions?” she asked, carefully
searching her face.
    “No,” he lied. “At least not for the time being.”
    “And what about tonight?”
    “This wasn’t the same guy,” he said firmly. “The other
one seemed slimmer and taller.”
    “What now?” she asked puzzled.
    “We have to secure the house and wait until tomorrow
morning. There’s nothing we can do in the middle of the night.” He looked out
the window. “At least the rain’s stopped for a while.”
    “Yes,” Jackie agreed and gave him a hesitant look.
    “What?” he asked and saw her shifting uncomfortably.
“Jackie, what is it?” he insisted, seeing her hesitation.
    “I was just wondering…” she started and lowered her
eyes.
    “You were wondering what?” he insisted.
    “I was wondering…” she said, keeping her eyes away from
him, “if you could spend the night with me?”
    ***
    Jackie heard him taking a deep breath and raised her
face to look at him. Seeing the look in his eyes, she realized how her statement
must have sounded.
    “I didn’t mean that!” she protested and was furious to
see an amused smile on his face. “I just don’t want to be alone and was
wondering if we could sleep in the same room.” Her voice shook from
embarrassment.
    “I have no problem with that,” he reassured her. “Even
though, I had no problem with your first suggestion either,” he added, making
her blush again.
    “Forget about it!” She jumped up from the sofa. “Just
forget I even asked.” She rushed to the kitchen to pick up her flashlight. With
the electricity out on the second floor, she needed light to go upstairs. She
had decided earlier to use one of the bedrooms on the second floor. It somehow
seemed more secure being in a room up there. And now after tonight’s events,
she was even more determined to spend the night in the dark with only the company
of the flashlight and maybe a candle or two, than to be downstairs where
intruders had immediate access.
    “Jackie!”
    She heard his voice, calling after her, but she wouldn’t
stop. She needed to get away from him…as far away as she could. She couldn’t
believe that he had misinterpreted her intensions like this. He was
infuriating.
    But, if she wanted to be honest, it wasn’t his fault
after all. The problem was, though, that she didn’t want to be honest. If she
did, she would have to face the fact that spending the night with him had
crossed her mind more than once.
    Holding the flashlight in her hands, she entered the
first bedroom on the right and slammed the door behind her. It was good that
she had carried some of her stuff into the room earlier because she had no
intention of going back downstairs tonight.
    She lit a candle in the candlestick on the small desk by
the window. She turned her flashlight off and went to close the heavy curtains,
glancing uneasily outside for a moment. She knew that someone was out there, watching,
waiting ….
    ***
    Michael didn’t want to pressure her anymore. She wasn’t
being honest with him, but he was no better. He had been lying to her all along
too.
    He walked to the study and examined the area. He
realized he’d left the secret door open and wondered if Jackie had seen it. If
she had, she hadn’t mentioned anything about it for some reason.
    He looked around the room and his eyes rested for a minute
on the portrait of the young girl. “I miss you so much…” he whispered. “I miss
you and I miss dad. I promise you I’ll make this bastard pay for everything.”
He let out a deep breath and clenched his fists, making the muscles in his arms
flex. Just thinking of what his mother had been through made him furious. I
need to control myself, he realized. I can’t let anger blind me. I need
to clear my head and get to the