Page 25 of Now You See Him

One Year Later

“ A re you sure that’s it?” Tina asked from the bottom of the stairs. She surveyed the great room, as if expecting to see more boxes and suitcases.

Derrick’s head poked out from around the railing.

“That’s it,” he said. He’d recently cut his hair shorter than usual.

It was close-cropped on the sides and longer on top.

He was wearing a fitted white T-shirt over jeans that cupped his butt.

There was a tool belt slung low on his hips and a pair of slutty black framed glasses perched on his nose.

“I added an extra shoe rack in your closet so I can reclaim the one that’s supposed to be mine. You want to come and look at it?”

“Sure,” Tina said with a smile. She climbed the stairs and paused when she passed Derrick so he could slide his hand around her waist and cup her hip.

They walked side by side into the main bedroom suite.

The closet doors were wide open, and when she walked inside, she couldn’t control the gasp of shock and pleasure.

“Derrick, this is more than just a shoe rack!” She motioned to the slanted shelves that would allow her to display her heels with undermount lighting. It was exactly what she wanted without knowing that this was the vision.

She turned and wrapped her arms around Derrick’s neck before tilting her head up for a kiss. “Thank you. This is…well, it’s better than I could’ve ever imagined.”

He dropped a quick peck on her mouth before wrapping her up in a hug. “You deserve it. I’m just glad that we’re finally doing this.”

This. Meaning moving in together. He’d been asking her for months, but she needed time, and he was so sweet to give it to her.

It had been a very long year of healing and growing, but she was glad they waited. Now they could start their happily ever after with a clear conscience.

Tina glanced at the bed that was still the same one from the last time Logan stood in this house.

After he ran out into the night, cum stain on his pants, he went straight to the police station.

He’d confessed to being the one who pushed Damien down the stairs.

He’d claimed that Damien was haunting him and he just wanted to be locked away, protected from a ghost.

He was immediately admitted into the psych ward. Then there were court proceedings, a criminal-insanity judgment, and an admission in the state psych center for the rest of his life. Lucia wasn’t so lucky and was charged as an accessory to murder.

Logan’s and Lucia’s families both left the area in disgrace, and the rest of their small community looked at Tina with a strange expression whenever they saw her in town.

It was a little weird that she lived in the house where her ex-fiancé murdered a man. Then she started dating the murdered man’s twin.

However, the longer Derrick and Tina were together, the quieter the whispers became.

And they were together a lot. They started dating publicly shortly after Logan’s and Lucia’s confessions.

It was too late for them to hold off on the sex.

They wanted each other too much. But they tried to go out on date nights.

They met up with Jackson and Penny as much as they could.

Tina met Derrick’s parents. Derrick video chatted with Tina’s parents.

They took a short trip to California to visit her sister as well.

Everyone in her life loved Derrick so much more than they’d ever liked Logan. Despite what may be considered a short turnaround time since she was with Logan for six years, Derrick was accepted by her close circle with open arms. His parents, crew and friends were also incredibly welcoming to her.

When Derrick finished his last house flip and was ready to move into a new project, she said that it was time that they moved in together. They’d already been spending every night together. It was ridiculous to not just…live together, too.

“But I’m not waiting six years for us to get married,” Derrick had replied. His mouth thinned in that stubborn line she’d come to love. “If I move in, six months tops, we’re getting engaged, and six months after that, we’re tying the knot. If you’re not okay with those plans, tell me now, woman.”

She’d laughed, then berated him for the least romantic pre-proposal ever, before she jumped in his arms and smothered his face with kisses.

They clicked in a way she’d never connected with Logan, and now she understood why.

She never loved Logan, couldn’t love him, because of the person he really was.

If she’d known he was the kind of man to cheat, steal, and commit murder before hiding the truth, then she would’ve ended things long ago.

But then again, if she hadn’t dated Logan, then she’d never have had the opportunity to meet Derrick. She stood on her toes and kissed her boyfriend again. He eagerly complied, bending her over so he could devour her like he could never get enough of her taste.

No wonder she’d been the person to say I love you first. How could she not, when he wanted her with the same intensity that she wanted him?

After they pulled apart for air, Tina took a moment to nuzzle against his chest.

“I’m so glad Damien brought us together.”

“Me, too,” he said softly. “Me too, sweetheart.”

Her hands stroked down his chest to the waistband of his jeans. “Question for you. How much unpacking or handyman projects do you have left to do today?”

His grin was quick and hinted at wicked. “I have my closet left, but I can be persuaded to hold off if there is a better offer.”

Keeping eye contact, Tina slowly lowered to her knees. She released the clasp on his tool belt and let it fall to the floor with a hard clink. “I think we should christen the place together, don’t you?”

“Tina, we’ve already had sex on every surface in this house.”

“But not as partners officially living together,” she said as she slowly lowered his zipper.

His chuckle turned into a throaty moan as she reached in his boxer briefs and wrapped her fingers around his hardening cock. “You do have a point.”

Tina reveled in how he responded to her, in all the ways that they’d learned each other’s bodies, their likes and dislikes, over the last year. Just them. No one else.

She adjusted herself on her knees and took him into her mouth. Her eyes closed at the delicious feel of his hot-and-hard erection that she began sucking and licking with fervor.

Just as she was about to take him deeper, push him all the way to the back of her throat, she felt a cold chill on the back of her neck. She hadn’t felt that chill in a year, and yet it was hauntingly familiar.

Her lungs seized, her heart dropped to her belly, and with her hands gripped on Derrick’s hips, his penis lodged in her mouth, she felt his fist tighten in her hair until it was nearly painful.

Her eyelids flew open, and she jerked to look up into a face that was so familiar, yet so eerily different at the same time.

“You’re such a good little whore,” he rasped.

Damien.