Chapter Ten
Cori
“You should lay your head on my shoulder and try to get some rest.”
His words course over me and have me fighting a shiver. I shouldn’t be here in his lap, shouldn’t be pressed against his chest, shouldn’t be thinking the things I’m thinking, especially not after the dream I had.
“Yeah, I don’t think sleep is going to be easy to come by anytime soon. Every time I go to sleep, I wake up somewhere weird.”
He tenses under me. “Wait, you’ve done this before? Woke up somewhere other than your room?”
Shit! Guess I gave myself away.
I nod, not wanting to say anything more, but he takes my chin between his fingers and turns my head, so we are staring into each other’s eyes.
“I woke up in the hallway last night.”
“In the hallway?” I nod. “Where in the hallway?”
Damn it! I’m going to have to tell him.
“Right outside your door.”
I brace myself for the repercussions of my words. Maybe he’ll tell me to get off his lap now. He did tell me to pretty much leave earlier tonight. But it never comes.
“What the hell is going on here?”
I wish I knew.
“What happened the first night we came to the island? What made you leave your room?”
That I don’t want to tell him. I pull my lips around my teeth to keep from saying anything and try to pull away from him. He doesn’t let up and only uses those intense blue eyes on me.
Tell him!
This time, when I pull away, he lets me. I stand and look, but the only people in the boathouse are the two of us.
His hands grab a hold of the backs of my thighs as he comes to his knees, fully trapping me to him.
“Look, I know something is up with you. I saw the footage of you in Room Twelve. I heard the voice recorder. You responded to something every time it answered, almost like you could hear it without having to use the DVR.”
My heart comes up in my throat as my worst fears are laid bare. Either I tell him, and he acts one of two ways. He laughs at me and tells me I’m insane, or he wants to use me like a trained circus performer. Or…I try to keep it a secret until I leave this island in the morning.
What I don’t expect is for him to run those big, rough hands upward.
“What…?”
“I know there’s something going on, Cori.”
I shake my head and try to take a step back, but go nowhere as he pulls me closer to him.
“Cori, tell me.” His face is so close to my chest, and I know the flimsy gown offers me no protection. He has to be able to see…everything.
Tell him!
I look behind me at where the voice is coming from, knowing I shouldn’t, but needing to anyway.
“What is it? What are you hearing?”
Once again, I shake my head and try to put space between us. Fear over being used, being rejected, or just being sent to a hospital for evaluation clogs my throat, “I…I can’t. I can’t.”
It comes out as nothing but a whisper.
“You can hear them, can’t you?”
I shake my head, wanting to deny what he just said.
“You can. You can hear them without the recorder. Tell me, baby. Tell me you can hear them.
“I want to leave. I won’t mess with your show. I’ll take the boat off the island…” Behind me, something falls, making me jump and jerk closer to him as I turn to see what happened.
“You’re not going anywhere, baby.”
I shove his bare shoulder and fight against his hold. “I’ll leave when I want to. I’m not going to stay and be some…some…sideshow so you can get viewers. I…Oh my God!”
He stops me from saying anything else by smacking my ass cheek. Heat floods my face as his expression changes from one thunder cloud to another.
“Cori…you’re not wearing panties.”
“Oh!” I’m going to die on this island. Right here in this boathouse. Of utter mortification. I push against him, this time with both palms, and get ready to launch myself out into the night and the storm. It can’t be as bad as what happened here.
“You’ve been running around this god damned island with nothing on under these tiny fucking things.”
“It’s…my nightclothes…no one was supposed to find out I wasn’t…”
He smacks my ass again, this time on the other side, and brings both hands up to cup the globes of my ass, causing me to let out a squeak that dies on my lips as his hands grip my curves.
“God damn, baby. Do you know the self-control I am having to practice right now?”
I let out an irritated huff as I place my hands back on his chest to push him away. They had fallen to my side, useless, when he made contact with both ass cheeks.
“Don’t! You…You have someone…you’re with Ripley.”
“What?” The look he shoots me is a mirror of what I am feeling: utter confusion.
We were talking about my…gifts, then we skipped to my choice to not wear panties, and now his hands are on my ass, giving me the most confused look I’ve ever seen.
“I’m not with Ripley. That fucking producer is with her. ”
“I…I know, but…I thought... How did she know about what you said…on the boat? Never mind. I don’t want to know. I don’t want to listen to all of your stupid reasons or rules that you clearly don’t follow.”
“I follow my own rules, thank you very much.” He stands up in front of me now so that he towers over me, “I don’t sleep around with people I work with, and until you, I damned sure didn’t touch them!
She overheard me and Drake talking about you.
I didn’t want you to come because I was worried about you.
You don’t have any experience with this shit…
or at least I didn’t think you did before I found out you hear them.
You seem to have left that off your resume. ”
“I didn’t…”
“What else have you been keeping from me?”
“What?!”
“Can you read minds, too? Did you realize right from the start how I felt about you?”
“I don’t have to read minds to know that. You made it very clear you can’t stand me, you…prick.” I go toe to toe with him, just as mad at him as he seems to be at me.
“You…I can’t do this with you with your tits right there.”
Oh my God! The humiliation never ends. I gasp and bring my arms up to cross over myself before I spin around, only to come face to face with a dead girl.
I can’t stop the scream that comes out as I stumble back and quickly shut my eyes. I’m in arms before I realize my feet aren’t on the ground anymore.
“What the fuck?! What did you see?!”
“I…I just want to leave. I don’t want…” Thunder shakes the ground, and there is an electric current buzzing around the room that makes my hair stand up on the back of my neck.
I still haven’t opened my eyes, so I can’t tell if it’s because something has touched me or we’re about to get hit by lightning.
“Tell me what happened so I can help, damn it.”
When I open my eyes, we’re back on the floor in our little spot in between crates and boxes with the blanket over us.
“I…I saw her again. I saw the same woman from the house. From my room.”