Wicked Things by Yolanda Olson
Hollis
“Bates?”
“Yeah?” he asked as he pulled my body back against his.
We had moved from the living room to his bedroom because he insisted that he didn’t want me to sleep on the bag when he had “a bed in the other room”.
“What are you hiding?”
“What?”
He sounded confused enough for me to pull away from him and sit up. I tucked my hair behind my ears before I pulled my legs up to my chest, and glanced down at him.
“You said you were hiding shit too. What is it?”
A person’s secrets were never easily pried from them, but considering we had just shared something I never had freely given before, I felt it wasn’t out of line to ask.
“Well, do you really want to know?” he inquired as he propped himself on his elbows and smiled up at me.
I nodded.
I didn’t know why it was so damn important, but I had to know.
“Alright,” he relented as he sat up and cleared his throat. I watched as Bates began to pick at his fingernails, before he blew out his breath and kicked his legs over the side of the bed. “I promise that I’ll tell you in the morning. Is that okay?”
I watched as he walked over to the bedroom window, raised the window pane, then turned to face me as he sat down and looked at me nervously.
“That’s fine,” I relented after a few moments.
“Good, thank you. There is one more thing I want to know about you before we go to sleep, Hollis.”
I let out a soft sigh and waited.
“What’s up with the wrap?”
I let out a laugh and shook my head as I turned slightly and propped up some of the pillows against the headboard.
“Last night I went out to a bar on the other end of town. Some drunk asshole wasn’t as understanding as you are, I guess you could say. Anyway, I had been trying to get him to leave me alone, but he dragged me into the bathroom, and …”
My voice trailed off the moment Bates raised a hand to stop me.
“That’s enough. Christ.”
I wasn’t sure but I could almost swear that he looked … angry.
“You’ll have to take me back to that place one day. If we bump into him, I can have a chat with him and explain to him the do’s and don’ts of how to treat a lady.”
I smiled at him, then moved toward the edge of the bed and got to my feet.
When I reached Bates, I wrapped my arms around his waist and rested the side of my face against his chest, inhaling his scent deeply.
“Does that mean you want to see me again?” I asked in a hopeful tone.
“Something like that,” he said as he let out a laugh, and rested his cheek on the top of my head.
I smiled happily as he held me while the breeze from outside drifted in and enveloped us.
I never thought I’d see the day when Heaven and Hell would actually collide; but I just did.
I found it in the safest place I knew I would ever know.
In the arms of an almost stranger who seemed to want me more than I could ever want myself.
