Wicked Things by Yolanda Olson
Bates
I heldthe door to my fridge open as Hollis crouched down and picked through the neatly packed meats.
I didn’t think she believed me when I told her that my “shit” happened to be the consumption of human flesh from time to time, and I thought showing her might have helped.
But she still didn’t seem to think I was telling the truth.
“You’re not convinced, are you?” I teased her with a laugh.
“Looks like ordinary stuff to me,” she said with a shrug as she stood back up, and pried the door from my hand.
“Wanna see the rest?” I inquired mischievously.
“The rest of what?”
“Well, I didn’t get a chance to finish …”
“Finish?” she pressed curiously.
“Come on,” I said as I leaned over and hoisted her over my shoulder. Hollis let out a squeal and I laughed as I made my way toward the back of my house.
Once I entered my spare room, I set her down and walked her over to the book case. I wrapped my arms around her shoulders from behind, rested my chin on top of her head, and scanned the books.
“Which one do you think it is?”
“What?”
I leaned down and grazed my lips against her ear before I whispered the answer, “A Modest Proposal. Pull that one.”
And when she did, I waited until she glanced up at me again, before I grinned and pulled the cover open.
Hidden inside the pages of the book was a key to the storage freezer beneath my home, and while she wasn’t entirely dressed to be in such frigid temperatures, I had to prove this to her one way or another.
“A key?” she asked in confusion when she located it.
“Yep. Now put the book back and let’s go downstairs.”
“There’s a downstairs?” she asked in surprise as she replaced the hardcover, and let me lead her out of the room.
I shrugged, “I like to be able to hide my indiscretions. It makes me feel normal from time to time.”
When she blushed I felt like a dumb fuck. Hollis also hid her secrets, but it was because she needed to, not because she chose to.
We walked in silence to the next room, and when we reached the door inside, I nodded at her to put the key in the hole and unlock it.
Kind of like I did with her last night, only instead of a key, I used my cock.
“Now what?” she asked when she pulled the door open.
“Bundle up. It’s cold down there,” I said with a shrug as I walked by her and grabbed her hand to lead her down the stairs.
Once we were on level ground, I turned to face her.
“You’re good at keeping secrets right, pretty girl?”
Hollis nodded.
“Look to your left.”
And when she saw it, she gasped.
After she gasped, she raised her hands to her face.
Then she made her way over to it with a childlike wonder in each shuffling step she took.
I gave her a few moments alone with it, then walked over to Hollis and stood next to her—waiting for her to say something, anything to make me feel like I wasn’t alone in this hell that I had created.
I wondered if she’d notice anything familiar about it.
Especially since I hadn’t had the chance to remove the head yet; only the skin it wore once as a face.
“Okay. I guess this is it, isn’t it,” she finally said.
“What is?” I asked nervously.
I suddenly became worried that she was going to leave, maybe tell someone what I was hiding beneath my home, and I wasn’t sure why.
“I know your secrets and you know mine.”
“Yeah,” I agreed cautiously. “So, now what?”
“I just want to know one more thing,” she said, echoing my sentiment from the night before.
I glanced down at her and nodded.
“What’s your last name?”
A relieved grin spread so quickly across my face that Hollis giggled.
“Murphy. What’s yours?”
Jones.
Hollis Jones and Bates Murphy.
I instantly loved the way it sounded.
And when she turned her attention back toward the carcass hanging on the meat hook in front of her, I wondered how easily it would be for her to love the way it sounded too.
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Follow Hollis & Bates’ love story here:
Delicate Things
Violent Things
___
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“The atmosphere is dark and ominous, and there’s seemingly no escape from the monster. But the question is, who is the real monster?”
– USA Today Bestselling Author, Ellie Midwood
