Bedroom Secrets. Michelle Celmer

      “You may as well get comfortable,” he said.

      He sat on the carpet, his back against the wall, so she sat a few feet away against the adjacent wall, tucking her knees up under her chin.

      “So,” he said, “why did you feel it was necessary to douse me with pepper spray?” He said it so calmly, when he must have been furious with her.

      “I didn’t know it was you. I thought it was an intruder.”

      “I own the house. You were the intruder.”

      “I know. I’m sorry. I made a mistake.”

      “Which brings me to my next question. What were you doing half-naked in my house in the first place? And don’t tell me cleaning.”

      “I was sleeping. I needed a place to stay.”

      Anger leaked into his voice. “So you never really wanted the job? You just needed a place to crash?”

      “No! I did need the job. I do need it.”

      “You said you know Mae. Was that a lie, too?”

      “Of course not! I met her at the diner. She gave me your business card when—” she paused, still humiliated by the experience.

      “When what?”

      “When I couldn’t pay my bill. I forgot about the sales tax and was twenty cents short. She took me into her office and I thought she was going to call the police.”

      “The police? For twenty cents? You’re not from around here are you?”

      She shook her head. “Instead she brought me a hamburger and gave me your card.”

      “Mae has a big heart.”

      She nodded again, emotion catching in her throat.

      He cringed. “You’re not going to cry again, are you?”

      She swallowed hard and shook her head.

      “I’m going to ask you a question and I want an honest answer, okay?”

      “Okay.”

      “Did you run away from home?”

      “Sort of, I guess.”

      He sighed and dragged a hand across his face. “Then we need to call your parents. They’re probably worried sick about you.”

      He thought she was a teenage runaway? She nearly laughed. Did she really look that young? “Sorry, but that’s impossible.”

      “No matter how bad things are, running away isn’t the answer. And I can get in a lot of trouble letting you stay here.”

      “I doubt that.” At least not for the reason he was thinking. Harboring a fugitive maybe.

      “I’m sure you’ve heard of statutory rape. I’m twenty-eight years old, and you’re what? Sixteen, seventeen?”

      “Twenty-one.”

      He lifted a skeptical brow. “Uh-huh. Sure you are.”

      “Seriously, I am. My driver’s license is in my backpack in the bedroom closet. Go get it if you don’t believe me.”

      He made no move to get up. “If you’re twenty-one, why did you run away from home?”

      “I didn’t have a choice. It wasn’t my home anymore. My aunt died and my cousin…kicked me out. I have no money, no home and no family. And no, that’s not a sob story to make you feel sorry for me. It just is what it is.”

      He was quiet for a minute, then he said, “What about your parents?”

      “My mother died a long time ago and I never knew my father. I’ve been trying to find him, and I traced him to Chapel. That’s why I’m here.”

      “But you don’t have any money?”

      She shook her head, because it was too humiliating to say out loud.

      “And how long ago did your cousin kick you out?”

      “Five days. I figured I would have found my father by now and he could help me. But all I’ve found are a bunch of dead ends.”

      “Why should I believe anything you say?”

      “I guess you don’t have to. But if you have any compassion at all you won’t fire me. I need to pay Mae back and find my father. I need the job.”

      He sighed again, rubbing his red-rimmed eyes. “I should boot you out on your behind, but for some reason I actually believe you, so I’ll let you keep the job. But only if you promise to be nice to me from now on.”

      She froze and bile crept up her throat. No way. This couldn’t be happening to her again. And to think she’d trusted him. Would he try to force himself on her like Ray had, or did he just expect her to lie back and let it happen?

      When she sprayed him earlier she should have run. She should have gotten out when she could. And now here they were, her in his clothes and him in his underwear. Why hadn’t she seen this coming? How could she be so foolish?

      Ty leaned forward, as if he was going to get up, and Tina scrambled to the corner of the room, as far from him as she could get. “Don’t touch me!”

      He looked up, surprised. “What?”

      “I’ll leave as soon as my clothes are dry, just stay away from me.”

      “Tina, what are you talking about? I said you could have the job.”

      “I don’t care how bad I need it. I’m not having sex with you.”

      He blinked, looking impossibly confused. “When did I ask you to have sex with me?”

      She frowned. Why did he not seem to know what the heck she was talking about? “You said I had to be nice to you. I thought…”

      “I meant nice like, you won’t attack me with your pepper spray again. Why would you think sex would be part of the bargain? I mean, besides the obvious, that I’m sitting here in my skivvies and I accidentally grabbed your breast in the shower?”

      She didn’t answer. She couldn’t. It was too humiliating. And she didn’t even have to, he figured it out all by himself.

      He cursed and shook his head. “Who was it? Don’t tell me your cousin.”

      “He’s a cousin by marriage. Not blood.”

      He tossed his hands up. “Well, that makes it so much less perverse.”

      “I should have seen it coming,” she said. “He always was kind of creepy.”

      Ty said firmly, “Don’t you dare tell me it was your fault. No one should have to see something like that coming. What were you doing living with a guy like that anyway?”

      “I wasn’t living with him. It was my aunt’s house. My cousin Ray told me I would get the house and half my aunt’s money when she passed away.”

      “But you didn’t,” Ty said. It was stated as a fact, not a question.

      “It was all a lie. He never intended to give me a dime. But at least I had a roof over my head and food on the table. Then I found out that came with a condition.”

      “What kind of condition?”

      “I had to be ‘nice’ to him.”

      “Sick bastard.” Ty tunneled his fingers through his damp hair. He’d figured when she showed up in his office that she was pretty desperate for a job. He just hadn’t realized how desperate.

      And it occurred to him suddenly that he’d been sitting in the same room with her for a while now, in his underwear no less, and he hadn’t once felt even a hint of anxiety. He still found her attractive, but he was feeling this brotherly