She stepped up on the porch, refusing to look back over her shoulder for fear she would give her nervousness away. If she could just get inside, she’d be okay.
The moment her key turned in the lock, he moved behind her much more quickly than she had thought possible, and pushed the door wide.
Shay leaped away from him. Spying her phone on the table by the chair, she lunged across the room and scooped it up in her free hand before facing him. “Get out before I call the sheriff.”
“Okay, okay.” He lifted both hands as if he were under arrest. After a quick glance around he shoved at the door with his foot. It didn’t quite close but he didn’t seem to care. “Did you like my flowers?”
“No.” She decided not to provoke him by saying she threw them away, along with the note signed “Mine forever.” It had sounded to her more like a threat than a lover’s promise. “We’re exes, Eric.”
He gave a little jerk of his head, as if to dismiss her words. “You wanted me to work for it. I got that message. Here I am. Aren’t you glad I didn’t give up? Most men would have, a long time ago.”
The wet chill from the oyster bag she still clutched had seeped into her tee and made her shiver. “Then you should be glad to be rid of me.”
He paused and stared at her. “Yes. But I’m the loyal sort. Why aren’t you the loyal sort, Shay?”
He sounded wounded, as if she really had hurt him. It tugged an old reaction in her, one that made her want to make things right. Then she remembered the tracking device.
Never taking her eyes off him, she made herself remember a week ago, when he’d shown up unexpectedly at a bar and grill where she was having dinner with Angie and Henry, friends from work. He had slid into the booth beside her and put an arm around her as if they were still a couple. Her friends had said nothing. Embarrassed and not wanting to make a scene, she said nothing, either. But when she slipped outside, on the pretext of going to the restroom, she had discovered that two of her car tires were flat.
Before she could call for help, Eric had appeared in the parking lot. He pressed her to let him drive her home, saying how dangerous it was for a woman to be out at night alone. It was the gleam in his eyes that gave away the truth. He had slashed her tires. But she had no proof, and he knew it.
So she’d run back into the restaurant and asked Angie and Henry for help. When they came out, Eric was nowhere to be seen.
A shiver rippled over Shay’s arms. She was isolated, nowhere to run this time, and he knew it.
His gaze shifted to the fireplace where wood had been laid for a fire, and the sheepskin rug before it. “Nice. Cozy. Almost like you were expecting me.”
He looked back at her, his eyes a little sleepy in that way he had when his thoughts had turned to sex. “You hurt me, Shay. I don’t mind admitting it. I keep thinking, what if we had a whole weekend alone to talk about things? I know we could work this out.”
“We’re over.” Her finger slid over the emergency key of her phone in warning.
“Yeah, about that.” He rubbed his forehead. “I’ve got some news you need to hear from me.” When Shay didn’t bother to respond he said, “I’m engaged.”
Shay opened her mouth and shut it. And opened it. “Who?”
“She lives in Atlanta. Daughter of a state senator. We were seeing each other before I met you. But then she started jerking me around, wouldn’t commit. So I told her I needed a breather. It worked. She didn’t last a month before she called, saying she couldn’t live without me.”
Shay absorbed this information without an outward reaction. Eric had been back together with the woman who is now his fiancée for nearly the entire year I had thought I was exclusive with him.
Shay swallowed her resentment and disgust. “Does she know about me?”
He shrugged. “Women. They screw with your mind. Want to call the shots in a relationship. But in the end, what they want is a man who’s in charge. You know the feeling, right?” He glanced at her from beneath his brows, a bad-boy-with-a-please-forgive-me pose.
Shay knew she should just agree with him, in the hope that he would leave. But then he’d have gotten everything his way. As usual. The heavy thumps of her heart weren’t just from fear. Anger spurred that pump, too. She’d just spent a miserable month fighting her own self-doubts and vulnerabilities. That was his fault. She just couldn’t let him get away with thinking he had bested her.
“Why were you seeing me if you had her?”
He looked a little annoyed. “Her daddy’s had me dancing a damn two-step courtship these last ten months. You were my no-strings revenge fuck.”
Shay didn’t even feel insulted by his crude remark. Instinct told her he’d come here to do more than gloat, and that’s where the danger lay.