Page 145 of Checkmate
“You’re fucking sexy when you speak like that,” Alex said, squeezing her butt. “Thank you, Sophie.”
“Always,” she assured him. “And don’t worry about Marcus. We’ll get our revenge. Now I know about this blackmail, I can help you hit him where it really hurts.”
Chapter 42
Marcus
YESTERDAY
“I could see us here,” Marcus said as he looked out of the window into the overgrown garden. “I mean, we might want to chop a few bushes down—”
“You leave those bushes alone,” Erica said, joining him at the window. “We need privacy. You never know when some weirdos might use our house for a ghost tour.”
“You’re funny,” Marcus said, rolling his eyes. “Seriously, what do you think?”
“You know how much I love this house, Marcus,” she said, looking over the garden.
“I sense a ‘but’. What’s the issue?”
“No issue,” she said, meeting his gaze. “No buts. I want to live here, and I want to live here with you.”
“Okay,” he said, elongating the word. “I can tell there’s something you’re not saying.”
There was, of course. This was a big step they were taking, as business partners, as friends. As two people who were regularly sleeping together.
She still had no idea what the parameters of this situation were, and it was driving her fucking crazy.
It was now or never.
“I guess I’m wondering exactly how you see us here,” she said in a small voice. “Do you mean in this house, or in this particular room?”
Marcus raised his eyebrows, glancing over to the bed left over by the previous owners. She followed his gaze, biting her lip nervously. Oh, she should have kept her big mouth shut.
“Well,” he said, turning back to her. “Do you think that if we had separate bedrooms, we’d end up spending much time in them?”
“Probably not,” she said, unable to stop a small smirk spreading across her lips. They had been all over each other this past week, her makeshift bed on the sofa long abandoned.
“I agree,” he said, his eyes twinkling as he moved his arms around her waist. “I definitely meant I could see us in this room. And every other room in the house.” Leaning down, he brushed his lips over hers. “I don’t want you in a bed that isn’t mine.”
She couldn’t ignore the thrill that went through her at his words.
Oh, she was in trouble. She liked this man more than she had any right to. Her divorce wasn’t finalised yet and here was another man worming his way into her heart.
“So,” Marcus said, pulling her attention back from her wandering thoughts. “This feels pretty conclusive. Sharing a house. Sharing a bed. Makes a statement, doesn’t it?”
“It does. Now you mention it.”
Nipping her lip once, he smirked at her. “Well, Miss Erica, for the sake of clarity, let me just say I am yours. Completely. Desperately. So what do you say? Are you mine?”
PRESENT DAY
“... And if we all rally together as a community, this beautiful young couple can continue to provide us with spooky entertainment for many years to come…”
“That’ll be that then,” Erica’s father said, muting the TV after the camera panned to the newscaster. “Our Erica on the TV.”
A week after the break-in, Erica finally had a chance to sit down with her family and explain a few things. Mainly why she and Marcus were on TV, being called a beautiful couple by the Lord Provost of their city.
“You looked really great,” her mum said, taking a sip of her tea. “Both of you, I mean.”
