Look Closer: No Safe Words Here 1-4 out of 5. Boxed Set by Mercy Walker Read Free Book Online

dark, desperate passion I hadn’t even known my husband possessed.
    I heard the young man laugh, and then he go up out of the pool and sauntered toward what he had dropped by the side of the pool.  That’ s when I recognized him.  He’d grown since I’d last seen him: taller, broader, more manly.
    But it was still The Wilkes Boy.  And he was the same age Emily would have been.
    Sitting in the kitchen now, a cold cup of coffee untouched by my side, I couldn’t aver as to what bothered me worst.  That my husband was cheating on me.  That he was cheating on me with another man.  Or that he was molesting a teenager.
    Well, the Wilkes Boy was nineteen, so technically Tom wasn’t a pederast.  But who knew how long it had been going on?  My breath hissed out through my teeth as I wondered how oblivious…no, how fucking stupid I had been, not to have seen what was going on.  And in my own house!
    My mind suddenly clicked onto the fact that Tom’s gun was locked away in the small gun safe under his bedside table.  “For protection” he’d said when he’d insisted on having one in the house, against my vehement objections.
    Tom’s gun…
    I heard the air conditioning turn on and had to think about it for a few awkward beats—why the broken air conditioning was working again.  And then I heard footsteps on the cellar steps.
    Oh, the handyman.  Gus or Gabe…Carl?
    He came through the door to the basement and gave me a smile.  It wasn’t politician bright or dazzling, but I could well imagine that he didn’t sleep alone often.  But then I took the rest of him in.  His clothes were stained with oil and paint, his hair was unkempt and curly—some light streaks of gray shot through it.  And he had a couple days worth of stubble on his beguilingly handsome face.
    But his melted chocolate brown eyes were warm and friendly, and had a touch of crow’s feet. On a woman crow’s feet were a shameful mark of advanced age, but on a man, it was still just damn sexy.
    He was as tall, if not taller than Tom, and he didn’t look gym toned like my husband—Tom worked out like a demon…and now I knew why… 
    No, this man was strong and broad, and his muscles were earned by serious work.
    Suddenly I realized he was standing right next to me…and he was looking at me expectantly. 
    Crap, he’d been talking while I’d been ogling him…what the hell had he been saying?
    My sudden embarrassment pushed aside my overwhelming husband troubles.  It was bad enough I’d ignored him while he was speaking to me, but I’d been sizing him up like a pervert at a strip club.
    “I’m sorry, Mister…?”  I couldn’t bring myself to call him by a wrong name too.
    “Thurogood, ma’am.  Jake Thurogood.”  He smiled again and averted his eyes for a moment, then said, “Just call me Jake.  That’s what everyone calls me.  Call me Mr. Thrurogood and I start looking for my old man.”
    I smiled.  He was a charmer.  Though definitely blue collar.
    “Okay, Jake…I’m sorry, but what did you say before?”
    Jake brightened, and I think his chest puffed out a little with pride.
    “Oh, I got your air conditioning unit going again.”  He held his arms out and we listened to the air whirring from the vents overhead.  “Obviously.  You had a frayed wire.  Looked like it burnt out, which has been going on a lot lately because of the heat wave.  It’s overtaxing most units in the area.”
    I nodded and smiled.  A wire.  And he’d fixed it in how long?  I suddenly felt embarrassed again.  A stranger was in my house, and I didn’t even know how long he’d been there.
    I pushed that thought aside.  “So, Jake, how much do I owe you for your time?”
    He blushed.  “Well, It only took me about ten minutes…and a wire…so I’d say, twenty dollars will be good.”
    Twenty dollars?  I shook my head.  That wouldn’t even pay for the gas that brought him here.  And I knew well and good the service man I