Page 39 of A Duet of Darkness and Dreams

She holds out the marker to me. “I’d like your autograph, please.”

The knots in my chest seem to liquify. A gooey, fluttering feeling filling up my insides like warm honey. “Really?”

She nods and smiles sweetly.

“I . . . okay, well—” I stammer. “What do you want me to sign?”

Her eyes widen. “Oh, shit. I left the copy of the album you guys gave me at home. Ummm . . . hold on.” She digs through her purse for a moment, and I can’t help but smile at the frantic little way she wants to do this for me. “Shit, where’s my notebook?” she mutters, throwing her bag down on the stair below us.

“It’s okay. Don’t worry about it.”

“No,” she says forcefully. “This is happening.” There’s a fire burning in her dark eyes when she looks at me, and it’s as if the noise outside of the room fades away. She twists her upper body. “Here.”

“Huh?”

She reaches around and taps her bare shoulder with her finger. “Autograph me here.”

My jaw nearly hits the floor. “Wh—what?”

“Come on, Noblar.”

Pulling the wispy hairs away from the nape of her neck, she looks back at me. Her skin is gorgeous, smooth and tanned, and it feels like a crime to mark her up. The only saving grace is that she wantsmeto mark her up. To brand her with my name and, fuck, if that doesn’t make me want to also sink my teeth into her, I don’t know what will.

“Okay.”

I pull the cap off the marker with a pop. Reaching up with my left hand, I brace myself along the skin of her shoulder blade, the feel of her under my fingertips sending a jolt right through me. Lifting my other hand, I pause as I let my thumb brush ever so gently across the landscape of bare skin.

I hear and feel her sharp intake of breath, and my cock strains in my jeans. What would it be like to have every square inch of her under my hands? I swallow hard, then swipe the marker across her skin, leaving a glistening black trail in its wake. A fewmore careful strokes as I unabashedly take too long writing out my autograph.

“There,” I choke out, looking away only for a moment to recap the marker and hand it back to her.

“How—How does it look?” she asks, her voice deeper than normal.

“It’s still a bit wet, here—”

I lean forward and blow, watching with fascination as goosebumps scatter all over—up and down. Her eyes fall closed and her lips part, fuck, she’s the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen. My thumb grazes over her skin again and again, back and forth like I’m stuck in a trance.

“Dave.”

Barely above a whisper, the sound of my name forces my gaze up to where she watches me. Her brown eyes sparkle in the dim light but also ignite something deep and yearning in my belly. The world seems to disappear, and there’s no more anger or guilt. There’s just her and this staircase when I lean forward, dropping my eyes to her lips.

Cacophonous noise pours in as the door snaps open behind us. Like a bubble bursting, I pull back, hands retracting as I realize what I’m doing.

“Dave, there you are. Come on, Al’s waiting for us,” Key says, then retreats again, pulling the door closed. The quiet this time is different, uncomfortable, and the two of us shift on the stairs.This shouldn’t be happening.

“I better go,” I murmur, unable to meet her gaze. I know what I’ll find there if I look, and I can’t stand to see her hurt.

“Right,” she whispers, my chest squeezing at the choked way it sounds.

We both stand, and in the confined space, we bump together, me trying to angle my hips outward so she doesn’t feel exactly howmuch my body longs for more of hers. But I can’t. I just can’t. Not with the promise to James and the guilt of my past weighing heavy on my shoulders. Not tonight, when everything is finally becoming real.

“Thanks,” I murmur, gesturing wildly in the area of her shoulder as I look everywhere but her.

A deep breath, then: “No problem. I’m honored to be your first.”

I can’t avoid it anymore. Looking up, my gaze latches on to pools of warm chocolate. The fire in them is gone, and I hate myself for it.

“Listen—”

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