Page 17 of Kiss Me, Darling

He kissed me one last time. A slow, drugging kiss, then pulled back. “Wonderful. Tomorrow we paint the game room?”

The kiss was just…over? “Uh, yes?” The room spun a little, water dripped from my fingertips.

“Good. Have sweet dreams, Lucy Love. I’ll see you in the morning.”

* * *

The room smelledof fresh paint, which was a lot for the nose first thing in the morning, but it looked lovely. Like standing in the middle of a fishbowl or small tidal pool of water. Just blue enough to make it look like water, but not so blue that you thoughtwow, that’s blue.

I bet with the curtains open it would almost appear white. I sipped my steaming coffee as I opened the wide wooden blinds on the smaller windows, then moved to the heavy blackout curtains on the sliding glass doors that led out to the back deck. The heavy curtains helped keep out the heat of the sun in the afternoon, but for now that sun was on the other side of the house. It was the perfect time to open up and enjoy the fresh air and bright blue morning skies before they filled with afternoon storms.

As the curtains opened my eye caught on the glass behind them.

There was something on them.

It took me a moment to realize it was the same blue paint as the room I stood in. The steam from my hot coffee continued to waft up, but it couldn’t obscure the two very clear words written across the doors.

Go Away

“Scott! Esther! Joe!”

I couldn’t move. My feet seemed to be glued to the floor.

Go Away

“What’s wrong?” Scott came running into the room, half asleep but alarmed. His eyes were wide as he stopped beside me and ran his fingers through his hair. “Well fuck.”

My heart sank. This was a warning. I worked through enough stalkers and upset fans to know how this worked. First the notes and photos, then making a mark. Showing that they have access to your home. Things only escalate from there.

Scott pulled me into his arms. “They were here while we slept.”

I felt how tense and rigid every inch of him was as he held me. It wasn’t for comfort even though I felt very comforted to be in his arms, to smell him and touch him. This was a protective embrace. Like he wanted to shield me from everything and use his body to physically keep me from harm.

I liked it.

I liked it a lot.

I heard more than saw Esther and Joe arrive because I couldn’t really see much of anything but Scott’s chest.

“Damn it,” Joe whispered. “You two should move into the interior of the house. We’ll take care of things from here.”

“Yeah. Of course,” Scott murmured, moving us into the kitchen where there was only a high transom window. “I’m sorry,” he murmured into my hair, still holding me.

And I didn’t ask him to stop. For the first time in ages I felt normal. This was a typical configuration for us. His arms around me, my cheek on his chest, our bodies melded together. I knew true normal was a long ways off for us still, but for a few minutes I was going to ignore all that and enjoy the familiar feeling of being safe in Scott’s arms.

5

I usually just call him asshole

Scott

“They’re dressed in all black and wearing a Halloween mask,” Esther narrated as I watched the footage from our four o’clock in the morning visitor.

“So you’re saying we’re in aScreammovie.” Great. Just...great. I had this breakthrough moment with Lucy and now we had to focus on whether we were even safe instead of making out.

I was not a fan of having a stalker.

Last night we hit a turning point. I explained some of what I’ve been working through and then—and I totally didn’t plan this—we got close and she smelled incredible, and her hands in my hair felt amazing. And then we kissed. It was an incredible kiss. The kind that had my mind whirling half the night thinking about how happy I was to look forward to a future together.

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