Page 84 of Dare You to See Me
I jump and spin around, coming face to face with Soleil who looks grief stricken.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said those things. I think I’m just scared.” Her fingers peek out of the baggy sleeves of my sweatshirt and she shuffles from foot to foot, looking embarrassed but also shaken.
I stare at her, my hands shaking and heart pounding, and a ringing in my ears that drowns out my thoughts. But I don’t need to hear my thoughts when my heart already knows just what it wants to say.
Reaching out, I yank her to me, surrounding her body with mine. She circles her arms, hugging me tight and nuzzling into my chest.
“This is all just so much for me. I’m still navigating how to be a single mom, then you come in and flip my world upside down.”
I gently tug at her head to look up at me and see the tears swimming in her eyes.
“Don’t cry, doll face. I’m sorry, too.” I kiss and pick her up. “I guess I can be a bit overwhelming.”
She scrunches her face, closing one eye and twisting her lips. “Mm, I’d say more than a little but less than a lot.” Her smile returns and I feel the weight of a thousand pounds lift and fall away. “I just need you to be patient with me. I’m still learning to live in this new life, so sometimes I make mistakes or say the wrong thing. It’s not that I’m insensitive, I just really don’t know how to feel about all of this. Okay?”
“I’ll be patient with you if you’re patient with me. I’ve never felt for anyone what I feel for you, and I just want to indulge. I want to smother you with love and affection and I don’t have a ‘take it slow’ gear. But I promise to cool my jets.”Her pink lips stretch into a small smile and I sigh, relief flowing through me. “So now that we had our first fight, can we have make-up sex?”
I waggle my brows at her and when she laughs, I swallow it in a deep kiss. I may have promised to be patient and cautious, but I never said I wouldn’t push her every boundary. With both of my hands under her ass, I move her to rub up and down on my hard dick.
“How do you feel about the dark woods?” I ask her, taking a step further into the brush.
“No. Absolutely not. We already got busted by Kyle and Danté in the pantry, I willnotbe caught naked in the woods.”
She wiggles out of my arms until I set her back down on solid ground.
“Henny told me a place where no one will find us.”
“TMI. Now it’s emphatically no. Come on.” She grabs my hand and tows me back towards the house.
I drag my feet then almost run over her when she stops abruptly. I look at her as she stares down at the palm of her hand and feel the blood drain from my face. In her hand sits a shiny gold key. She stares at her palm, eyes squinting as recognition begins to click into place.
Sweat beads at my hairline and I start to shake. It’s her key. The one I took from the rock she hid it in a couple weeks ago and stuck in the hoodie I changed into at the garage. The one I forgot about and then threw in the back of her car on the way over here.
Her head tilts, side to side, and I can tell the question she wants to ask is on the tip of her tongue. Words swirl together, working to make up a sentence that will explain what she’s seeing.
“So that, uh…that’s your key.” My mouth feels dry as I try to come up with the right words that will get me out of this situation with Soleil still by my side. “I was worried about leaving it there while you and Dahlia were staying with me. Especially if someone really did get into your house, I didn’t want them to have access to any of your personal belongings.”
A high pitched buzzing is playing in my ears and I hold my breath, waiting to see what she says. Will she believe me? Can she see through my lie and will she find out all of the other secrets I keep?
She stares at me and then the key, rolling my words around. Her face is impassive so I can’t draw any guesses as to what she’s thinking. The silence is deafening and complete torture.
With a sigh, she closes her fingers over the key and returns it to the pocket. “Thanks. I never would have thought to do that.”
I smile, nervous relief behind it, and take her hand in mine. We spend the rest of the night doing things that only lovers do in the dark.
THIRTY-FIVE
SOLEIL
“Mommy,can we please get these? I know Malik willlovethem.” Dahlia holds up a box of super sugary cookies topped with thick icing and sprinkles.
Cookies I never let her buy because the last thing I need is a five year old bouncing off the walls for hours on end.
“Malik likes them? Really? And how do you know this?” We stand in the middle of the bakery, looking at the desserts for dinner tonight, but those cookies were not what I had in mind.
“Because Heather’s mom brought them for her birthday and Malik had one. When he ate it he went,mmmm.” Dahlia closes her eyes and hums with a smile, mimicking his actions.
The image of him doing that is very vivid because I’ve seen him do it many times. He wasn’t enjoying cookies…per say.
