Page 120 of Lock Up the Darkness

She spun, locating me on the little balcony.

I dragged hard on my smoke to hide my reaction as her smoldering electric-blue eyes locked on me, a sexy smile spreading over her face. And, dare I say it, she looked happy to see me.

Her eyes roamed over me and my shirtless state, just a pair of dark linen pants hanging low on my hips, lingering on my snake tattoos slithering down the expanse of my torso.

“Did you… is that the one you’ve been working on?” she asked, thumbing the painting I’d just stepped away from.

“It is.”

“It’s… intense. Beautiful, though. Enigmatic too.”

Hmm. “Like its maker.”

She stepped up to me and had me sucking in a breath as she reached out, her warm fingers brushing over my skin, tracing along the snakes. “Like these.”

I took another drag of my cigarette, watching as she continued trailing along the path of my tattoos, making my abs flex at the soothing sensation of her sweeping, sensual movements.

“You designed these, didn’t you?”

I blew my smoke off to the side as she looked up at me in question.

“Good eye,” I said, my lips lifting.

When her fingers drew too low, I snatched one of her hands.

It jolted her, her eyes wide, hands stilling.

“Is that why you needed to see me? You want me to bruise your tight little cunt again?”

She glowered at me, then snatched my cigarette from my fingers just as I was about to take another drag. She slid it between her own lips and took it instead. Grinning, she blew the smoke in my face. “That’s what you get for being a presumptuous little shit.”

I laughed. “Yeah? Is that right?”

“It is,” she said, before taking another drag. She gestured back through the doors at my art studio. “So, that’s where all your emotions go to die, huh?”

“Perhaps.”

“You bottle up a lot, you know?”

“Pot. Kettle.”

“It’s all about control right?”

Our eyes locked.

“It’s the way it has to be.”

She sidled up to me. “Not the entire time.”

I grinned. “You mean the other night?”

“You mean, pretty much the last time the three of us saw you?”

Three of us. I didn’t like that.

I took her jaw in a harsh grip. “Did you let them play with you?”

Her enchanting eyes were a storm of indignation as she bit back, “You’d already know the answer if you’d been around.”

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