Page 12 of A Taste Of Darkness

“No,” Sterlie admitted, kneeling down to her dog to pet her before picking her up. “I let her sleep in my bed, but I know not everyone wants that. It’d be rude of me to ask if you’d be okay with it. Removing fur from bedsheets is a pain in the butt.”

Butt? I almost chuckled again but I caught myself before a sound made it past my lips. “It’s okay. I don’t do the laundry anyway.”

I knew how to, but I had too much to do all day, every day, to find time to do household tasks as well. If I wasn’t in a meeting, I was on a phone call, and if I wasn’t on a phone call, I was going through membership applications or sending out invitations. Or I was digging deep through the city’s archives to find a couple of people who I wanted to rid of their lives.

The few hours a day that I had to myself, I wanted to just… exist.

“Soup can sleep in the bed, it’s fine,” I said.

“Thank you.”

Sterlie pressed a kiss to Soup’s head, whispering something unintelligible as she made her way toward my bed. And she kept on talking, but I didn’t stay and instead brought Sterlie’s clothes into the laundry room.

When I returned, the lights were off and Sterlie was lying in bed. I could only make out her silhouette as I made my way over to my bed, my heart sinking with every step I took.

I have never shared a bed with anyone before. At least not in that way; the innocent way. I never even had a sleepover as a kid, so this was a brand-new experience.

Taking a deep breath, I lifted the covers and carefully slipped into my bed, not wanting to accidentally hurt Sterlie’s precious dog.

The silence in this room was deafening; a palpable sense of discomfort lingering in the air as we both lay there, not speaking, trying to breathe as quietly as possible.

Her back was turned toward me, her blonde hair sprawled across my pillows. The faintest scent of her shampoo hit my senses with every inhalation.

She was mere inches away from me, so close yet so far out of reach. I could’ve brushed her hair off my pillow, she probably wouldn’t have cared, and as much as my hands were yearning to reach out just so I could touch a single piece of her, I couldn’t bring myself to do it.

The possibility of touching her hair was the closest I’d ever get to her.

Time passed, and I noticed how Sterlie’s breathing slowed and deepened while my fingers nervously traced patterns on the pillow close to her hair—never touching it, though.

Every time Sterlie moved her head, I got to trace a new pattern, and every time she made a noise in her sleep, I could feel my expression soften.

I watched her, never tiring even if all I saw in the dark were faint outlines of her hair and the curve of her head. If I looked down, I could catch a glimpse of her shoulder that was sticking out from underneath the covers.

I couldn’t tell how much time passed, but I could feel my heartbeat increase when all of a sudden, Sterlie turned over, ripping the tips of her hair away from my reach.

The moonlight highlighted her cheeks and the curve of her nose, and perhaps I could’ve seen more had my own body not cast a shadow over her.

Carefully, I moved a bit farther up my bed, covering both of Sterlie’s eyes to shield her from the moonlight, even if that meant I got to admire her beautiful face a little less.

She looked so peaceful.

I couldn’t help but imagine the warmth of her face as my fingers brushed against her soft skin, but I’d never find out.

Was the tip of her nose cold? Sterlie looked like someone who got cold easily, and I didn’t keep my apartment very warm.

I wondered what she was dreaming of when her lips twitched. Was it total nonsense? Was it a fun dream? Maybe she was laughing.

It could’ve been seconds or minutes, perhaps even hours when Sterlie moved again. This time, she moved closer to me.

My heart raced as her arm draped over my body.

Her touch was electric, sending shivers down my spine.

The longer her arm was draped over me, the more I noticed every small detail—how her skin was colder than it should be, how my own skin dipped to mold to her body.

I felt her breasts press against my torso, and with every passing second, it got harder to ignore the way that touch made me feel.

I tried, really. I tried so hard to ignore it. Tried to ignore how her body was warming mine, and how her hot breath wasn’t fanning over my skin.

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