Page 52 of A Taste Of Darkness

“Oh, we can change that!” Sterlie disappeared from my vision, only to reappear a second later; her pink dress now swung over her shoulder. “See, no longer on the floor.”

I finally remembered why I never took care of drunk people. Their bad decisions weren’t my problems anyway, so I never cared either. But with Sterlie… I couldn’t just not take care of her.

Technically, I could’ve walked out of this room at any point, but my feet never moved. I could’ve left her here and checked up on her in an hour or two to make sure she was still breathing, but I couldn’t. In my mind, if I left right now, I’d failed her again.

The least I could do was make sure she slept in her bed, dressed in something cozy, and not on the floor, in her own vomit and that tiny pink dress.

Since I wasn’t going to look through her clothes for privacy reasons, I told Sterlie to wait right where she stood and walked out of the room anyway. However, I had every intention of returning within the next thirty seconds.

I rushed to my bedroom and grabbed the first shirt I could find. Never mind the fact that it happened to be my favorite black T-shirt.

Honestly, I never favored any shirt of mine over others as they were basically the same; plain black, expensive, and wearable. Or dress shirts, but they were a different type of shirt, and I really liked them too.

But this black shirt in particular was softer. I think Flora got it for me about three years ago. She never told me where she got it from, so I never had a chance to stock up on them.

Guess it was Sterlie’s now.

When I reentered her room, covering my eyes with one hand, I heard her sweet giggle. My heart jumped a beat at the sound of her voice.

I wasn’t sure why she managed to do things to me that I never even sought in the first place. At first, I figured it was a silly crush every fourteen-year-old got from time to time, but I was twenty-five now. Twenty-five and as affected by her as ever. As mesmerized as I’d ever been.

Guess she caught my attention once and figured she’d hold on to it for a while.

As I still knew this place like the back of my hand, I managed to make my way over to her without needing to look. Only when I stood right in front of her did I remove the hand from my eyes.

Sterlie smiled up at me so brightly, but her eyes were tired. She still had the lollipop in her mouth, but she pulled it out with a little pop when she realized I was watching her.

“Do you want to try it?” She held it toward me, offering me a taste of something I’d been consuming for the past eleven years because of her.

I shook my head. “Lift your arms for me, cuore mio.”

Sterlie popped the strawberry lemonade lollipop back into her mouth and obliged my order, sticking her arms up into the air.

Quickly, I pulled my T-shirt over her naked body. Fortunately, the shirt was a lot bigger on her, so it was like she was wearing a loose dress. Unfortunately, my heart thought she looked even better in my clothes than she did in her own and I couldn’t have forced myself to tear my eyes away from her even if I had tried.

Why did she have to be so goddamn pretty? Why did she have to be the most beautiful, most incredible goddamn woman I had ever laid my eyes on?

Why couldn’t I find her as insufferable as I did everyone else in the entire world?

When Sterlie suddenly figured it was a good idea to stand on the bed, my hands wrapped around her waist within seconds. She was drunk, and right now, I didn’t trust her balance. If she tripped and fell, she could’ve hit the floor with her head, and I certainly wasn’t going to risk that happening.

The good thing was, we had the same height for once.

Once again, Sterlie offered me that stupid lollipop and this time, I opened my mouth. I didn’t have a clue which delusional voice in my head told me to do it, but I listened to it.

She was about to put it in my mouth, when her face moved closer, and her lips wrapped around the candy ball instead. Sterlie smiled or tried to smirk, whichever it was.

“You know, it’s pretty rude to offer candy and then change your mind,” I said.

Sterlie shrugged, still grinning. “If you want a taste, kiss me.”

I must’ve misheard because there was no way she just said what my brain understood. “Pardon?”

She moved closer, her forehead pressed to mine. “If you want to get a taste, you’re going to have to kiss me, mio marito. I’m sure you’d like the taste.”

At this point, either my heart stopped beating and I finally found myself in hell, or I was having a nightmare. A nightmare only because there was no way I could kiss her.

I was sure the moment I laid my lips on hers, something bad was going to happen.

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