Page 53 of A Taste Of Darkness

The fact that she was calling me her husband—though still grammatically incorrect since she said it as a nickname—didn’t make me want to test it out any less.

28

A TASTE OF STRAWBERRY-LEMON

Sterlie Adams

I didn’t think I was half as drunk as Milo believed I was.

I could still think straight, and I knew exactly what I was doing. I mostly knew what I was doing. Alright, I might’ve involuntarily lost my balance every now and then, but I could still control my behavior. Sometimes.

My facial expressions were a different topic.

Giving Milo another chance, I held the lollipop out to him once more, still grinning like a fool. In my mind, I knew why I did it and thought I tried telling my muscles that we were supposed to act casual, but they didn’t exactly get the memo.

That was alright though because if I kept smiling, he’d never guess that my brain was functioning just fine. He’d never suspect that most of my words were intentional, not just drunken chatter.

Or was it? Nah, I was stone-cold sober. Yes. For sure.

And my God, Milo smelled so good. Like wow. I wanted to sniff him for the—Woah there, no. That was weird.

He watched me with suspicion and hesitated to open his mouth again, but I suppose he caved anyway. This time, I actually pushed the lollipop into his mouth.

My eyes lingered on his perfectly shaped lips, wondering if they were as soft as they looked.

I let go of the stick and touched his jaw instead.

“You need to shave,” I told him, though I wasn’t sure if I meant it. He looked good with the stubble, I liked it. But did I like it more than the clean-shaven Milo? “It’s so spiky.”

My fingers traced along the line of his beard. His skin felt so soft against mine, the short stubble not so much.

“I know,” Milo replied after he took the lollipop back out of his mouth to give it back to me, but I refused for now. “I’m planning to shave once you’re asleep.”

My head shook. “Can I do it?”

His eyebrows shot up. “Shave me?”

“Yes. I’ve always wanted to do it. It looks so calming but scary. Like, Milo, do you know that I literally can’t shave my legs or any other body part of mine because I’m too afraid to cut myself? I have to endure pain to remove them, and like, yeah, I don’t have to, but I prefer my legs and arms, and my vagina to be all smooth. Wow, that sounded weird, didn’t it?” I took a deep breath, but it didn’t help the embarrassment so instead, I stole the lollipop from Milo again.

Why did I tend to overshare so much? It was a curse.

Milo cupped my face with his huge hands, his thumbs stroking my cheeks. “Let’s go brush your teeth so you can go to sleep, cuore mio.” His voice was so soft, like someone wrapped it in velvet.

Sometimes I thought he had this extra tone just for me because I never heard him speak to anyone else the way he spoke to me.

Milo liking me was never a secret, at least I didn’t think it was, but I was a fool to think he would treat me so much differently than other women.

My sister never had any complaints about him either.

“You know,” I said, sighing. “I think you have a huge heart.”

His head cocked slightly; the tiniest hint of a smile pulled on his lips. “Do I?”

I moved in closer like I was about to tell him a secret. “I don’t have to show you how to be someone worthy of my time, Milo. I think you know very well how to be someone I’d let into my life, you’re just afraid of taking the initiative.”

My heart skipped a million beats when I felt his hands on my waist, holding me in place, so I had no fears leaning back to look at him as I waited for an answer. Or a reaction. Any of those.

None came.

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