Page 72 of Her Dark Angel

Adam looks to Kinsley for guidance, and after a moment, she pats his shoulder and smiles. “I’m okay. I’ll talk to you later though, all right?”

He nods and turns to leave, but not before casting one last glance at us before the door to the room closes behind him.

My attention turns to the little devil gazing up at me in wonder. It takes everything in me to not run the back of my knuckles down her cheek, to feel her soft skin against mine.

“Are you okay?” Despite my awful mood and the way I can’t get the images of her splayed out in my shower out of my goddamn head, I can’t help but worry about her. Kinsley hasn’t been her normal, bubbly self today. She seems… off.

Kinsley swallows hard and nods, but I can tell she’s holding back. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just tired, you know?”

“You’re lying, little devil.”

She frowns. “How do you know?”

My tongue pokes the side of my mouth as I regard her. “You clench your fists as a way to hide your emotions when you’re feeling uneasy. It’s safe to assume it’s also a habit when you lie.”

Kinsley looks down at her right hand balled into a tight fist at her side, proving my point right. She huffs and looks away from me. “You don’t know anything, Nash.”

“I know something is going on,” I counter, surprising myself with the amount of force in my voice.

Kinsley’s eyes widen as her fist unfurls to wrap around her waist. I watch her for a moment as she battles with herself on what to do or say next. The words are on the tip of her tongue, but she’s fighting hard to keep them inside.

Eventually, she sighs and shakes her head. “Fine. Has anyone ever told you that you’re annoying?”

I smile at the reference to what I’ve said to her in the past and shrug. “No. Just you. Now, spill.”

She swallows hard and shifts on her feet. “Well, I was out to lunch with Sadie and Matt the other day when I had a… run-in with a fan of yours.”

“Okay…” I drawl, waiting for her to elaborate. “And?”

Kinsley bites her lip and casts her eyes down to look at her shoes. “It doesn’t matter, Nash. None of it?—”

She doesn’t finish her sentence before I have her back pressed against the off-white wall with my body so close to hers I can feel the heat radiating from her skin. A surprised gasp leaves her lips when I rest my right hand on the wall above her head and lock eyes with her. Kinsley’s breaths come out in short bursts as we gaze at each other, neither of us making a move.

“What happened, Kin?” I ask again, but this time my words are gentle and my voice calm. “And no more bullshitting me. I want the truth.”

Kinsley bites her bottom lip and relaxes against the wall, the fight leaving her body. Always so stubborn. “The fan… she… said some mean things that have been playing on my mind ever since. But I don’t want you to worry, please. It was nothing I couldn’t handle.”

My jaw ticks at her confession. One of my fans made her this upset?

My left hand clenches at my side as I try to reign in my anger. I love my fans, I really do. But there are a handful of them that don’t understand boundaries when it comes to my life. I can handle a lot of shit with the lifestyle I have been given, but this kind of thing doesn’t fly with me. Especially because Kinsley isn’t like me and she didn’t ask to be thrown into my world.

“I’m sorry,” I say instead, despite having more choice words on the tip of my tongue. “My fans can be a lot, I know. If anything like that happens again, you tell me, okay?”

Kinsley blinks slowly, her eyes locked with mine. She nods slowly. “Y-yeah, I will.”

“Good.” I push away from the wall, my head spinning slightly as her soft, floral scent invades my senses. I need to put some space between us before my head explodes. “I’m having a party tonight if you want to stop by. It could be a good way to take your mind off everything.”

“A party?” she parrots, tilting her head to the side. “Is that a good idea? It’s the middle of the week.”

I know what she’s referring to and I don’t like the hesitation in her voice. When she found me two weeks ago in my bed, passed out after consuming a little too much blow mixed with a lot of alcohol, I had no idea it would end with me eating her out in the shower. It just sort of… happened.

But I heard her loud and clear when she said we needed to go back to how things were before that night. I get it, I do. But I also don’t want to fucking stay away from her, no matter how much I know I should.

When it comes to the little devil, I don’t know what the fuck I’m feeling. And although it scares the shit out of me when I think about it too much, I know I can’t stay away.

A slow grin turns up the corners of my mouth. “I promise I’ll behave.”

A lie, but she doesn’t need to know that.

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