Page 31 of She is the Darke

“You’re stupid,” he said through a laugh, and took her jacket from her.

“I’ll have you know your childish insults don’t affect me. I’m mature now.”

“You’re stupid if you really think your animal is the most appealing part of you,” he said, heading for his truck with her jacket. “You flashed that damn orange bra. That’s why those boys are swarming.”

She laughed, and then called out, “Hey, what are you doing with my jacket?”

“You haven’t worn this damn thing all night, and if you’re drinking, I can just imagine the conversation tomorrow morning at work.” He shoved it into his truck, and sauntered back to her.

“Oh yeah?” she asked. “And what do you imagine it will look like?”

“My sister, passed out in the front seat of your truck, both of you with oversized sunglasses and messy buns, holding coffees and complaining,” he wrenched his voice up higher in a feminine imitation, “Stop talking so loud, meathead, we drank too much last night. Also, I forgot my jacket at the bar, can you go at lunch and pick it up?”

“Oh, my gosh,” she said, belting out a laugh at the scarily-accurate imaginings. “That’s probably not how it would be at all. I would not treat you like an errand-runner.”

“I would offer so you don’t get nauseous coming back to the bar and remembering how many lemon-drop shots Party Rachel convinces you to take at the expense of some poor Joe Schmo in there.” He draped his arm over her shoulder and led her back to the bar.

“You’re staying?” she asked, surprised.

“You have a goal of getting a man to pay for your drinks tonight. I’m going to pay. I don’t know if you remember this about me, but I’m basically a dream-maker.”

She snickered. “I don’t remember that part at all.”

“Yeah, well, it’s this, or I’m going to imagine that dude trying to talk his way into your panties at the bar, and I won’t be able toleave anyway. I’ll just be sitting in the parking lot, pissing myself off.”

“Jealous?”

“I told you, I’m messy here. If you get a free pass tonight, I get a free pass too. And nope, we don’t ever have to talk about those feelings. Let’s be adults about it and pretend they don’t exist, yeah?”

“Sounds perfect,” she fibbed. She was so curious about everything he was exposing about himself right now. There were so many mysteries to be explored if she read between the lines with him. More and more, Tyler was becoming this complicated, interesting, alluring man.

And off-limits, because the second they made it through the door, Rachel was there, pointing at Tyler. “Hands off.”

He pulled his arm from over Demi’s shoulders and held his hands up in surrender. He led the way through the tight crowd, but then did something that dredged up a flock of butterflies in her stomach. Behind his back, he offered his hand. Was he…was he offering to hold her hand?

She brushed her fingertips against his, testing, and he clamped down. He held her hand as he led her toward a table, and this felt so big. So important. So deep. So natural. So right.

He pulled out a chair for her, and sat across the table from her so she could sit by Rachel, and the tall guy from the speed-dating. His attention was clearly on Rachel now, so Tyler’s tension quickly faded. Rachel introduced him as Griffin, and they did the polite shaking-hands move. They ordered food and a round of beers. As the next song started up, Rachel and her date stood up and started dancing on the dance floor right near the table.

They cracked her up with their silly dancing. When Demi looked back at Tyler to see if he was smiling, he was watching her.

He slid his leg against hers under the table, and pushed something toward her. It was the sticky notes from the speed-dating room. The top note said simply,Crow Mask.

She reached forward and flipped through the other sticky pages underneath, but they were all empty. He’d only wanted to talk to her after speed-dating.

Just her.

Tyler had been truthful—hewasmessy here.

“Demi Rhone!” Rachel called from the dance floor in front of the band. She’d worked her way closer to the music with Griffin. She waved Demi toward her. “Come on! Dance with me!”

“I’m being summoned. She even used the middle name,” she told Tyler. “Um, do you want to dance?”

“Someone has to save the table, and make sure no one messes with you and Rachel’s drinks.”

“Right. Smart. Good man. Well, okay. Enjoy the show. I’m a very good dancer now. I took two hip-hop lessons a few years ago, and my gyrating skills are pretty epic now.”

He laughed. “Gyrating skills, huh? Go impress me, party girl.”

---