Page 36 of She is the Darke

“Why?” he asked.

“Because I knew it could feel like this.”

He was quiet for a while, just combing his fingers through her hair. She relaxed so much, she started nodding off. It was nice to feel safe with a man.

“Maybe when I have the surgery, it wouldn’t suck if you were there when I wake up from it.”

His words touched her deeply, and she opened her eyes. Slowly, she hugged him up tight, resting one of her legs between his, and she nodded. “I’ll be there.” And she would be. It was a promise. It was an oath. He was feeling vulnerable, and his future felt uncertain to him, and he was sharing that with her.

That was a gift from a man who normally masked his problems with jokes and banter.

He was letting her in.

“Why don’t you decorate your house for Halloween?” he asked.

She frowned and kissed his chest, then eased back to meet his eyes. “I used to. Years ago. I guess I just get so busy decorating other people’s houses…it felt like bringing work home, in a way.”

“I can do it for you,” he offered.

She was so touched, Demi had to blink a couple times to rid her eyes of the burning sensation of deep emotion. “Really?”

He nodded.

“I would like that.”

“I’ll bring the lights by tomorrow. Do you want me to pick up some interior decorations at the store?”

An idea hit her. A terrifying idea. One she couldn’t get out of her mind once it took hold. “If I show you something, you have to promise not to make fun of me. Or judge me. Or tell other people about it. Not even Rachel. No one has seen it.”

He eased back with a frown knitting his dark eyebrows. “I would never judge you. I’ll give you shit over stuff because I like playing with you, but I’ll never really judge you.”

She pushed up and wrapped the blanket around herself. “Put your pants on, we have to walk there.”

He got up, dressed, and followed her out the back door. It was scary, exposing herself this way, but she felt ready at the same time.

“The reason I wanted this house,” she explained, leading him across the dark yard toward the back fence of her property. “Is because it backs up to the warehouse I rent to store my trinkets.”

“Trinkets,” he repeated as she led him through a gate she’d installed a couple years ago. It creaked and swung closed, and she made her way to the door of the towering warehouse and entered the code to unlock it.

She blew out a breath to settle her racing heartbeat, and then pushed it open. “These are my trinkets.”

She watched his face as Tyler stepped inside. She watched his eyes go wide as she turned on the lights. She watched him scan rows and rows of shelves full of decorations she’d collected over time. He made his way to a workbench and ran his fingertips over the canisters of coins, paperclips, acorns, and small rocks, all organized by size and color. He was quiet as he walked to the towering shelves that went all the way to the twenty-foot ceiling. There were shelves for every décor item any of her clients could possibly want.

He made his way to a crafting table, where several plastic bats had been drying after she’d glitter-sprayed them. She was quiet as he absorbed the part of her animal side she couldn’t control.

“Crows collect,” he said softly as he came to stand next to the canisters of paperclips and acorns again.

“Yes.”

“Is this…is this your safe place?”

She hugged the blanket tighter around herself. “My nest is on the top of that shelf.”

He ghosted a glance in the direction she nodded her head. “Can I see it?” he asked.

“It’s scary. This all feels scary.”

“It doesn’t have to be. I’ll never tell anyone about this place. It’s safe.”

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