Page 141 of A Dusk Of Stars

“Oh I only did that because Iknewyou wouldn’t like it,” he says with a smirk.

“Really?” I drawl.

“Yeah,” he says as he leans to give me a kiss. “Besides, I already have a name for you.”

I raise my eyebrows.

The hand loosens its grip on my ass and starts traveling up and down my thigh, while his eyes wander over to the silent forest around us. “It’s something I stumbled on this one time I went to West Africa on business.” This piques my interest even more.“I saw this sign somewhere, and that’s not what it was written there, not exactly at least, but the writing made this other word flash through my mind. Ifeanyi or Anyi for short,” he says, pausing to look deep into my eyes as the memory explodes inside me. “It means—”

“I know what it means,” I interrupt him softly.

There’s no other. Or, my one and only.

I lift my fingers to trace the curve of his lips. “You know, you’ve called me that before.”

“I know,” he says with a smile. “And I guess I’vealwaysknown. It was just… hard to believe.”

I let out a laugh. “You know whatIcan’t believe?”

“What?”

“My happiness,” I say as I let my head fall to the ground, humming with pleasure while I stretch like the carefree little she-wolf that I am.

For a second, he just looks at me. Then he grabs me, flips me over so I’m straddling him and lifts his head to whisper into the corner of my lips, “It’s really not fair, what you do to me, Anna.”

I smile and bury my face in his neck to inhale his scent, my mind rushing to what he said about whisking me away and filling with images of the kind of future I never thought I’d have.

Reader Beware!

Hi there, I’m Lyra, the author of this story.

Listen, I really want to stay friends, and as a friend, there’s something I need to tell you.

If you wanted to read a nice happy story, you should stop right here.

Beyond this page, there lurks a very steep cliffhanger.

A cliffhanger that might send your kindle flying to the wall.

A cliffhanger that might make you hate me.

And as I said, I want to stay friends.

I’m serious. Stop.

Stop reading now.

No?

Ok then, but don’t go blaming me when your heart shatters into a million pieces.

And then you realise the next book is not out yet.

By flipping the page, you READ AT YOUR OWN PERIL.

You have been warned.

Chapter 39

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