Page 99 of Meet Me In The Dark
“What?” I ask, narrowing my eyes.
“You’ve got a good laugh.”
My stomach twists, and I feel a rush of heat climb up my neck.
He resumes washing the oven tray, so I toss the towel down and push myself onto the counter. “When I don’t have a moody, sex-obsessed man around me, I laugh often.”
His head snaps up. “I’m not moody…all the time.”
Noted that he didn’t deny the sex-obsessed part.
I’ve seen a different side of him tonight.
A side where he smiles freely.
Where he laughs too.
Where he eats dinosaur-shaped chicken and plays restaurant with a little boy.
“No,” I murmur. “I guess you’re not.”
Placing the tray on the drying rack, he reaches for the towel.
At least, I think that’s what he’s doing, but instead, he pauses, like a better idea just occurred to him.
Before I get the chance to move, he wipes his suds-covered fingers right across my nose.
Dish soap.
Bubbles.
Right there. On my face.
I go completely still.
This feels like a rare moment of calm between us, sweet even, where I’m not trying to claw his eyes out or he’s not undressing me with his stare.
I wipe some off my face and smear it on his. “You could use some to wash out that filthy mouth of yours.”
He steps closer until he’s wedged between my legs. “Filthy mouth, huh?”
“Yes.” In my best Julian imitation, I lower my voice as much as I can. “Good girl, Celeste. Do as you’re told, Celeste. Let me just piss a giant circle around you, Celeste. You’re mine, mine, mine.”
Julian stares at me for long seconds until his laugh rips through the air, his body shaking as he braces a hand on the counter.
It’s not the controlled laugh I’ve heard before, or the calculated smirk of amusement he usually gives people.
This is real.
I grin, basking in my victory.
“That was awful,” he says, shaking his head.
“Excuse you. I think I embodied you perfectly.”
Still grinning, he picks up the towel and gently wipes the suds from my skin.
This isn’t the first time he’s cleaned me up.
