“I do…Not sure when, but I guess I’ll know when I know.” Her eyes lock with mine. They’re a dark forest, enchanting andabsorbing. They call to me and I lithely follow. I’m in deep, stuck in a reverie I never want to end.
God, she’s beautiful.
I bark a laugh and then she does too. The alcohol has my brain glitching and spazzing out. I don’t know what’s going on, but I love how I feel and like who I’m next to. I rest my hand on the back of her chair once more, my fingers idly drifting over her exposed skin.
What were we talking about? Tattoos. Right, we’re getting tattoos. That’s wild. Am I sure I want to do this?I sweep my gaze over her and feel so sure I drain my cup, wanting to quickly finish this pitcher so we can leave.
“What are we going to get?” she says, and I think it over, but nothing comes to mind, although my brain isn’t where it should be. It’s fixated on how she feels, how beautiful she looks in this dress, how her lips are a mix of green and red from the drink. She keeps licking them and I keep wishing it were me doing that.
“I think I have an idea.”
12
ANNA
Saturday, December 14
My head is throbbing.
The incessant pulsing works overtime, spreading down to the tips of my toes.
I groan and pull the blanket over my head. It’s abnormally bright in my room, which is strange because it’s usually the living room that gets all the sunlight.
The pain in my head makes me forget about the brightness. I snuggle further in my bed but cease all movement when my body connects with another and I hear it groan.
“Stop rubbing your ass against me.” Sylas takes a hold of my hip, keeping me in place.
I lie on my side stock-still, still not breathing.This can’t be happening. What did I do? Why is he here? Why does my arm ache? God, my head. What hap?—
My probing questions come to an abrupt halt as I feel something hard poke my butt.I must’ve hallucinated that, right?But my thought gets debunked when I feel it again.
“Shit.” He lets go all too fast and shuffles away from me.
I turn, squinting to look at him, hating that my eyesight is unfortunately not the greatest. I’m proud of myself for taking my contacts out last night, but now I wonder where I placed my glasses.
“Here,” Sylas says, reaching on top of the sofa then handing me my glasses.
I don’t remember leaving them there.
“Thanks.” I put them on. His once-blurry figure is now clear.
The blanket pools around his waist, and I notice three things. One, he’s shirtless, and his beautiful, sculpted torso is on display. He has thick, corded arms, veins rippling down to the tops of his hands, and abs defined to perfection. Two, we’re not in my room; we’re on the living room floor. Three, he has a tattoo on his right arm, right below his shoulder. It’s new because it has the Saniderm.
Blurry flashbacks of last night filter in my head and then it dawns on me as my arm aches. My gaze drops to it, but it’s shielded and I gasp loudly, realizing what I’m wearing. But that’s a mistake because my head throbs harder.
“Did we—did we have sex?” I wet my dry lips, faintly tasting a mix of whatever we had to drink last night.
I’m not in my dress. Instead, I’m wearing his white dress shirt, and some of the buttons aren’t in the right holes or buttoned at all. I try to piece my memory together, but after we finished the second pitcher, the events are distant and muddled.
“No,” he replies, his voice still heavily doused in exhaustion. I shouldn’t be focusing on anything but finding out what happened, but the rough, groggy tenor in his voice derails my train of thought.
There’s no reason why his voice should sound as attractive as it does.
“No?” I echo.
“No.” His eyes roam over me, then the shirt, and stall there a few seconds longer before he meets my stare. He swipes his tongue across his faintly painted red and green lips, and his Adam’s apple bobs. “I remember you saying…” He closes his eyes, fingers massaging his temples. “You didn’t want to sleep in your dress. So I gave you my shirt because that seemed right.”
A fuzzy image of him handing it to me surfaces. I don’t know why I didn’t grab pajamas when my room is a few feet away, just like my bed is.
