My gaze darts from his tumultuous eyes to the threshold.
If I take that step, I’m vowing to pursue Stone until he recognizes and reciprocates these unpropitious feelings entrenched in my very soul. I refuse to let him end things. Our relationship may be at his timeline’s end, but the way I covet forever with Stone Harper is as strong as the tingling nerves underneath my skin.
I catch his eyes again, and he tilts his head as if asking “what’s the hold up?” So I move.
The tip of my glittery pink shoe connects with the floor on the other side of the door, and I close my eyes as I enter the darkened house. Stone moves silently behind me, and it’s not until I hear the click of the door that I feel his chest against my back. The smell I’ve grown accustomed to over the past months envelops me in asage, cacao, and bergamot cloud of heaven. I fight the desire to lean against him and release a sigh.
But I don’t have to lean back. He presses further in, our bodies becoming seemingly one.
“Close your eyes. I’m going to turn the light on,” he whispers against my ear as his hand wraps around my forearm.
“I already—okay.” I don’t tell him I’ve been living by my other senses alone since stepping through the door.
“Open,” he commands in a way that shouldn’t send a wave of shivers racing down my spine and goosebumps rippling up my arms, but it does.
When my eyes flutter open, I’m broken from the hypnotic circumstances of the dark. We are standing in his entryway, which is only big enough to host a shoe rack bench on the gray oak floor.
His hand drops from my forearm, and he creates space between us so he can slip his dress shoes off. I follow suit, sliding out of my heels. Then he steps around me and walks into the living room. I trail behind him, examining the living space I’ve spent countless time in.
The cleanliness and tidiness confounds me as I inspect the living room that’s typically a little messy. A black leather couch, a matching recliner, and a glass-topped, low-rising coffee table sit upon a deep maroon area rug. A widescreen television is hung on the wall above a stone fireplace; pictures of him and his family don the mantle in an inward position with a beeswax sandalwood candle tucked in the middle of the homey array. After examining the pictures since I haven’t been in this house in a month, I glance back at Stone. He was the cutest kid who turned into the cutestteenager who is now the devilishly handsome man across the way in the kitchen pouring drinks.
It’s as if my thoughts beckoned him. When he calls my name, I snap my attention to him. “Hm?”
“Would you like a drink? I have water, tea, coffee, and,” he pauses before cocking his head and nailing me with one of his infamous flirty smirks, “bourbon.”
I don’t have to think twice, though in retrospect, I should have…
“Bring out the bourbon, Onyx.It is your birthday.”I wink, but he probably can’t see that from across the open floor. I turn my attention back to the pictures on his mantel. “Speaking of, are your friends coming over to celebrate with us?”
“No. It’s just me and you tonight,Little Lion.”
I freeze in place, my mind spinning.
Maybe he’s not ending it with me?
But what if he is…?
I told myself if I crossed that threshold tonight I was making a vow to myself to make Stone fall for me the way I have fallen for him. Yes, I definitely need the bourbon over water or coffee. Bourbon will make things a little easier on me. Just one glass. Nothing more. That will be enough to loosen all these nerves twisting and tangling and tingling everytime I so much as think of telling him I’m in love with him. Then I can confess my true feelings and go on some spiel about how I refuse to let him walk away from me.
Clingy?Probably.
A little toxic?Aren’t we all?
But when I say I’ve fallen for this man…
“Do you want to watch amovie?”
I jump at the nearness of Stone’s voice. When I spin around, I’m met with his dazzling smile as he holds two whiskey glasses not even a quarter of the way full. He stretches a glass out to me, and I take it with both hands, careful not to spill it on his pretty rug.
“A movie? Are you trying to get me tochillwith you,Mr. Harper?” I’m teasing, but the bobble in his throat and the sudden fire in my veins at the idea of watching a movie in a darkened room alone with Stone has me taking a sip to cool the heat. He mimics my actions. It’s been so long for the two of us…
“I, uh—” I breathe an awkward laugh and shake my head. “I didn’t mean that. Sorry.”
He chuckles, and the storm in his eyes evaporates, leaving sparkling droplets in its place. Against my better judgment, I let my eyes wander lazily over him. His white button-up collared dress shirt is still tucked into his black slim fit dress pants. The top three buttons of his shirt are undone, and he’s already lost the black tie he was wearing.
“Don’t be sorry. I am your man,after all.” He laughs, and I snap my gaze back to his face. But that doesn’t help, either. Because his tanned skin brightens his blond, tousled hair. His long, black eyelashes brush his cheek as he blinks, and then I’m invigorated again at his round eyes, which are transitioning to a softer baby blue with every passing second.
When Stone is happy and amused, his eyes lighten.
