Page 152 of Dark Night of the Soul

I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing. “But I could be a bigger problem.”

“Stop fooling around.”

He wasn’t mad. He was done with my shit.

God, this was fun.

“I’m not. I think red.”

His eyes darkened enough to make my pulse stutter.

He leaned in, voice low enough to scrape the linoleum. Close enough that I felt the words more than heard them.

“If you decide to go red, I will spend the rest of my existence assuming every man who looks at you is thinking about touching you.”

My pulse spiked. We were in a pharmacy. Having this conversation in the hair dye aisle.

I tilted my head. Kept my voice steady.

“And that bothers you because…?”

His mouth brushed my ear. “Because I don’t share.”

Oh.

A tremor shifted through me. Right. Okay, then.

I replaced the red box back on the shelf.

Reached for black. The practical choice. The safe choice. The me choice.

“Fine. Dark and broody it is.”

He straightened. Satisfied.

I glanced at him sideways.

“So to confirm,” I said. “You’re possessive, controlling, and anti-redhead.”

“I’m selective.”

I smirked. “And you picked me.”

He sighed, took the box from my hand, and dropped it into the basket.

“Let’s go.”

I smiled.

I wandered the store for another twenty minutes—the man was indulgent—dropping things into the basket. A hairbrush. A comb. More hair ties, because they tended to disappear into the ether. Hand lotion. Other girl things he definitely pretended didn’t exist.

At the counter, the young woman spoke German. Since I hadn’t a clue what she said, I smiled and said nothing. He, however, answered her easily, which surprised me until it didn’t. Of course he spoke German. Turkish, too. I wouldn’t have been surprised if he knew half a dozen more languages.

I also realized there was a whole lot I didn’t know about him.

He said something that made the woman smile, flutter her lashes at him—get real, he’s mine, don’t even—while he paid and she packaged up my things.

As we walked back, I dug into the bag for the cookies.