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“Why are you so scared?” I murmur.
She twists her head ever so slightly and the tip of her ear sweeps across my lips. My heart beats harder than it did before, so hard I’m concerned she can feel it right through her winter coat. We’re so close; it feels too good to peel away… my mind wanders to places it doesn’t belong. Sliding my hand up her torso, over her voluptuous tit, grasping at her throat, and forcing her mouth onto mine…
She spins toward me a little more, and her shoulder leans into my chest. “Once, when I was younger and my mom took one of her naps, the TV was left on all afternoon.Nightmare on Elm Streetwas on. I was just too young to be watching something like that, I guess.”
Fuck, this woman will be haunting my dreams for sure. Why? Why do I allow myself a touch? But I do. My hand follows the length of her arm, and I take her hand in mine. “You’re almost out of here.” I twine our fingers together, and lead her hand to the doorknob. “Here it is…”
It is not easy to let go of her, but I do. To my surprise, she doesn’t make a run for safety.
She pauses for a beat. “Dash?”
“Yeah?”
“Are you coming back to the apartment when my sister leaves?”
The way she feels right here against my body has me thinking I shouldn’t. I’m too close to crossing the line. Too close to doing the wrong thing. “Just giving you some space, Molly.”
“Oh, right.”
It’s just two words but her disappointment suffocates me, so I make it sound less emotional, more logical. “It’s supposed to be your apartment.”
“True.”
Does she want me back?It sounds like she does. And the way she hasn’t yet opened the door and still gently leans against my body surefeelslike she does. I could stand here forever and never care about leaving the barn. But I find the self-control, reach to her hand again, and help her with the knob.
“Have fun this weekend.” I guide her hand to ease the door open.
Red light from the exit sign glows on her cheek. “I already am.”
ChapterFourteen
MOLLY
I nearly didn’t makeit back to the apartment on my legs of jelly after the haunted house. Not only was I forced to pretend being scared was fun but… Dash. Until now, I thought the attraction was only one way, but unless he had a magic wand in his pants, he liked touching, too. I went from being terrified and not able to get out of that dark barn fast enough to wishing the floor would give way and drop us right into bed. I swear the sexual chemistry was a potion working on us both tonight.
He let his cheek fall onto my hair. His lips skimmed my ear… his breath fell over me alive and sparking with heat that made me enjoy darkness for the first time in my life. I could survive a million nights if Dash was in them. Damn, I wanted him to make a move. I imagined his hands snaking around the front of me, to tug me into him. I wanted to slide my touch inside his pants and stroke that hard dick pressing against my ass. I yearned for him to lower his lips just inches more and glide his tongue in my mouth. Halloween is a night for fantasies, and a hundred of them found me in that barn tonight.
But as usual, he controlled the interaction, not me. Even though his dick was definitely hard against my ass, he let me go. Reflecting on that moment, it was more than sexual, too. He eased my fear. He calmed me.
Dash could have given me one last fright and I would have peed my pants at that point. But he sensed how serious it was. That barn wasn’t fun and games for me. I hated every moment of it until I got into his space.
But I’m afraid of the dark. And Dash? He’s afraid of the light.
He’s a mystery no one could ever blame me for trying to solve. All this time, all these months, I watched Dashiell Hunter move around these stables with his heavy, grumpy presence and thought he was just a dickwad who thought he was better than everyone else. But over the past weeks, the tiny peek he’s let me see through those emerald-green curtains has been nothing short of someone deep and caring.
I’m probably reading into him. I’m probably doing that thing again where I pretend the bad boy is a tortured soul who just needs my healing touch. I like helping people. I like people needing me and depending on me. Like my sister. It’s never been a burden to support her. Her reaching for the stars brightens my world, too.
Later that night, when we plop down on the sofas in the apartment, Jolie with a wine bottle in hand and my sister with three glasses, I know bagging this gig in Starlight Canyon was for both of us. She and Jolie get on like a house on fire; even though my sister is about ten years younger, the two have a lot in common.
They’re both gregarious and super smart, and while Jolie pours the wine, they discuss the thing they have in common—Golden Sierra University.
“So, you’re graduating early, Lil?” Jolie already has a nickname for my sister. Nicknames seem to be a Hunter thing.
“Yeah… worked my ass off, but it’s worth it.”
Jolie hands Lily a full glass. “You didn’t want to stay around in Albuquerque and just take some throwaway courses and finish off the year there? Have one last semester of silly fun before joining the real world?”
My sister glances at me with a smile that’s anything but disappointed, even though I know the true weight of her answer. “Who wants to pay all that money? I’m ready tomakemoney. Be a boss bitch.”
