Keep Me in the Dark (10 page)

“We don’t have to date yet, or anything official,” he explains. “I just want you to consider me. And I’m giving you a friendly warning that from here on out, yeah, I’m going to be a little more obvious with my attempts to get into your pants…as in I’m probably going to take every chance I get.”

I raise my eyebrows and laugh. I can’t believe he just said that to me. “That’s a little crass, David.”

“I’m a guy. I’m a little dirtier than you want me to be. But you don’t have to worry, because it’s always about making you feel good.”

“I’ll remember everything you’ve said. I had fun tonight.”

He gives me another little smile and leans forward.

My eyes shut just as his lips touch mine. The kiss is sweet and chaste. It shouldn’t make me feel giddy or restless, but it does. It gives me the same warm, happy feeling I get when my first shot of tequila starts to sink in. And for a moment, I want to sit there, drinking him in, until everything else in the world fades.

He pulls back first. His eyes are dark and he’s breathing a little heavily. I’m glad I wasn’t the only one so strangely affected. “Goodnight, my lady,” he says.

I enter the dark dorm. No one else is home, just as I expected. I set down my cello case in the hall, enter the piano room, and lean against the wall.

My chest hurts.

Everything feels so perfect. So right. I can still feel David’s lips pressed to my forehead, or rather my skin still tingles from his touch. I can still taste that brief bout of rain that had teased us when we left the museum.

So why do I hurt?

I should have let David come in. I bet he’s still out there. I could run outside, grab him and take him upstairs. He’d let me get into his pants. When he’s here, I don’t feel like this; I don’t need like this.

But I don’t move. Instead I close my eyes. Something about this place reminds me of that other man I never really knew. Maybe it’s because I’m alone. With him, I was always alone.

It doesn’t matter. I want him so bad. Even though he abandoned me, I love him. Or maybe it’s wrong to call his leaving an abandonment since he didn’t want me back.

My legs are slick with desire. I’m back in front of all those people again at the Guchenberg. I’m imagining he’s out there, that he can hear my voice. I’m singing all the words I’m afraid to admit just for him.

My cunt is so fucking sore I want to slip my hands beneath my skirt and start to touch myself. Instead I walk into the room, humming and trying not to cry. I’m trying so hard to love David. It would be so easy to love David. He would never hurt me, and I never want to hurt him. He’s perfect in every way I’ve always wanted.

So why do I keep sinking back into the dark?

My body aches where that stranger filled me, and nothing—not the sound of rain, the sound of honking, or the sound of my own breath—can bring me back to reality. It only creates an ambiance of distance and longing that consumes me.

I almost laugh. God, I’m pathetic. I should really throw away all his letters, not keep them under the bed like a freak. It’s not like I don’t have most of them memorized anyway.

I walk over to the piano and rest my fingers on the keys. I’m not good at playing piano, not like David or anyone who’s spent years practicing, but I’m alright. I shut my eyes, humming louder as I move my hands over the keys.

Something rustles behind me. I yelp as I turn to find someone sitting in the chair across from me.

I glance down, embarrassed. “Sorry, I didn’t see you. I’ll go.” I step towards the door.

“Laura.”

I stop. I can’t breathe.

It's him.

What are you doing here? How the hell did you get in?
Where have you been?
There are a thousand questions I should ask, but I can’t say a single thing because and all my aching and longing comes back. It fills me so much that I can’t move—can’t do anything but stupidly search for that face I know I won’t find in the dark.

He doesn’t move either. Instead he asks, voice soft and cruel, “Did you have fun tonight?”

End of Book 2.

Book 3, TAKE ME IN THE DARK,  is available now!

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HE'S NOT WHO I THOUGHT HE WAS.

It's too late to turn back. There's nowhere to run. But despite the danger, I can't tell you that if I had a chance to go back in time and change everything that I would. Because despite everything that's happened, I still want him.

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Click here for a list of all Karina's books on Amazon.com!

DEAR SOLDIER

A Stand Alone BBW Holiday Contemporary Romance

To her I wasn’t billionaire Ian Keller, prodigal son and heir to one of the South’s largest real estate empires. No, to her I was just a soldier. And she thinks that to me she was just a woman, but she couldn’t be more wrong. 

Now I’m back home and ready to face the sins of my past and reclaim my future, but none of my sacrifices will be worth it if she isn’t by my side. 

There’s just one obstacle standing in my way. She thinks I’ve shared everything about myself in my letters, but I’ve been keeping a secret from her. A very big, very important secret. 

And when this secret comes to light, both of our lives will change forever.

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Excerpt

Her bottom lip trembles as I brush my thumb against it.

““I’m used to knowing what I want and going after it. I never doubted myself until I joined the military. And after all the shit I saw, I thought I would be incapable of ever doubting myself again until I met you.”

She finally looks up at me. “What do you mean?”

I don’t want to say it, but I know I have to. I’ll lose her if I don’t. “You make me remember things I didn’t want to remember, and feel things I didn’t want to feel. It’s…hard sometimes. But it’s worth it, too.”

Her eyes narrow in on my lips, losing focus. There’s more I want to say, but it’s still too soon and I’ll fuck it up anyway. I can barely think with her in my arms.

I tuck her hair behind her ears. “Ever since your first letter—”

She smiles. “Not the first one you liar.”

Alright, she had me there. “Fine. I think it was the tenth or something.”

“That’s more like it.”

I take a deep breath and lean in. She sobers, noticing the change in my demeanor.

“Ever since your tenth letter, you’ve been the only girl I wanted. So yeah, I want you to be strong, especially when I can’t be.”

Her grip on my biceps tightens. “Okay.”

I lean in slowly until our lips almost touch, intentionally driving her crazy, but not nearly as crazy as she’s driving me.

“I mean it,” I whisper. “No more running and no more of this one kiss bullshit. Because once I start kissing you, I’m not gonna stop. There is no fade to black in this fairy tale, Lily. This is about me and you and all the dirty things you wanted to do but were too afraid to write in your letters.”

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DEAR SOLDIER is available now from Amazon!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0106R403Y

ONE DATE

The Hawkins Brothers, Book 1