Free Keep Me in the Dark by Karina Ashe Page B

at some rich guy’s party I was hired to sing at.
    “Laura,” he breathes.
    “No,” I say. “Too fast.” It’s silly for me to tell him this when I allowed a man I didn’t know and had never seen to enter me. I know more of David than I’ll ever know of that strange man, and unlike my previous lover, David wants me to know everything about him.
    His breathing staggers. “Alright.” He pushes himself off the table. His thighs slide off mine. He offers me his hand with a shy smile.
    I take it. “I’m sorry…”
    “Nothing to be sorry about.” He pulls me up. Right next to his shoulders and compact, hard, sculpted body. He runs his hand down the center of my back, and I’m struck again by how strong his fingers are and how good they feel on my skin. “We should probably go back.”
    I nod and he gives my hand a squeeze.

Chapter 8
    It doesn’t take long to get back to the party. We enter and I begin to straighten my dress, but David stops me. I realize my actions are making look like we did something. Which we did. Sort of. Almost.
    My cheeks are so hot. Thankfully, he doesn’t leave my side when a few people come over to congratulate me on my performance. I almost can’t hear their words. My mind is racing with David’s body beside me. With David’s hand on my hand. With David’s Davidness. And yet, something else also bothers me. The back of my neck feels oddly cold.
    I turn my head. Out of the corner of my eye, I see him.
    He’s in the center of a group of men. He has a dark, angular face. Since he’s in shadow, I can’t quite make out his features. Our eyes meet. Another man would have looked away after being caught staring, but he doesn’t. Someone says something and he responds without looking from me as he brushes his middle finger over his bottom lip.
    I am the first to look away. Or maybe I’m the only one who looks away. I don’t know; I really don’t want to look up and make sure he isn’t watching anymore. My body feels electrified, dirty, and sore.
    “Laura?” I feel pressure on my shoulder. It’s David.
    “Yeah?” I whisper.
    “Is something wrong?”
    I shake my head.
    “You’re not regretting what I did—”
    “No, not that,” I interrupt, grabbing onto his wrist and pulling him close. I need a shield between me and that man.
    David runs his hands over my jaw. “Look at me.”
    I do, slowly. There’s that command again in a voice I don’t recognize. His perfect cheekbones fill my vision. His brown eyes are framed with long black eyelashes.
    “What’s wrong?” he asks.
    “I don’t know. I just want…” I don’t know what I want. I’ve forgotten now that we’re so close. And the heat from him and the heat from that stranger’s gaze fills my body and makes it ache.
    He smiles and runs a hand over my shoulders. “Do you want to dance?”
    His answer is so unexpected that for a moment I can’t respond. By the time I’m cogent enough to form a response, we’re already moving towards the center of the room.
    The blond wood beneath our feet glows under the bright lights above. He faces me, placing his hand on my hip.
    “You’re serious?”
    He nods, pulling me into his arms. It’s ambient music. Not really music people are supposed to dance to. But we rock back and forth to the ever changing, lazy beat.
    I shut my eyes and rest my head on his chest. I hear the steady beat of his heart. “Why didn’t you ever say anything, David?”
    He doesn’t pretend to not know what I’m talking about. “I thought I already told you.”
    “You didn’t, not entirely,” I answer. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
    “I didn’t want to be rejected,” he says.
    “Why would you think I would do that?”
    “Because you wouldn’t want to ruin what we had. I didn’t either. I just…wanted to stay close to you. And you made it easy, I guess, for me to not say anything. You never had a man around you. I always thought you’d come to me.”
    I pull away and look up