Chapter 60 #2
Men swarmed around her, laughing, while women shot her malicious glances.
“What did she want from you?”
My lips moved of their own accord.
“She thinks I want to sleep with you.”
We stared at each other. Eventually, he moistened his lips, pursed them, then snorted with amusement and looked off into the distance.
“Lily has always been very jealous.”
Anything else would have surprised me. Down there, it had sounded like she was ready to jump at Brittany's throat. As if she wanted Davian back.
“But...” He corrected his sitting posture before leaning back relaxed against the wall behind him. “How about this. Let's not talk about my ex-wife. This topic is depression-inducing.”
My smirk returned.
“What in this world isn't depression-inducing?”
Why was I so good at saying depressing things? And why did it make Davian smirk so often?
“But okay. Let's play a game.” I leaned against the wall, turning closer to him. “Tell me something about yourself that I wouldn't expect. Something nobody knows.”
“A fun fact or a secret?”
“That's up to you.”
Everything Davian told me about himself was one more reason to hold on to something I shouldn't believe in anymore. And I was addicted to it.
“Promise me you won't laugh.”
I narrowed my eyes.
“Author's honor.”
He smirked, and a playful glimmer flashed in his eyes.
“Since I was ten, I've had a white polar bear stuffed animal that I hide under my pillow. I can't bring myself to put it in one of the boxes in the basement because it helped me through panic attacks back then.”
Surprised, I raised my eyebrows.
“That's... cute, Davian.”
A grin stole across my lips.
He tilted his head back and ran his hand over his face.
“I can't believe I just confessed that to you.”
He looked ashamed. But there was no reason to be. It only made him more human. More real.
“Now it makes sense that you gave me Ink. You don't want to be alone in your dependency.”
He raised his hands defensively. “I...”
“Don't worry. I'm already dependent.”
His grin disappeared. Mine too.
“It doesn't help you sleep.”
You help me sleep. Your arms wrapped around my naked body. My body pressed against yours so that our thread can entwine itself tightly around both of us.
I was about to say it, but instead I bit my tongue until it hurt, eventually looked away and breathed as inconspicuously as possible.
What I wouldn't give to be able to cuddle up to him again until I fell asleep in his arms.
I wanted to die in his arms. The only death I would ever accept. An improvement over a bridge, right? At least it wasn't a bullet.
My clutch suddenly felt heavier.
“Your turn. Tell me something no one knows.”
I forced myself to look up, but couldn't bring myself to turn toward him.
There was only one thing that no one knew about me so far...
“In Wonderland, there is a young man with gold-white hair, galaxy eyes, and a blue coat who watches over the princess of Wonderland.” I smiled, letting the images of my Wonderland, which I had pieced together in my mind into a dark, fairy-tale-like film over the years, glide past my inner eye. Home.
“His name is Vincent. And he's been visiting me since I was seven. He promises me that he'll take me with him someday.”
Only now did I notice that tears were waiting at the corners of my eyes, longing to flow. I allowed them.
Something warm slid under my forearms, reached for my free hand, and I drew in a shaky breath.
Open Your Eyes (feat. Alex Seaver)
Arcane, Alex Seaver
His hand was so incredibly warm, made me forget my wonderland for a moment.
His fingers interlaced with mine as if they knew my hand the way one knew a home. He knew his way across my sensitive skin, began to gently rub the cracks on the outsides of my thumbs, which caused the lump in my chest to tug.
Yet I slid closer to Davian, checking with a glance to see if this was okay with him, and he immediately let go of my hand.
At first I froze in surprise, but when his hand, which had slipped under his suit jacket, slowly settled on my back, a pleasant shiver overtook me.
I felt him gently run his hand over my shoulder blades, pausing in the middle, then let it wander down over my bare skin, lingering there briefly as if he wanted to feel my goose bumps before letting it slide to the side, into my dress...
I sucked in my breath sharply.
Davian kept his eyes locked on mine, watching them closely as he pulled me toward him by my waist and lifted his other hand to my cheek to press me against his chest.
An intoxicating tingling sensation crackled across my skin where his hands rested, and I smiled through my tears, grateful for the privilege of being secretly held by Davian Rydell.
His hand wandered further into my dress until it reached my belly.
As if he, not I, were overwhelmed, he sucked in his breath sharply, but left his hand where it was, and a few seconds later he rested his chin on my head.
“My nose is cold...” I whispered, barely audible, my voice trembling with overwhelm.
He removed his hand from my cheek, letting his fingers find mine again.
“Then warm it,” he murmured hoarsely into my hair.
I swallowed, moved closer to his neck, hesitated for a second before burying my cold nose in his devastatingly warm neck, and at that very moment, his hand pressed harder against mine, his fingers intertwining with mine more desperately.
Trying to keep myself from pressing my lips to that spot as well, I inhaled his scent.
Davian took a deep breath as his scent took hold of me. Masculinity I wanted to sink into.
Overtaken, I breathed against his neck, brushing his skin with my lower lip, and he noticeably held his breath.
I inhaled again, allowing his scent to cloud the moths in my stomach unrestrainedly until I let my breath wander over his skin.
By now, Davian was holding on to me.
“Quill...” It sounded like a hoarse growl. “This is torture.”
A tingling sensation exploded in my lower abdomen as I listened to the demanding baritone of his voice.
“I’m just existing,” I whispered with a soft laugh against his neck, and he breathed in shakily.
He didn’t reply, just pressed me closer to him, and our silence spoke louder than words ever could.
“Feather?”
It sounded searching, innocent, containing a hint of the same desperation that encircled and cornered me with every passing second, ready to keep me awake for the entire coming night.
“Mm-hm?”
He hesitated, began to run his thumb over mine.
Then he pressed a kiss into my hair.
I wanted nothing more than to melt into him. Here. Now.
“Please promise me you won't go to Wonderland without me.”
Confession Tapes
Paul Leonard-Morgan