Page 52 of Half the Summer's Night

“Why?”

“Because you’re prettier in the dark.”

She blinks, gives a shy, nervous titter. “Where you can’t see me, you mean?”

“I can see you fine.” I tilt her gaze up to meet mine, and for a moment, I swear I can feel her staring straight through my killing face to see me. The real me.

My cock is so hard it’s painful.

“You should go back inside,” I tell her. “It’s safer in there.”

“From who?” she counters.

I drop my hand. I don’t want to tell her about that strange presence I felt, or my theory that her attacker may not have been working alone. I don’t want her to worry needlessly, not when I can protect her. “I don’t know,” I finally say. “But if someone tries to hurt you again, I’ll be here.”

Abi sucks in her breath. Curls her hands up into fists.

“Why did you come find me?” I ask softly.

Abi hesitates. I can sense something like fear coming off her, although it’s not the fear she felt when she was attacked, nor is it the same fear I felt when she discovered me in the shadows. She takes another breath. “I—” she starts, then glances away, off into the darkness. The cemetery rustles around us, moving in the sea wind. “I didn’t understand why you ran away. Why you—did what you did and then didn’t expect?—”

Heat courses through me. My cock throbs.

“Didn’t expect anything in return,” she finishes in a rush.

“I got what I wanted,” I say carefully, although that’s notentirelytrue. Of course I would love to be inside her, to feel the tight clamping muscles of her cunt. But only if she wants it. Only if she gives it to me willingly.

Abi digs her toe into the graveyard dirt. She’s wearing flimsy sandals, her toenails painted black. I hadn’t noticed that earlier, the black toenails. I’d been too focused on other things.

“I just thought,” she says softly. “It wasn’t—wasn’t fair, you know? For you to—not get to receive—you just gave?—”

It takes me a second to realize what she’s getting at. To realize what she’s offering.

“You want to do that?” I ask. “With me?”

Abi jerks her gaze up to me. Even in the dark, I can feel the blood rushing close to her skin, perfuming the air around us.

“I just thought it would be fair,” she whispers, the words strained.

Then, to my shock, she steps closer to me. Puts her hand on my chest.

“You saved my life,” she whispers. “Then you made me come harder than—” She laughs, shakes her head. “Thenever,if I’m being honest.”

Pride swells up in my chest. My cock strains against my pants.

“I just—I thought we could keep going.” She looks up at me, her eyes bright in the darkness.

I don’t want to fuck her. Not right now. I won’t last long, and I want to do it right. I want to relish every line of her body and all the silky expanse of her skin.

But Abi Snow is staring at me with a hot, dark hunger in her eyes.

“Kneel,” I breathe out.

And she does.

She doesn’t protest. She doesn’t fight. She just sinks into the damp grass, her eyes never leaving mine.

I drag down my zipper and ease out my cock, trying not to touch it too much because I’m afraid that if I do, I’ll come. Abi watches me the whole time, her breath tight and shuddery until she sees my cock. Then she gives a soft, murmuring gasp. I don’t know what to make of it.