Page 23 of He Should Be Mine

“That doesn’t help me now!” I snap.

He huffs. A little puff of annoyance. It makes me quail. What if he leaves?

“Can you turn the lamp on, please?” I ask.

It’s a tall, artsy floor lamp that lives in the far corner of the room. I rarely use it. Between the city lights and my fairy lights, it’s never usually dark in here. But the blinds are closed and my pretty little LEDs are broken, so it’s going to have to do.

“What happened to your fairy lights?”

“I don’t know, they must have broke.”

Silence. Stillness. Dario isn’t moving from the doorway.

“Turn the fucking lamp on, please!” I beg.

The darkness is much better with his presence, but it is still clawing at me. Reaching for me with hungry fingers, wanting to pull me down and smother me.

“I’m not walking into your room in the middle of the night, Molly. Riccardo watches the cameras.”

“There are no cameras in here!”

Rick doesn’t want the slightest chance of evidence existing. He is paranoid about someone hacking into the feed and seeing him fuck a man.

“But there are cameras out here.”

“It’s dark.”

“They have infrared.”

I suck in a shaky breath. “For fuck’s sake, Dario! It will take ten seconds to turn the lamp on, even you would last a little longer than that if you were fucking me!”

Dario lets out a little growl. “Do you really think Riccardo is a reasonable man? Do youreally think he isn’t looking for the slightest excuse to get rid of me, permanently?”

I clutch the sheets as if they can save me. I bite my bottom lip hard in an effort to hold in my tragic little whimpers.

“You can turn the lamp on yourself, Molly,” he says gently.

All his bitterness and frustration from a heartbeat ago has vanished. There is nothing left but kindness, and how I love Dario’s soft side. I cherish it. Savor it. Lap it up like someone dying of thirst. Very few people are nice in this world. None of them have ever cared to bestow their kindness on me. Apart from Dario.

My teeth grind. “No, I can’t.” I hate to disappoint him, I really do, but I can’t possibly cross all that black nothingness.

“What about using your phone as a torch?”

A despondent wail escapes from my throat. “It’s charging on the table by the lamp.” I’m such an idiot. Always getting myself into messes I can’t untangle myself from.

“Okay, I’ll go get mine.”

“No!” I shriek as he turns away. “Don’t leave me!”

He stops. He turns back to me. He doesn’t sigh. He doesn’t even mock. He locked me in the dark the other day, but this time we both know I don’t deserve it.

“You can get to the lamp, Molly. I know you can. I’ll be right here.”

Can I? Can I do it if he helps me? Can I cross the dark if his soothing voice comes with me? My lungs shake through another breath. I think I might be able to.

I throw back the covers with far more confidence than I am feeling.

“That’s it, Molly. I told you that you could do it.”