Page 78 of Darkness Defined

“I could lie down if that would help.”

I had a very clear picture of me licking his stomach and then just not stopping until I’d licked every part of him. I vigorously shook my head. “That won’t help.”

He gave me a small mercy by lifting his own shirt, which helped stave off my desire to do exactly as he’d done. I wanted to get it over and done with like I had with his arm, but I couldn’t seem to force myself to go any faster. The smooth lines of his stomach and the way it moved as he breathed captivated me.

He flinched when the lime touched his skin. I added the salt and took the shot. His abdomen shivered as I tasted the crystals. It was only through an active force of will that I stopped at that. I ached to keep tasting him, to feel his soft down on my face, to kiss every inch of him, to…

“You’re supposed to do the lime next.” He sounded breathless.

I tossed the wedge straight up, and he caught it. “You do the lime.” I sat back on the couch and rubbed my face. I knew this evening would end up being a mistake. The temptation, the want, was just too great.

He passed me a new beer and sat back down as well. “Dare.”

“Tell me a joke.” I was in some serious need of levity.

He chuckled. “Have you heard the one about the broken pencil?”

I looked up at him from behind my hand.

“It was pointless.”

The awful joke was so unexpected I couldn’t help but giggle. The harder I tried not to laugh, the more I did. “That was absolutely terrible. Where did you find that? A cereal box?”

“Actually, it was a piece of candy. Now you, Truth or Dare?”

“Truth.” Maybe I could trick him into forgetting I’d eventually be due a dare.

“Of course.” He tapped his bottom lip, and I couldn’t help but envy his finger. “Okay, what’s your greatest fear?”

“That no one will ever love me for all of who I am,” I responded without really thinking.

“What do you mean?”

I sighed into the cushions. “Shadow Demons have a terrible rap, Matt. Sometimes I think the world will never be able to see us as anything more than monsters.”

His face clouded over. “You can’t think like that. It’ll all get sorted eventually. Stop being so melancholy.”

“You asked about fears,” I reminded him.

“Yeah, but I didn’t think you were going to get all sullen on me. Now snap out of it. We’re having fun, remember? Dare.”

“Fun, you said?” I raised an eyebrow at him. “Do the worm for twenty seconds. And don’t pretend like you don’t know what I’m talking about, everyone knows the worm.”

He shook his head; the sun shining once more in his smile. “I don’t know if I’ve ever actually done this before. Here goes nothing.” His attempt at the worm was even worse than his joke, but he tried it. When he was done, he was laughing every bit as hard as I was. “Please, let’s never talk of that again,” he said as he resumed his seat. He poured us each another shot and leaned back.

I had to scoot closer to the middle in order to get it, though, because he’d overfilled it. We chinked glasses, making an even bigger mess, and drank together. “Dare.”

“Balance what’s left of the bottle on your head for ten seconds in a row.” He snagged the half empty bottle and handed it to me.

It took three tries, but I finally got it positioned so it didn’t immediately topple back over. Even then, I almost didn’t make it because I started laughing. I removed the bottle and let it slide to the ground, then rolled my head to face him. He was curled up beside me, still smiling from my pathetic attempts at balance. I loved looking at him. I loved everything about him, even his stubborn nature and the way he seemed to constantly torture me.

“I guess it will be truth,” he sighed, looking at me with those perfectly blue eyes.

“What do you want, Matt?”

“For you to kiss me.”

I shifted so that I was fully facing him. I couldn’t have heard that right. “What? Why?”