His Test Was Fake, But My Death Was Real novel · Chapter 9 of 24
Chapter 9: Rain
The rain came down across the cove while we were still on the water.
Dario cut the engine at the slip and let the boat drift the last few yards.
We were both soaked, and I was shaking so hard my teeth clicked.
"Inside," he said.
I did not remember climbing the steps.
I remembered the door slamming and the fire he lit with one hand while the other held me up.
I remembered the pearls, still wrapped in my fist, and how I could not make my fingers open.
He took them from me one finger at a time.
He set them on the mantel, where the firelight caught them.
"You were magnificent," he said.
"I was terrified."
"That too."
"He had his hand on my shoulder, Dario. He knew me. He knew and he said nothing."
"He suspects. That's not the same."
"I wanted to turn around."
"I know you did."
"I wanted him to see me and feel it, all of it, and I wanted..."
I stopped.
The fire popped.
Water ran off my hair and down my neck, and Dario stood a step away from me with his hands at his sides.
He had not moved closer, and he did not.
I thought of the rule he had given me, and of the man whose arm had gone numb under my head all night once, and who had sat in a hotel room watching me kneel.
I did not want that man.
I wanted this one, with the rain on his collar and the scar through his eyebrow, who had stood in a doorway for six days and not once asked for anything.
"Dario."
"Yes."
"I'm asking."
His whole body went still.
"Say it plainly," he said, very quietly.
"Touch me."
He crossed the room in two strides.
His hands came up on either side of my face, cold from the rain, and he kissed me.
It was not gentle.
It was six days of holding back, and I met it with my whole mouth, and my fingers dug into his wet shirt.
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