Chapter 8: The Loud One

David pulled the quilt over both of us and said, in a perfectly level voice, "Bernard."

"David."

"Knock next time."

"The door was open." Bernard didn't move from the gap. "Also, I've been standing here a minute and I'm only human."

I started to laugh.

I put my face in David's shoulder to stop it.

His chest was shaking too.

"I'll go," David said, into my hair. "If you want me to."

I lifted my head.

"Stay if you want," I said. "Go if you want. It's your choice. I'm not deciding that for you."

He looked at me for a long moment.

Then he kissed my forehead, slowly, and got out of the bed, and found his jeans.

At the door he stopped beside Bernard.

"She's in charge," he said.

"I got the memo," Bernard said.

David went out.

The bedroom door swung half shut behind him.

Bernard put the two mugs of tea on the dresser and stood with his hands at his sides.

"You can come in," I said.

"Is that an invitation, or a rule?"

"Both. Take off your shirt."

He grinned and pulled it over his head.

I sat up against the pillows with the quilt at my waist.

I looked at him for as long as I wanted to.

He was big.

He was sandy and freckled, with a pale line of old burn across one shoulder and a chest he'd earned.

"You're staring," Bernard said happily.

"I'm taking inventory."

"How'm I looking?"

"Come here and find out."

He crossed the room in three strides, and then he stopped at the edge of the mattress, because I'd held up a hand.

"Say it out loud," I said.

"I'm going to kiss you, Zelda."

"Do it."

He kissed me with his whole self, with a laugh in it.

His hand slid into my hair and his mouth opened mine, and I tasted tea and salt.

I pulled him down.

The mattress dipped under his weight, and he braced himself over me on his arms and then he put his lips against my throat.

"You taste like winter," he said.

"That's not a compliment."

Keep reading free with an account. Start Taken in My Sleep by My Stepfather David and His Friends from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.