My eyes felt wide open. Had I blinked yet?
I tried, but my lids wouldn’t cooperate. They just took him in, filing everything like a screenshot in my head.
The way his black hair glinted almost blue in the sunlight filtering in through the window behind him.
The way he tipped his head, with the black-blue strands silkily sliding to touch the side of h
is face and cover part of his eyes.
The way he was leaning against the wall…with just the right amount of recklessness.
He was tall. God, he was tall. Lean but muscular. Like a swimmer. His shoulders were wide, tapering down to a slim waist.
“And your number?” he asked.
This time, there was no please in his tone. It was as bold as brass. All confidence.
I told him.
His smile was wicked as he entered it into his phone. He looked like a little boy who had gotten away with something.
What was I doing? This wasn’t me. Someone had possessed my body. I had never given my number to a guy like this, but something about him compelled me to do it.
He’d sucked away all my powers from me. I had to get away. But my legs wouldn’t move. Traitors!
He pushed away from the wall, straightening. For a moment, I felt panic climb up my chest. Not because I was afraid of him. I was afraid of what I was going to do.
He started to walk closer, closer. But he wasn’t looking at me anymore, and I wondered if it was just a test. A game.
He kept walking, staring straight ahead. There was a small smile playing on his lips as he walked by me, inches away from where I was standing. My eyes closed involuntarily.
And then…I felt a light touch on the back of my hand. Featherlight, as if a butterfly’s wings were hovering near my skin.
My eyes opened. Holding my breath, I looked down. It was like watching something happen in slow motion. We stood side by side, facing different directions. Slowly, gently, the tip of his finger stroked mine, tracing the outline of it.
I felt his head lean down a little toward me, felt his body heat, smelled his masculine scent. Something that reminded me of the sea: deep, blue, and sensual.
And then he was gone.
Chapter 5
Kara
As soon as I got home from campus, I took off my shoes and made a beeline for the bathroom. But this time, it wasn’t to take a dump.
I sat in the empty bathtub, still fully clothed, chin on my knees, hands on my neck. I stared at the yellowed spots I couldn’t get rid of no matter how hard I scrubbed the surface of the tub and let my mind wander.
It was quiet except for the drip, drip, drip from the faucet. And if I really listened to it, I could hear the creepy grandmother clock in the living room ticking heavily. It needed to be adjusted again or, in my opinion, thrown out, but my dad loved to hoard junk—useful junk, according to him—so it stayed.
I should have asked my dad to fix these things, but I tried to make it as easy on him as I could because I knew how exhausted he was every day. In the back of my mind, I was thinking that if only my childhood friend Damon were here, the dripping and the heavy ticking would have been taken care of already. He was a pretty good handyman, among other things.
But he wasn’t here. His last text said he was somewhere in British Columbia. Doing only God knows what.
My eyes hesitantly traveled up from my feet to the other end of the tub, where I had placed my cell phone. It mocked me with its dark screen. I narrowed my eyes at it, like it was my archenemy.
I should turn it off.
Why didn’t I?