When Darkness Ends (Moments in Boston #3) - Marni Mann Page 0,24

a paper due in the morning, so that’s my fun for the night. I wish I could come watch you, but I know the tickets are sold out.”

“How do you know that?”

I felt his stare turn even deeper, followed by a grin that I couldn’t get enough of.

“Because I tried to buy one.”

“But you’ve already seen the play.”

“I wanted to watch you again.” He paused, and my throat tightened. “One time wasn’t enough.”

I shook my head over the pillow, staring into his baby-blue eyes, emotion rippling in my chest. This was the start of something powerful—I could feel it in my bones. “What if I could get you a ticket?”

“I would be there in a second.”

Last time, I hadn’t known he was in the audience.

This time would be entirely different, and I wondered if I’d be able to feel him in the air.

“But you have a paper to write—”

His fingers strengthened on my face. “I’d drop you off at the auditorium, come back, get a good dent in it, and finish it before class if I have to.”

“You’re sure? I feel like a giant contradiction right now because I’m doing what I made you promise not to do.”

“Please get me a ticket, Pearl.” His eyes intensified. “I want nothing more than to see you perform again.”

I waited for my throat to open, the air not moving as freely anymore, and I replied, “They always reserve a few extra seats for the cast’s families. I’ll leave the ticket at Will Call, just give them your name.”

“I’m really looking forward to it. And …” He swiped across my top lip with the pad of his finger. A slow, steady move that made me feel the warmth of his skin. “If Gran can’t be there, then at least I will be.”

His words hit me hard.

I swallowed each one, feeling them in my chest before they simmered through the rest of my body.

He stretched up to my hairline, his palm now on my cheek, his eyes pulling me so close that I felt as though I were on top of him.

“Ashe …”

Inches only separated our lips, but I swore I could taste them.

“I’m doing everything I can to keep my distance, and I’m failing.”

So sensitive, so concerned with what I needed.

But if he was reading me—and I knew he was—then he would know that wasn’t what I wanted in this moment.

Maybe, in this instance, he needed my voice to tell him.

“I don’t want distance. I want your closeness.”

His thumb paused in the center of my lips, and his eyes dipped, staring at them. Heat from his body filtered directly into mine.

“Once I kiss you, Pearl … I don’t know if I’ll be able to stop.”

Seventeen

Before

Ashe

“Ashe … kiss me,” Pearl whispered from the pillow next to mine.

I knew she wasn’t fragile and that my lips wouldn’t be the first to press against hers. But even though the desire to rip off her clothes and give her an orgasm was pulsing through me, I wanted to take my time. Pearl deserved to be savored, to receive equal attention to each of her curves, for my mouth to make her feel as good as my body could.

And I would do all of that.

It just wasn’t going to happen today.

I surrounded her face with both of my hands and leaned in closer, holding her stare until our lids finally shut. When I couldn’t hold off a second longer, I filled my lungs to capacity and closed the space between us, gently kissing her. I tasted the sweetness of the cake, the lemon and blueberry. The hint of cinnamon was there, too, wafting from her skin—a scent I now only associated with her.

The pressure of my mouth caused her lips to part, and I turned my face, fitting us together like a puzzle, our tongues quietly touching. The sound of her exhale told me her body was as worked up as mine, that she wanted to feel more than my hands clinging to her face. So did her response when I pressed my chest to hers and scissored our legs, tangling us into a knot.

While my tongue slid over hers, my hand dipped to her neck, her softness taking ahold of me, and I slowly crawled to her side. I stayed there, brushing my thumb back and forth until the bottom of her shirt lifted and I hit skin.

Her breath hitched as my fingers moved beneath the thin material.

If I had thought her neck was the smoothest I’d ever