Dark Hearts (Light in the Dark 3)

I groan. “Something tells me that with you I’m going to be hard until I die.”

She laughs, her body shaking against me. She’s always beautiful, but when she laughs it’s like it turns a light on inside her and she’s radiant.

“Food first,” I tell her. Knowing Nova, she probably hasn’t eaten properly in the last two weeks. The girl can’t cook. I quickly learned that there would be no sharing of the food responsibilities between us. She made spaghetti one of the first nights after she moved in and it was like eating rubber. After that, I took over all the cooking duties. I don’t mind. Cooking is one of the few things I’m good at and enjoy.

I kiss her one last time, because I can’t help myself, and disentangle from her limbs.

I grab my sweatpants off the floor and pull them on sans underwear. I glance behind me and find Nova watching me. I wink and she blushes all the way from her chest to her cheeks.

I step down from the raised platform my bed rests on and head into the kitchen.

Half-cooked eggs sit congealed in the skillet.

I throw them away.

“Do you want any bacon?” I call to her. I look over and find her dressing. What a shame. I feel like there should be a rule where Nova’s naked all the time. That’d be fantastic … but I’d also never get anything done.

“Yeah,” she says back, pulling her shirt over her head. “Black and crispy like my soul.”

I laugh as I pull the bacon out of the refrigerator. “In other words, you want me to ruin it.”

She heads over to me and hops up on the stainless-steel island. “We agree on most things, but the way we like our bacon is where we diverge. I can’t eat it raw like you.”

“Yeah, but you like it practically charred and burned.”

She laughs, her legs swinging back and forth. “It’s delicious like that. You’re missing out.”

I pretend to gag. While the bacon is frying, I pour us each a cup of coffee. She takes hers and uses the cup to hide her smile.

We’ve had breakfast together every morning since she moved in, except the last two weeks.

It was hell not talking to her, but I didn’t know what else I could say to change her mind, and I decided giving her space was probably for the best.

Granted, space probably turned me into an even bigger idiot, which is why I brought that girl back here last night.

I wanted to make Nova jealous. I wanted her blood to boil and for her to go off. I wanted any reaction, even a bad one, because after so much silence I couldn’t take it any longer. But the moment that chick kissed me—fuck, I don’t even remember her name—I knew I couldn’t go through with it. I wasn’t planning to anyway. I just wanted to make Nova jealous, but the chick didn’t know that and she thought she was there to get laid. I’m surprised she didn’t slap me when I kicked her out.

“Confession—” I’m full of them this morning, apparently “—I’ve never wanted to make anyone jealous before. Not like I wanted to make you jealous last night.”

She sips her coffee and sets the cup on the counter by her side. I step into the space between her legs.

“Confession, I like that you wanted to make me jealous even if I wanted to pull that girl’s hair last night. It took all my willpower to stay in my room.”

I can’t help it, I laugh—a laugh that comes deep from my stomach. When I sober, I say, “Picturing you yanking on a girl’s hair is the funniest thing ever.”

She shrugs. “That’s what I wanted to do. She was probably some blond bimbo with fake extensions. Wasn’t she?”

My lips quirk. “Maybe.”

“So, you like blonds, huh?”

I shake my head. “I like you.”

Surprise fills her eyes, like even after I fucked her senseless and confessed I haven’t had sex since she moved in, she can’t wrap her head around the fact that I like her. That I want her.

Do I love Nova? I don’t fucking know. I’ve never been in love before and my parents’ relationship was rocky at the best of times so it’s not like I have that to base something off of. All I know is this girl consumes me and makes me feel alive in a way I haven’t in a long time.

Something begins to smoke, and I curse. “Fucking bacon.” I totally forgot it was cooking.