Page 78 of The Darkness is Calling

“Alive? What about dead?”

“A few,” he answers casually.

God, what have I gotten myself into?

I rub my forehead with two fingers and let out a tired sigh. My entire body aches, and my mind is too dizzy from everything that happened tonight for me to argue with him.

The clock shows it is almost four in the morning, and I am supposed to wake up in three hours to make it for early meeting with a potential gallery client.

“I can’t have this discussion right now,” I tell him, increasingly exhausted. “I have business first thing in the morning, and I don’t want to fight with you in the middle of the night. I don’t even have the energy to shower anymore...”

“We are not fighting at all, but you’re right. We need to sleep.”

He kisses me quickly on the lips and jumps out of bed.

“So you don’t want to come to my room?” he asks, pointing toward the door. “The bed there is bigger and more comfortable. And it isn’t wet.”

I blush, looking around at the bedsheets ruined by my body, which I had no idea could react that way to such an intense orgasm. Apparently, Artem has supernatural powers even when it comes to sex.

But his offer remains standing, along with his half-naked body, waiting for my answer like a god.

After everything that happened, I would truly like to sleep beside him, but I am too stubborn to give in, especially after seeing how determined he is to get his way about a wedding he is not even invited to.

“I’m staying here. I’ll change the sheets.”

He clenches his teeth, and I see the muscle in his cheek tighten.

“Fine. I’ll go change and come right back to help you.”

“Excuse me?”

But he is already out the door, his trousers hanging low on his hips, and he doesn’t bother answering me.

I stare at the door for a few moments before deciding I must have heard him wrong and get up to pull out a fresh set of sheets.

The bed is a wreck, the sheets sticky, but everything smells like him.

I smile.

Biting my lower lip, I quickly dress in another nightgown, and after carrying the pile of dirty sheets to the bathroom, I take a new set from the closet, just as soft as the previous one.

The door opens, and Artem returns to the room wearing only a pair of long, very loose pants through which I can still see the shape of his half-hard cock far too well.

I close my eyes for a moment and breathe deeply, trying to remember that I will wake up in only few hours and that I don’t have time to indulge in the new fantasy coloring my imagination.

Together, we make the bed in silence, and less than two minutes later, when everything is ready, I stretch out on the soft mattress.

I should be surprised when I see him hesitate not even a second before lying down beside me, but I don’t know if it is exhaustion or the haze of the moments from earlier that now makes his gesture feel perfectly normal.

Pleasant.

“I thought you said you don’t sleep in another bed, and this is not a hotel, Pakhan,” I tease him when he gently pulls me into his arms.

“But you are here, dusha moya,” he whispers, pressing his lips to my hair.

I’m melting.

Smiling, and without making any other useless or cruel comments, I press myself fully against him, where I fall asleep almost instantly.