Chapter 10: A Beautiful Purple
She shook her head now. She certainly hoped not. But she knew he was tempting fate by being here tonight. In her apartment. In her shower. In her bed. It didn’t even matter that she hadn’t joined him. If they found out, they’d hurt him. She cringed as she considered it. But she’d been warned. They would consider tonight evidence that she had flouted her father’s will.
The fate they’d tempted, in this case, was broken fingers or broken kneecaps. Or, heaven forbid, a broken nose.
Please…please don’t let them touch his beautiful face. Or his lovely fingers. Those elegant bones.
Her eyes had more than once traced the lovely bones that congregated at each joint. He had gorgeous phalanges. She’d learned that word in her biology class. It had always stuck with her for some unknown reason. But, until Jungkook, she had never considered that anyone could have a beautiful phalanx. His bones were long and slender, but his fingers were strong. A graceful strength was hidden in the beauty of those slender digits.
They’d wrapped around her wrist once as he’d tugged her close to him. She still remembered what they’d felt like. Electricity slipped from those fingertips. Every time he touched her.
Those tantalizing fingers had slid along her own many times. He loved to hold her hand. He’d always cradled it so gently. She’d felt…cherished within the embrace of his fingers.
But the way they felt slipping over the skin of her face was beyond this world. Those fingertips had set off a series of fires beneath her skin that had burned all the way down to her stomach. Whatever they had ignited in its pit had caused severe repercussions. The whole space had flipped upside down. While it melted. She’d ended up too exhausted to resist that electric touch. So when he had bent his head to give her that first kiss, she hadn’t refused him.
Foolish girl.
She could have saved them both from a world of trouble if she had simply pushed that lovely hand away that day. Even now, she should shove him out the door. She should have refused him entrance to begin with tonight. If they were watching now, if they’d seen him come in after midnight, they’d assume the wrong thing, and they would punish him. Her fingers faltered on the guitar for a moment as fear spiked in her heart.
Jungkook’s gazed sharpened on her. “What’s wrong?” he whispered.
But she continued playing and began to sing the second verse in her hoarse voice.
“You don’t leave me longing
In the middle of the night.
You don’t leave me alone
In the middle of my fight.”
Oh, but she wanted him to! He needed to leave her alone. To fight the darkness on her own. That way he could walk away unscathed. He could keep his beautiful face untouched. His lovely bones unbroken. And she could mourn the loss of him in peace. Knowing she hadn’t cost him anything more than a broken heart.
But he was too beautiful. His love too purple. A beautiful, purple love. The perfect marriage of true blue and passionate scarlet. An undying promise to protect her with his ardent heart. If only he were faithless, he could walk away undamaged.
“You don’t leave me panting
In the middle of my wound.
Your words the balm I need
When I am pierced through at noon.
“You don’t leave me thirsty
When I’m standing at your well.
Your waters are refreshing,
Quenching me like Zinfandel.
“You don’t leave me crying
As I lie upon my bed.
Your arms embrace me,
You plant kisses on my head.”
He hadn’t left her alone tonight as she’d wept into her pillow. And prayed he’d gone. No, he had braved wind and rain for her. And a nasty cold too.
And when she had weakened and gone to him, he’d pulled her into those strong arms and up against that muscled chest and kissed her just as sweetly as he always had. And she had melted once more. Powerless to resist the beauty hidden in his heart.
