Whispered Desires

Chapter 17: Fast Food

JASMINE

I'm going to kill him.

Not Kilian, but Hayden. I'm pretty sure he felt accomplished as hell when he set this up, knowing full-well that I won't hurt him because he's my best friend's husband. Still, I'll find a way to make him pay.

"Is that a dick?" Kilian's voice makes me turn around, and I immediately narrow my eyes at him as he studies a picture on the wall behind us.

"No, that's not... Oh." My eyes widen when I look at the photo he's still regarding. "Damn, that does look like a dick."

Kilian's laugh echoes around us, and I instantly feel multiple pairs of eyes on us, probably wondering what the hell a jock like him does at a place like this. I don't care much about it, though. I can appreciate a good joke when I hear one, and so I laugh along with him, although I'm still trying to figure out what exactly this photograph is supposed to portray.

"What the hell is this? A thumb? A toe?"

"Maybe it's a carrot?" I chime in, unable to hide the amusement in my voice.

"A carrot?!" Kilian is wheezing by now, doubling over with laughter as he shakes his head in disbelief. "I don't know what kind of carrots you eat, Venus, but this thing sure as hell ain't edible." He laughs again, wiping some tears from his eyes as he straightens himself up.

"Who said I want to eat it? There are other places a carrot could go." I almost choke on my own joke, and Kilian just regards me with wide eyes for a moment before he bursts out laughing, the sound so contagious that I can't help but join in.

I don't know how long we stand here, trying to get our shit together as we look at what I now realize is some sort of penis-shaped rock edited into black and white. The filter definitely didn't help the already unfortunate shape of this boulder. I wonder if this was intentional or not...

"Damn, fire girl. I said it before and I'll say it again: You have one hell of a mouth on you." Kilian shakes his head at me, and for a moment I just bathe in the way he looks at me, his eyes raging with a scorching fire that holds more than just physical attraction.

I don't know if it's his rage at the things I said that one morning, or if there's something else lingering in his mind, but I want to figure it out. The fact that he's here again confuses me, honestly. I thought that little adventure we had was over when he stormed out of my hotel room, but I guess I was wrong. I don't know what to make of that. I don't know what to make of him in general - he's way more complicated and complex than I thought he would be.

"So..." He clears his throat, averting his fiery gaze before it settles on the next picture to our right. "What does this one say, then?"

I study the picture he's looking at, a girl with pigtails that grins widely, but one half of her face is overshadowed, and if you look closely, you see that she's crying on the other side, although her lips are still curled into a smile. "Why don't you tell me? You said you're the expert, right?" I raise an eyebrow at him.

He seems unimpressed by my teasing, his eyes flicking to the title beneath the picture. Shadow And Light. "Well, this one's easy, isn't it?" Kilian leans back and crosses his arms in front of his chest. "It just shows that darkness doesn't define you. How you carry yourself does, and this girl smiles through her obvious struggles. It's cool."

And again... This damn idiot makes me speechless. Never in my life did I hear anyone describe a picture so perfectly with just a few words and then finish it off with "It's cool.".

The ringing of his cell phone interrupts the moment, and I watch how he pulls it out of his pocket with a sigh, only to silent it and let it slip back in. His posture instantly changes, and he suddenly seems more stressed and fidgety than before. "You okay?" I can't help but ask, and for a second I think he's going to say something, but then he responds with a wink before he walks off to the next picture.