Read As Black as Ebony for Free Online

Lumikki would accept him with open arms and forget everything?
    If he did, he had an infuriating amount of nerve. And he was wrong.
    Blaze got up to get a glass of water. When he returned to the table, instead of sitting down, he pressed his hands to Lumikki’s shoulders and began massaging them as if that were perfectly natural.
    “You’re all knotted up,” he said.
    Lumikki only managed a vague mumble in reply. She knew she should ask Blaze to stop. Theoretically, a shoulder rub was just innocent touching between friends, but they weren’t friends. Not only. Not yet. Maybe not ever.
    But Lumikki didn’t ask Blaze to stop because the rubbing felt so good and her shoulders really were tighter than they had ever been before. Blaze’s familiar, deft touch made them relax, and Lumikki could feel her blood flow improving as the clenching in her muscles eased. Blaze’s hands were warm and their pressure was both gentle and purposeful. He didn’t try to force her muscles into submission. First, he massaged lightly, then gradually pressed harder and deeper. He stopped at the tightest spots and took the time to warm them under his fingers.
    Neither of them said anything.
    Florence and the Machine played in the background, singing about bruised bodies burning with passionate fire. Lumikki regretted her choice of music. But not really. She had known what she was doing when she put Florence on. She had known what mood it would create.
    Blaze’s touch made Lumikki slip into a sweet, almost dreamlike state. For a moment, she could forget everything else. The fear. The anxiety. She didn’t need to think about anything. The languid relaxation and warmth spread from her shoulders down.
    Lumikki didn’t know how long had passed when she realized the massage had changed. Now it was more caressing. Blaze gently stroked her neck, and every brush of his hand made shivers run down Lumikki’s spine, and beyond. Gradually, the relaxation melted away, replaced by a burning fire. Blaze’s hands caressed the sides of her neck and her earlobes, and then returned to the nape of her neck. Warm breath against Lumikki’s skin.
    The two of them against each other, chest to chest, breath heavy, lips touching.
    The two of them in the shower, bare, slick skin, wet, the hard tile wall behind her back, sounds echoing in the small room.
    The two of them on Lumikki’s bed, the tangled sheets, the panting, the teeth on her shoulder, the cries they couldn’t hold back.
    The two of them in their own forest, surrounded by the scent of pine, hidden, concealed in the shadows, clinging to each other, lost in each other, and somewhere far away, far above, in the branches, the twinkling light of the stars.
    Lumikki snapped out of her daydream. Quickly, she stood up and stepped away from Blaze.
    “You need to go now.”
    Lumikki stared past Blaze with determination. She couldn’t take the risk of looking him in the eyes. If she did, she might not have the strength to send him away.
    Blaze didn’t argue. Calmly, he went to the entryway and dressed in silence for the cold outside. But at the door, he turned and smiled.
    “I’ll see you again soon, my princess. You know it as well as I do. We can’t stay away from each other for long.”
    Then he left without waiting for Lumikki’s reply.
    Lumikki stood, staring at the door. She knew that Blaze was right.

I’ve seen so often how people can be truly, senselessly cruel to each other. Especially in school. Children and teenagers find each other’s vulnerabilities and strike at them without mercy. They are animals. School is a hunting ground and a battlefield. Only the strong survive.
    That is really why I dream about getting to carry out my threats. Everyone watching the play. Everyone silent in their seats.
    Then the stage fills with shouts and blood and bodies. Panic. The doors are locked. Then it’s the audience’s turn. One at a time. No one would escape. I would paint the whole theater