The Ties That Bind Us: (The Ties Duet Part One) Danda K. (dark academia books to read TXT) 📖

“Tell me something I don’t know about you, baby.”

“Again with this, huh? I’m pretty sure you know just about everything at this point.” She smiles wholeheartedly and leans her head on my shoulder, pulling some lint off the blanket by her legs.

Looking at her through the corner of my eye, I tell her honestly, “For some reason, I highly doubt that.”

She seems to be thinking about it, the cold, red tip of her nose scrunched up in concentration.

She gives a sly smile. “Well, there’s this cute guy I met last week at work--” Her grin spreads across her face now.

“This story better end with, and I punched him in the face. Or else we’re gonna have some problems.”

She laughs, and I reach for her sides again to tickle her. She squirms and kicks her feet, causing the small passenger car to rock back and forth violently.

She blurts out through laughter, “Oh my God! We’re gonna die!”

“You better give me something, Nyx, or this is how we’ll spend the rest of this little ride.”

“Okay! Okay! Fine!”

I release her sides as she tries to catch her breath, wiping away the tears that began to fall down her face from laughter.

Once she calms down, she turns her head to look at me. ”I bet you didn’t know that I felt something for you the very first time I saw you.” She looks down and fiddles more with the blanket. “In fact, you remember the week after our encounter at the beach?” She looks at me much more seriously now. “I couldn’t get you out of my head. Although I wouldn’t have admitted it then, you stuck with me instantly. Nobody else has ever done that. Not even Camilla.” She turns back and adjusts her arms under the blanket.

I reach over to kiss her head and, before I can respond, the ride begins to move again.

When we reach the bottom, Roger is waiting with a set of keys in his hand. We follow him through the park and to an exit, heading towards our final destination for the night.

As the large, old shed comes into view, I actually begin to feel nervous.

What if she hates this? What if she refuses, and this was all for nothing? I try to swallow my doubt and trust my girl will come through for me. She needs to come through for me.

Not only for me but because what’s inside her is so fucking beautiful. Even if she doesn’t know it. I’ve waited so long for this opportunity, and it wasn’t easy. This is the one part she still refuses to let me see.

But tonight, I hope that changes.

Cameron

I have no idea where we’re going now. We seem to be heading along the back end of the park, closer to the beach. Roger leads us through a small gate that exits the main area and down steps for the beach. This area seems to be cut off to the public.

There are gates along each side of the private beach that have KEEP OUT signs all over. I look over to Jax, and he gives me a reassuring smile.

“Alright, you guys are on your own now. The exit is right behind the shed. It’ll take you right onto the street again. It locks automatically, so make sure you have all of your belongings before you head out.” He gives a couple of slaps to Jaxon’s back and waves at me before he heads back to the steps.

Once he’s out of view, I look up at Jaxon, confused. “Uh, what’s going on now?” He just smiles at me, looking a bit nervous himself.

That makes me even more nervous because Jaxon’s never nervous.

“They used this shed to hold smaller equipment for the park.” He points to the red wooden structure.

It’s a big shed, almost the size of a small guesthouse. There are brown sliding barn doors on the front with two black planks creating an X on each sliding door. It seems totally out of place for a beach, more like it should be on a farm instead.

“Ok?” My eyebrows nearly touch each other.

“They don’t use it anymore, so it’s been empty for years.” He continues, “Roger let me borrow it for tonight.” He grips the handle and pulls the door open for me to enter. Suddenly I notice little flickers of light appear the more he slides the door open.

I notice the open space is empty on the bottom, but there are a ton of beautiful Mason jars hanging in rows from the ceiling. Inside the jars are a bunch of tangled lights illuminating the glass.

Once Jaxon slides the doors closed, the light is bright enough for me to see the high ceiling but leaves the room dark enough that I can’t see the entire space clearly. It’s so beautiful. I reach my hand out in front of me and walk around. I feel the wall- the brown wood is sturdy but chipped, and there’s a large beam going horizontally across it.

“What’s this about Jaxon?” I ask him, now very curious.

He takes my hand and walks me over to the other end of the shed. He turns on his flashlight and takes a lighter to light a few candles around some box crates.

I can see now there’s a large plush blanket laid across the floor, surrounded by those same crates, some with red checkered blankets thrown over them. There are colorful throw pillows all over to make it more comfortable and inviting, and a small, brown picnic basket is placed in the middle of the blanket.

We sit down, and he begins to unpack the contents of the basket. He removes some paper plates, cheese, wine, crackers, and meats before pulling out two wine glasses and setting them next to us.

Jaxon pours us each a glass of wine and begins to open up the food.

“This is absolutely amazing.” I look around this gorgeous setup, in awe of how much thought he put into this.

He throws a piece of salami into his mouth, followed by a piece of cheese.

“Yeah, it