First Love (Love Nibbles Book 2) (11 page)

Her breath stopped and her heart pounded. He was gazing at her as intently as she had been looking at him, peering deep inside her.

She felt naked in front of him and longed to run away from his searing gaze, but found it impossible to move her feet. It was as if he saw and marked her pain, still percolating underneath the veneer of dull ennui. His scalpel gaze hurt as it cut through her scars. Tears stung her eyes and she blinked to clear them.

Then the man looked away, once again staring sightlessly at that invisible mark on the opposite side of the tent.

Sarah moved on, feeling shaken and anxious, wondering what had just happened. That moment of connection had been as sharp and real as anything she’d ever experienced. She longed to go home, bury herself under her bedcovers, and forget what she’d seen tonight.

She hurried past the rest of the exhibits, but before she followed her friends out of the sideshow Sarah took a last glance at the tattooed man. A cluster of people blocked her view. She had to leave without seeing him again.

The rest of the evening passed in a blur of carnival lights and music and too much noise. She made pointless small talk with Grace, Mike, and Andrew but nothing registered. She felt as if she was walking in a dream. Her mind kept returning to the arresting vision of the tattooed man, to his intense eyes even more than the art decorating his muscular body. If only she could steal away from her friends, pay her quarter and see him one last time. Instead, she bid them all goodnight, rejected Andrew’s offer to see her home, and walked over the hill, through the pasture to her house.

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