Prisoned - Marni Mann Page 0,46

I thought he would hand it to me when he returned, but he rubbed it over my pussy instead. It was an intimate moment. His gentle hand held the wet paper against my opening, cleaning the cum as it dripped out of me. His touch was so fragile, so different than he had been several minutes before. The compassionate side of him was as sexy as the feral one.

After he flushed the clump, he handed my clothes back to me and joined me under the blanket. “I’m going to keep you safe.” The clothes stayed where he had set them because he gripped my face, making it impossible for me to move. “If they want to torture someone, they’re going to torture me.”

He’d kept me so fogged that I’d forgotten about his bruises, cuts, and scrapes. But, now, they all stared at me. Taunted me. Reminded me of Breath and Beard, the power they had, what they were capable of…how badly they could hurt us.

“Garin, no.”

His lips were so close to mine, and I breathed in his exhale. It didn’t matter how tightly he held my face. He wasn’t squeezing a yes out of me.

“The decision is up to me,” he said. “It’s what I choose, and as long as I can help it, nothing is going to happen to you.”

“You can’t protect me in here. You said it yourself.”

He pulled me onto his lap, my naked body straddling his. “Stop,” he growled.

I opened my mouth, and his finger pressed between my lips.

“You’re going to work yourself up until you can’t breathe. Don’t do it, Kyle. Let me do the worrying. Let me carry the anxiety. I just want you to take a deep breath, get dressed, and get into bed, so I can hold you until you fall asleep.”

Instead of giving me a chance to respond, he lifted me off his lap and set me on my feet. He clasped the bra behind my back and helped me slide into my pants. He even dropped my tank top over my head.

Once he was dressed, he climbed into bed behind me, holding me so close to his body. I felt every inhale. Every exhale. Every beat inside his chest.

“My soul mate,” I whispered.

He turned my cheek, so I looked at him over my shoulder. “What did you call me?”

“You’re my soul mate, Garin. For some reason, we were put in this cell together and given a second chance.”

“You believe in that?”

I nodded. “I believe our soul mate is revealed only once during our life. Maybe it’s a glimpse of a stranger. Maybe it’s our best friend. The timing may not always be right. But, when they’re shown to us, we know it’s them. Then, life happens. We grow. We age. We develop scars. And we remember that glimpse. Some are lucky enough to spend the rest of their lives with that person. Some, like me, have only memories.”

“Now, you have more than just memories.”

He released my face, and I turned around, cozying into his chest.

This was another moment. One that I wanted to hold, that I wanted to live in for as long as I could. One that I’d use to put me in a painless place. There were other moments from my past. All of them included Garin. They shone the brightest in my mind, so I wouldn’t ever forget them.

But my past had taught me something. After each of these moments, the moment that followed usually wasn’t good. It was tragic. Dark. It had the capability of changing my life for the worse.

I feared that would happen the next time I opened my eyes. That, after this moment, the next would sear us permanently. I needed to prepare myself for that.

So, in my mind, I moved the light. Now, it shone on this. And on us.

Fifteen

Garin

Present Day

I stared at her face while her eyes were closed. She looked the same as she did all those years ago. So fucking beautiful but healthy. With all her makeup washed off, she had a softness to her skin that women from The Heart didn’t usually have. Kyle always had it. Hell, she looked more gorgeous now than she had when she graduated high school.

Kyle Lang, after all this time, how the hell did you come back into my life?

And, now, we were here, together, in the most fucked up place. In the most fucked up situation.

When I saw her in the back row at the funeral, I wanted to wrap my