you going to tell me what else you found in my old house?” I didn’t want to know, but I needed to.
He pulls both hands from under the covers and uses them as a protective safeguard—where I can’t read his emotions. “Sweetheart.” His words are mumbled a little, but I can still understand him with his hands partially covering his lips. “I’m not sure I should tell you.”
“No, you probably shouldn’t, but….”
He pushes himself up against the headboard, bringing his light blanket with him. He has a shirt on, but through it, I can see the rippling biceps pushing against the sleeves.
“Fuck, Mal, I can’t stand to see anything else hurt you. Do you know how much I need to protect you?”
“I know, but I’m not a kid anymore, old man.” He lightly smacks my arm as I’m still lying on my side with my head angled in order to see all of him.
“Okay, buckle in, because what I’m about to tell you is all sides of fucked up.”
I ready myself and roll over, sitting across from him, crisscross apple sauce. I look at his face, the words dripping from his mouth, from the writing on the wall, to the forensic team's assessment of there being too much blood for anyone to survive it.
My stomach roils, and I bolt from my kindergarten stance so quick and run toward the bathroom. Thankfully, I make it to the bowl. I’ve shut the door and was able to lock it. I need two minutes, to myself, in the peace of a now dirty toilet. I push from the floor, looking at my reflection. “Mal, honey, I just need to know you’re okay.”
“Yeah.” It’s all he gets, but as I splash cold water on my face and brush my teeth, I see something I’m tired of being and have been for the past eleven years. I’m no longer a scared kid and refuse to act like one.
Chapter 19
Wells
There’s an instant shift in her expression, and I can’t read it, yet in a second, she looks as if she’s grown before my eyes. With my hand, I bring her back to her bed.
“What’s going on in the glint of your eyes, Mal?” Fuck, if she wasn’t beautiful before, she’s knock-down gorgeous now.
“I’m tired of him winning and controlling my life.” She reaches over the pillows that are back between us, grabbing at my fingers. “I know you think we are all sorts of wrong together, but don’t you understand, you’re the one good thing in my life, the only part I know he can’t take away. You’re the one person who makes sense to me.”
I throw the pillows that have been between us to the floor. Her beautiful face is in front of me, begging me to love her. But I love this woman down to every fiber. Her lower lip trembles as they part at the same time. My fingers become clammy, and I swallow hard when her eyes lock on my mine, softening, silently beckoning me to close the space between us.
I push off from the mattress onto my knees, leaning forward to pull her body flush to mine. Both of us are kneeling, and her nose touches mine.
“I’m not doing this back and forth with you, Wells. I want you, but I don’t want to be a mistake in the morning.”
“You’re trouble, you know this, right?” I ask as I often do, with my hand stopping on her head, raking my fingers through her dark hair.
“I’m the best kind of trouble you’ll ever find in your life.”
Fuck common sense, fuck my overly moral compass. We’re both consenting adults, and when my lips reach hers, she pulls back.
“Tell me I won’t be a mistake in the morning,” she commands.
I pull some loose tendrils falling in her face from her eyes. “You can never be a mistake because you’re the only thing in my life that makes sense.”
Her face lights up while her hands loop around my shoulders to pull me closer to her tiny body. “I’ve loved you since I was nine.”
I know I’ve loved her for a while. “I’ve loved you since you showed up on my doorstep, demanding answers. You’re such a fierce woman. And I don’t want to ever imagine a life without you.”
My hands twirl her hair as I slowly bring our heads together. It’s not our first kiss, but unlike yesterday, I know it won’t be our last kiss either. My lips part, and at that moment, I’m