what I want.
“Yes, Tongue. It’s what I want. He won’t be a bother again.”
“He can’t work here. I don’t trust him around you.”
“That’s fine. He doesn’t have to be here. You can take his honest day’s work.”
Tongue grunts with a slow chin tilt. He likes that idea. It means he can be here with me. “Whatever Comet wants, she gets.” With that, Tongue lets go of Zed’s tongue and the guy dashes to the door.
He touches the blood dripping down his face and points a red finger at us. “You two are fucking nuts. Jesus Christ. You’re crazy.”
“You have two seconds to get out of here before I decide to change my mind and kill you anyway.” Tongue steps forward and spins the knife in his fingers.
“Fuck this. Crazy fucking people,” Zed opens the door, then slams it, the bronze bell ringing from his departure, but also ringing in old memories.
The days that this place wasn’t mine. The days that I knew Tongue watched me outside through the window. An admission he had no shame in telling me.
“I might kill him later because I feel like it.”
I giggle, patting the middle of his back. I know he wants to kill Zed, but unlike Tongue, I know when someone is good or bad. Zed isn’t so bad. He deserves to keep his tongue. “I love you for wanting to do that.”
He turns around and bites the air when another man passes by too close. “I don’t like you here with these men. I don’t trust them. Can I kill them all? I’ll build the bookstore for you.”
“You can’t kill everyone you don’t like, Tongue.”
“Why?” He’s pouting now. Bottom lip poking out in distress.
“Because that’s how you go to prison.”
“I’ll just kill everyone there too. No one can keep me from you. I won’t allow it.”
Now that is something I believe wholeheartedly.
“Hey, Daphne. You want the same dimensions for the new door?” another worker asks. His name is Zack if I remember correctly. “Just want to make sure before we get started.”
“Yes, I do. Thank you.”
“He likes you too,” Tongue growls, watching Zack like a hawk.
Zack lifts a sledgehammer, typical oak handle and black rubber end, and Tongue breathes heavy, huffing like a bull who is hoofing the ground. He wants to charge. “They all fucking like you.”
“No, they don’t. Tongue, come here.” I take his hand and lead him toward a corner, a place where he feels most comfortable. “What’s going on? You’re atypically growly today.”
The beast ate the bunny.
Crap.
“I miss you. I don’t like others looking at you.” He rubs the back of his neck and stretches, as if he is trying to get a kink out. “I want to lock you in the room again where the world can’t admire you. I only want to admire you. It isn’t fair, but I don’t care. I want you to myself.” He darts his eyes above, staring at the unfinished ceiling.
Can he not look at me? His hands scrub along his scalp and then then brush down his chest.
“Tongue—”
“I love you too much to have someone else come in and love you too and to take your love from me. I won’t allow it. I can’t. I can’t…” his chest rises and falls, and he continues to shake his head.
“Look at me.”
He won’t.
“Look. At. Me.”
He hears the biting edge to my voice and finally lands his eyes on me, and the pain… my god, the pain I see, no wonder he can’t breathe. His heart is racing, and his shirt is hot and damp. His neck is red, and beads of sweat are traveling down his neck.
I do the only thing I know to do.
I grab his face with my hands and kiss him. In the background, the men whistle and cheer, but I don’t care about them. I only care about the man in front of me. The very controlling, temperamental, possessive, dangerous, frightening, loving, caring, and kindest man. The man who’s mine.
Mine.
He somehow learned how to love me while thirsting to kill everyone around me.
His breathing changes. The thundering heart beneath his chest evens out, and when we break apart, his forehead lands on mine and his coffee laden breath puffs across my nose. “I’m sorry I’m so much to deal with. You’re the only good thing I’ve ever had. And it makes me crazy. It makes me… the thought of losing you makes me crazy.”
“Why are you thinking like that? Why would you ever lose me? Does this