Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 95906 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 480(@200wpm)___ 384(@250wpm)___ 320(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95906 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 480(@200wpm)___ 384(@250wpm)___ 320(@300wpm)
“She might be named after Sleeping Beauty but she’s more like Ursula if someone wakes her before she’s ready.” Micah smiled again and I swore his cheeks pinkened just a bit when he added, “We watch a lot of Disney movies.”
The young man seemed to remember where he was and who he was with because just seconds after finishing the statement, he jerked his eyes from mine and studied my hardwood floor again like he’d never seen it before. But it didn’t matter. My body was still focused on that smile and that chuckle. And the way his pretty lips had parted just a little as color had stained the little bit of pale skin on his cheekbones that wasn’t bruised.
Wanting to save him any embarrassment as well as hide my own growing fascination with the young man, I continued with, “Christopher was torn between you and Rory, but he finally settled on sleeping with you. I’d left a bottle of water in the room for you, and I guess either you woke up and drank it on your own or Christopher urged you to drink it… either way, about an hour after putting you in the bed, I woke up to screaming. I thought it was Christopher at first…”
“But it wasn’t,” Micah commented, his voice low and heavy with emotion.
“No, it wasn’t,” I confirmed.
“Did I hurt Christopher?” Micah asked as he once again lifted his eyes to look at me.
“No,” I said quickly. “It scared him, but he was more worried about you than anything else. I had to force you awake. You sat up too fast when you woke up and began throwing up. I couldn’t leave you in the wet scrubs, so I had Christopher go to the bathroom to get a towel while I got the scrubs off you. I sent him for another bottle of water while I dried you and got you back under the covers. Christopher was crying when he got back to the room. It took a while, but I finally got him to tell me why he was so upset. It seems he thinks he kicked you or something while you were both asleep and he thought that triggered your nightmare.”
Micah was shaking his head long before I finished talking. “He takes too much on himself,” he whispered.
I wasn’t sure what that meant but decided not to push my luck.
“He’s very protective of you,” I said. In truth, I’d been shocked that Christopher had talked to me at all since he hadn’t done more than nod or shake his head when I’d gotten Micah home and in bed. I suspected the terror of his uncle’s nightmare and the guilt of thinking he’d been the cause had been the only reason Christopher had spoken to me.
“He ended up sleeping on the floor but when you woke up screaming again twenty minutes later, I was able to convince him to sleep with Rory.”
Micah nodded his head. “You were sleeping on the couch the whole time,” he murmured. “And when you heard me…” Micah dropped his head into his hands again. “Fuck,” he choked out. “Con, I’m sor—”
I was moving before I could think better of it. I crouched in front of him and gently grasped his cheeks in my hands so he was forced to look at me. Micah’s startled green eyes met mine.
“Don’t,” I said softly before he could finish the damned apology. “You don’t owe me any apologies,” I growled. While I was glad he’d gotten past the idea of me taking advantage of him while he’d been out cold, there was still a shit-ton of elephants in the room and while I knew I couldn’t get rid of most of them, there was one particular one that needed to go.
“And you don’t owe me a goddamned thing, do you hear me? No one—not me, not anyone else—is ever going to lay a hand on you again, Micah. Do you understand me? No one.”
Chapter Eight
Micah
I wanted to believe him. I really did. Just like I wanted to lean forward into his touch rather than pull away from it.
But even as I began to do just that, an ugly voice forced its way into my brain.
So beautiful. My special boy.
And just like that, I could feel the heat of Barry’s breath on my neck, I could smell his overpowering cologne, I could hear his grunts of pleasure as he shoved into me over and over.
I could practically taste Con’s disappointment as I tugged my face free from his gentle grip. “So what now?” I asked as I turned my head and stared at the floor again like it was the most fascinating thing I’d ever seen. I felt Con’s attention shrivel up like a withered flower and then it was gone.
He was gone.