Total pages in book: 19
Estimated words: 17343 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 87(@200wpm)___ 69(@250wpm)___ 58(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 17343 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 87(@200wpm)___ 69(@250wpm)___ 58(@300wpm)
It’s a long time later, when we really have finished a super cute Hallmark movie, and our bellies are full of amazing tacos. Damion turns off the TV and rolls us to our sides, facing each other, our legs curled together, his hands on my hips. “You know that song that was on when we were downstairs. It’s by Masked Wolf—”
“Astronaut in the Ocean.”
“Yeah, that one. It reminds me of you.”
“Me?” I ask, surprised, though it’s not an unfamiliar feeling, even when it played tonight. “Why?”
“You’ve always been the astronaut, destined to soar higher and higher, while the rest of us try to pull you into an ocean of sharks.”
I’m stunned by this comparison, and I am certain it confirms what I’ve read in him. He’s afraid of pulling me under and drowning me.
“When I say I have to protect you,” he adds, “it’s not out of obligation. It’s out of my personal need to take care of you. I just keep getting it wrong.”
“I’m here now,” I say, emotion welling in my belly. “If you don’t let go, you didn’t get it wrong this time.”
He nods and pulls back the covers. We climb under, and he reaches over and turns out the light. Damion pulls me down on the bed, folding me close, holding me almost a little too tight as he says, “I don’t want to get it wrong with you, Alana.”
But he thinks he will.
That’s the unspoken message but I also realize that he’s told me I’m an astronaut and he’s a shark in the ocean. I think—I think he’s our worst enemy, and maybe his own, too, and it’s time for him to see himself through my eyes. It’s time for me to hold onto him as hard as he’s holding onto me right now. Even if that means I stand toe to toe with his father in a proverbial war. I think of my mother crying about that man forcing her to have sex with him. I’ve let that go. Why have I let that go?
This is war, and Damion’s father is my enemy, and his as well.
And the best place to fight it is by Damion’s side.
The end…for now