Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 117820 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 589(@200wpm)___ 471(@250wpm)___ 393(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117820 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 589(@200wpm)___ 471(@250wpm)___ 393(@300wpm)
His guarded eyes find mine. “What?”
“It’s a story I tell myself to make it all better. I’ve done nothing but tell lies my entire life, I don’t know how to stop.”
“You didn’t sever his spine with a knife?”
I shake my head, feeling ashamed. “No. I wish I did. I wish I could have hurt him like that.”
“So what did happen?”
“I pushed him, he fell, hit his head and had a seizure that put him into a coma.”
His hands squeeze. “Can you stop lying to me now?”
I nod. “I’ll try.”
“No trying, just… stop lyin’. Okay? I don’t have time for it and neither do you.”
“I thought you’d walk away.”
“You want me to?”
I don’t know how to answer that. So instead I sigh and choose honesty, picking the first thing that comes to mind. “I don’t want to hurt again.”
“I ain’t gonna hurt you.”
“I know,” I whisper, chewing on my lip. “You never did.”
“Fresh start, Immy. No more fucking around.” He sits up, mindful of his tattoo, and holds me tight against him as I push my hands through his hair. “I’m gonna stay here with you, tomorrow we’re gonna see this Webber guy and then we’re gonna find our kid.” He gives me a reassuring squeeze. “Okay?”
I nod. “Okay.”
“You’re going to be Immy again. You’re going to come back to Faceless and be with the people who love you.”
“Like who?”
“Like me, like Poppy, like my folks.”
“Poppy,” I say softly. “How is she?”
“She’s good, she’s seeing this guy from out of town. Seems to be a decent man.”
I frown. “You talk to her often?”
“Not really, but she pops in when she gets time, to check on me, to see if I’ve heard about you.”
“She didn’t come see me when I returned.”
“She wasn’t in Faceless. She told me to tell you to call her.” His thumbs massage deep circles into my skin. “Said she’s pissed you haven’t been in touch.” When I look away he moves his head to follow my line of sight. “She looked for you too, you know. Until your brother returned. She asked him where you were and that’s when we heard you left with Marshall. Nobody questioned it because he wasn’t reported missing either.” He sighs heavily. “It’s so fucked up. If you’d told me back then that he was gay… I’d have—”
“No use looking back.”
“You do, to keep hating on me every fuckin’ chance you get. Don’t know why.”
I feel guilty, I deserve to feel guilty. “My brother said you were seeing someone else. Said you told him to tell me you never wanted to see me again.”
“And you believed him?”
“Yeah,” I whisper, my guilt winding deeper. “As much as I wanted you to move on and have a family, it hurt knowing you had.”
The room is now filling with our mutual pain. We both share a thought but he verbalizes it.
“Let’s stop talking about it.”
“Okay.”
He presses his lips to mine for a lingering moment that’s entirely too brief.
“Finish my tattoo,” he breathes against my mouth.
“Okay.”
A few hours later…
He loves it. Adores it. Can’t stop looking at it despite the fact I told him not to uncover it. He’s a fucking nightmare for anybody wanting to keep shit sterile.
“One day I want a man to look at me the way you look at that tattoo,” I jest, feeling less uptight now we’ve been together for quite a while.
Kane has made himself at home with his suitcase at the foot of my bed. He knew he’d be coming and staying. He’s either very presumptuous or very optimistic. Either way, when he dives onto my couch in plaid pajama bottoms, the bandage covering his chest, he opens his arm to me, and I stare at him for the longest time. The length of his body from head to toe, the thickness of his thighs and biceps, the incredible shape of his toned stomach, the scar on his jaw where he cut himself shaving, the way he’s pulled his hair up into a messy knot that suits him so perfectly.
“You just gonna stand there?” He’s amused, not offended. His arm is still open.
Eventually I can’t seem to tell myself a good reason why I shouldn’t cuddle up to Kane on my sofa, so I do just that. I climb over the arm of the couch, crawl towards him and rest my head on his ribs, far from his incredible new piece of ink. He smells smoky and sweet, a new scent. He must have put some kind of antiperspirant on despite the fact he’s clean and fresh already.
My fingertips tickle his side, making his skin break out in goosebumps.
“Feel seventeen again?” I ask softly because it’s all I can think about.
“Fuck, I feel everything again, Immy.”
I kiss his side, purely to feel his soft skin against my lips and he nuzzles my hair.