Little Bird: Criminally Yours

Chapter 16

Sunlight streamedthrough the windows in my bedroom, I forgot to close the blinds last night, my mind in a haze with my desperation to have Harley. She was no longer draped over my chest, and instead, she was curled up on the other side of the bed, her dark hair fanned out over the pillow, soft snores coming from her parted lips.

I never thought I’d be here. Calling an apartment mine with a king-size bed with the perfect woman sleeping in it.

In one of Harley’s letters, she mentioned more than once that she strongly believed everything happened for a reason.

Was that why we met?

Was that why I was set up all those years ago?

If I hadn’t been arrested, would I have met her?

Shaking the thoughts from my head, I got up from the bed. Raising my arms above my head, I stretched out my back and reached for my toes. My muscles and bones creaked with the simple movement, my age showing. I pulled the curtain drapes closed, as not to wake her with the electric blinds. The room was once again bathed in shadow, ensuring her a little more sleep.

I had woken her up an hour after we fell asleep for another round, and she’d been eager to have me buried deep inside her again. My dick pulsed at the thought, and I glanced over at her. Her bare shoulder peaked out from the thin, silk sheet, making my mouth water.

I couldn’t get enough of her.

“I can feel you looking at me,” her voice was hoarse from screaming my name.

“You’re supposed to sleep in.” I edged closer to the bed, thinking about how I was going to make her sing for me.

“You left the bed.” She turned over and opened her eyes, blinking slowly. She rubbed her one eye and then groaned. “Fuck.” She jumped from the bed, running for the bathroom, and I followed close behind her.

“What’s wrong, Harley?” She was standing on her toes, trying to look at her eye in the mirror. “Harley?”

“My contact. it’s moved. I’m not supposed to sleep with it in. I forgot.” Her voice shook with panic, and I gently gripped her elbow.

“Here. Let me look.” She turned to me, Biting down on her bottom lip, she nervously nodded.

I found the thin, almost clear film instantly. Quickly washing my hands, I used one finger to hold her eyelid open and the other to pinch it out.

She immediately snapped her eyes shut and sighed in relief as I held the flimsy plastic on my finger, inspecting the blue contact.

Slowly opening her eyes, she turned from me, but I saw a flash of green. “Harley, don’t you have two contacts?” I asked, dropping the contact to the counter and reaching for her.

“No, just one. I, uh, need to go.” She brushed past me and bent down to pick up her discarded bra and thong from the night before.

I latched onto her bicep and turned her into my chest. Startled, she looked up at me, and I saw her first secret.

No longer was she looking up at me with two blue eyes, but rather one was blue and the other green. She sighed, her shoulders slumping in defeat.

“Now you know.”

“Why were you hiding it from me?” I cradled her face with my hand, and she tensed.

“I hate being different.” As she looked at me with two of the most beautiful eyes I’d ever seen, I struggled to find the right words to say without scaring her away.

“I like it. I really fucking like it.”

“You do?” Her voice was weak, no longer the strong, confident woman from last night.

“Yeah, baby, I really do. Please don’t hide from me. You and I,” I placed my hand over her heart, where it thrummed wildly against my palm, “we don’t keep secrets. We’re on the same team.”

She nodded, a small smile curving her lips. “There’s a we?” She giggled at my eye roll.

“You doubted that after last night? I’m not a kid anymore, Harley. I’m not looking to play games or for one-night-stands. I want someone to share the rest of my life with. We’ve spent the last year learning about each other through letters, and now, I want to do the same in person.” I kissed her nose, and her smile broadened.

“You know that means meeting my parents.” She raised a brow, and I could almost read her mind—the very parents who were strangely never around.

“I’ll do anything for you.”

“Does breakfast count? I’m starving.” Her stomach rumbled, confirming her statement.

“Let’s shower and then whip something up together.”

“Okay. I only need five minutes.” She pulled out of my grasp, but I grabbed her hand and pulled her back to me.

“Together, Harley. You know, conserve water and all that crap.” Her eyes went wide, and a beautiful blush crept up her neck and across her cheeks.

“You don’t look like the conserving type?” she teased, but I was already scooping her into my arms and walking into the bathroom.

“I need you,” I whispered, kissing her cheek.

“I need you more.”

“So, you know how to cook,”Harley pointed out, staring at me in wonder as I whipped us up some scrambled eggs and bacon.

Her hair was wet, dripping down the back of my shirt from last night, and I was itching to find a good enough reason why I shouldn’t take it off her and devour her instead of the food.

“Mm, yes. My foster mother taught me and Gray.” I flinched at the slip, but when I glanced at her over my shoulder, her eyes were wide with curiosity.

“Gray?” She focused again on the coffee she’d been making us.

“My foster brother,” I answered, wishing to evade further questions, and she seemed to understand.

“My mom never taught me how to cook, and I don’t have a kitchen in my dorm, so I haven’t had a need to cook.” She filled the silence easily, distracting me from thoughts of my past.

“I’ll teach you.”

“Really?” Her voice picked up an octave in excitement. The smallest things brought her such joy. I was learning more and more about her, despite a year of sharing letters and secrets.

“You’re not what I pictured all this time.” I dished up the eggs on two plates, and then the bacon, before setting it down on the placemats she found on the kitchen counter.

She was getting up on the barstool, her eyes watching me cautiously. “Let me guess, covered in tattoos and red hair?” She twirled a lock of her dark, wet hair around her finger with a small smile.

“No. I wasn’t expecting you to be so short, for starters.” She laughed, picking up her fork, she started eating the food I prepared.

“Well, I certainly wasn’t going to mention my height in a letter, East.” I rolled my eyes at her quick wit, letting her claim another piece of my broken heart.

“You’re kind,” I continued with my description, and she blushed.

“You didn’t get that from me joining the program, to begin with?”

“We both know you needed to do that to graduate, just like I needed it to get out. Speaking of, when do you graduate?” She had polished off her plate of food and was jumping down from the barstool, giving me her back in response. “Harley?” I questioned, following her into the kitchen where she started the dishes.

“This week.”

“And the problem with that?” I pressed, putting my plate in the dishwasher. Wrapping my hands around her small wrists, I forced her to stop and look at me. She tried to cover her face with her hair, but I saw through the thin wisps.

Unshed tears shone in her beautiful blue and green eyes.

“My parents won’t be able to make it.” Her parents continued to surprise me. How could they have raised her to be so kind when they were so cruel?

“Did they say why?” She nodded, and I let go of one of her wrists to brush away her wet hair.

“It’s not a big enough reason for them to come see me.” Anger flooded my body at her shrug at their disgusting behavior. “But that’s okay. I don’t want to see them anyway.”

She blinked slowly, swallowed thickly, and then plastered a fake smile to her swollen lips. Always putting on a brave face.

I wanted to get past her armor. I needed her to know it was okay to tell me the truth. I needed to be her safe space.

“You don’t have to put on a smile for me, little bird.” I softly brushed my thumb along her plump, swollen, bottom lip.

“It’s better this way,” she insisted, her lips moving against my finger.

“For you or me?” I whispered, fighting every urge in my body to press my lips to hers.

“Everyone. I won’t beg them to be there, and I won’t make my problems yours or anyone else’s.” She pulled away from me again, but I tightened my hold on her wrist and dropped my other hand to her waist.

“Don’t pull away from me, Harley. Let me in.” She tugged her wrist from my hold and then took a quick step back.

“We barely know each other. Why would I suddenly let you in?” I tried to reign in the hurt. Swallowing thickly, I saw the storm brewing in her eyes. Her bottom lips quivered, and her chest rose and fell quickly.

“What else do you want to know about me, Harley? I spent the last year answering every question you asked me. I put all my secrets down for you on paper. What else do you need from me?” She took another step back, bumping into the kitchen counter.

I could easily close the distance between us. Two steps and I would be caging her in, giving her no chance of escape, but I didn’t move.

“I need to know you’ll still be here now that I got you out of prison. I need to know that you aren’t going to leave me, too.” Her voice shook, and I took a step closer to her, but she wrapped her arms around her torso, making me pause.

“I’m not leaving. You weren’t just a get-out-of-jail card, Harley. This isn’t fucking Monopoly.” I gritted out the words, and her gaze fell to the ground.

“You still haven’t told me what got you in prison in the first place, East. You haven’t shared all your secrets. Just like I didn’t share all of mine. Who knows how many more still exist between us?” I balled my hands into fists, hating her truth.

“You want to know why I served five years? You need me to tell you how I was betrayed by my foster brother? Do you want the details of how my foster father abused me and Gray for years? Do you really need to see all my broken pieces to let me give you the rest of what I have left? Tell me, Harley. What do you need?”

A soft cry escaped her trembling lips, and I hated myself for causing her more pain, but she’d turned what I had hoped to be a good fucking morning into a shitshow. She wasn’t the fucking victim here.

“I don’t know what I’m doing here,” she whispered, turning away from me, her body shaking with silent tears.

“What do you mean?” My voice was low. I failed to keep my own pain from lacing the question.

She turned and charged at me, jabbing her finger against my chest. “I don’t even know you, and I just had sex with you. I’m standing here in your kitchen fighting with you for no fucking reason. You don’t know me, Easton, and I don’t fucking know who you are either.”

Grabbing her hand, I interlocked our fingers. “You’re wrong, Harley.” Touching her heart, the familiar beat of a hummingbird’s wings greeted me. I brought her hand to my heart, hoping she could feel the same. “Your heart knows me, little bird. And we’re fighting because this matters. You fucking matter to me, Harley. I’ve had to fight my whole life for everything I have, and I will fucking fight for you, too.”

“Stop doing this to me,” she cried, dropping her head to my chest. “Stop being nice to me. I don’t deserve it.”

“Wrong again, little bird. I might not know every little secret about you, but I do know that you have a big heart. I know that it’s been broken too many times, and I know that I will mend it. I also know that I will learn all your secrets because with time, you will let me in, just as I will with you. I know that your soul sings for mine, and you know how I know that?”

She shook her head, biting down on her fucking lip, which I wanted to bite with my own teeth. I pulled her lip from her teeth, running my thumb over it again, and she sighed.

“Because mine sings for you.” Tears rolled down her already damp cheeks.

“I don’t want to be hurt again,” she whispered, sniffling.

“I can’t make that promise. Don’t make me. But I can promise to do my best every day for you. I can promise to be faithful, to give you my heart, but I can’t promise that you won’t get hurt along the way.”

“Everyone is going to think I’m crazy for falling for you.”

“Who gives a fuck what everyone thinks?” I wiped away her hot tears and caressed her warm, wet cheeks.

“I do.”

“If I make you happy, does it matter what they think?” She shook her head, and I sighed in relief.

“I want to take this slow,” she whispered, and I groaned, throwing my head back.

“Too late for that, Harley. I know what you taste like. I’m addicted, and you’re my drug. Move in with me.” I dipped my head, brushing my nose against hers, my lips a breath away from hers.

“Slow, Easton.”

“I don’t want to go slow with you. I want to spend the rest of my life getting to know you.” She giggled and pressed her lips against mine in a soft kiss. “Don’t make me beg, my little bird.”

“Perhaps I could be convinced,” she teased, and I dropped my hands to her legs, picking her up. She wrapped her legs around my waist, her arms going around my neck.

“For starters, I live here,” I whispered against her lips. “It’s free. I have a big bed. Have you seen the kitchen? And did I mention I live here?” I teasingly repeated. She threw her head back with laughter, and I knew I’d won.

Fuck what everyone else thought. We were made for each other.