Chapter 212
The night outside was dark as ink.
The city lights seeped faintly through the narrow gap in the floor-to-ceiling curtains, scattering soft gold and silver across the quiet bedroom.
Inside, everything was still.
Khloe lay on her side, eyes open in the darkness, sleep refusing to come.
Then she felt it.
A familiar warmth settling behind her.
Strong arms slid around her waist, pulling her gently into a familiar chest.
Nick.
His scent—clean, cool, unmistakably his—wrapped around her like a second blanket.
“Can’t sleep?” Khloe asked softly, not turning around.
Earlier, when she had gone to shower, he had already left for the guest room. She had assumed he would stay there for the night.
Instead, he had come back.
“Mhm,” Nick replied quietly. “I want to sleep holding you.”
His voice was low and unhurried, but there was something faintly clingy beneath it—something he didn’t bother to hide when it came to her.
A small smile tugged at Khloe’s lips.
Then she turned her head slightly, her voice softening.
“Nick… thank you.”
“For standing up for me today. And for speaking to your father like that.”
Her fingers tightened slightly over his arm.
“I know that wasn’t easy for you.”
Nick didn’t answer immediately.
Instead, his arms tightened around her, pulling her closer as if instinctively refusing distance.
“You don’t need to thank me,” he said at last.
His voice was calm—but there was a faint edge to it, something restrained.
A pause.
“Today… I wasn’t comfortable.”
Khloe’s eyes flickered.
“Because of me?”
A quiet tension settled in her chest.
Nick exhaled slowly.
“It’s not that,” he said after a moment.
Then, more honestly—
“Thinking about you being bullied… and I wasn’t there.”
His grip tightened slightly.
“That makes me uncomfortable.”
A brief pause.
“I keep thinking… if I had met you earlier, maybe none of that would have happened.”
Khloe’s heart softened instantly.
“Nick,” she murmured, turning slightly in his arms. Her nose brushed lightly against his chin. “That’s all in the past.”
Her voice was gentle.
Warm.
“But I have you now.”
Nick’s eyes darkened at her words.
“Being in the past doesn’t erase it,” he said quietly.
His voice deepened.
“And it doesn’t stop it from hurting me.”
Khloe blinked.
For a moment, she didn’t know what to say.
Nick continued, slower this time, each word weighed down by something deeper than anger.
“My heart hurts for you.”
The sincerity in his tone was almost overwhelming.
Khloe’s chest tightened.
She had expected questions.
Doubt.
Even discomfort after revealing her past.
Instead…
All he felt was pain—for her.
Her eyes warmed.
Without thinking, she leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss to the corner of his lips.
“It’s really over,” she whispered.
“Maybe those things… only happened so I could meet you.”
Nick looked down at her.
Something intense flickered in his gaze—deep, turbulent, unspoken.
Then he leaned closer, forehead brushing hers.
“That’s not enough,” he said.
His voice was low.
Roughened slightly.
“I don’t want you to just ‘accept’ it.”
“I want to make up for it.”
A pause.
“Double.”
Khloe’s breath hitched slightly.
Nick lifted his hand and gently cupped her cheek, his thumb brushing away a faint trace of moisture at the corner of her eye.
As if he were determined to erase every shadow that had ever touched her.
Slowly, he lowered his head.
Their lips met again.
But this time—
It was different.
Not rushed.
Not restrained.
Something deeper.
More deliberate.
More certain.
A kiss that carried possession—but also reverence, as if he were holding something he refused to ever let break.
Khloe’s thoughts blurred.
Her fingers instinctively curled into the fabric of his shirt, anchoring herself to him as the world narrowed into nothing but warmth and breath and him.
After a long moment, Nick finally eased back slightly.
Their foreheads remained pressed together.
His breathing was heavier now, but steady.
“If it hurts,” he said quietly, “tell me.”
“If you’re uncomfortable, tell me.”
His hand slid down, taking hers.
Firm.
Steady.
Grounding.
“From now on, you don’t have to endure anything alone.”
He lifted her hand and placed it over his chest.
Through her palm, she felt it—
Strong.
Steady.
Alive.
His heartbeat.
Nick’s gaze softened as he looked at her.
“Khloe,” he said quietly.
“Let this be your strength.”