Chapter 35 #2
She grabbed my shaking hands, bringing them to her lips, and kissed each healing knuckle. The act was so sweet, and my heart thundered in my chest as my fear of losing her spiked. I had to tell her. It wasn’t like she wouldn’t find out, but what the hell was she going to think?
“Whatever it is, I’m here for you.” I squeezed her hands tighter and looked out the window, unable to hold back the emotions that had been bottled and pushed down all week.
She let go of my hands and cupped my face as she went up on her toes.
“I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere. Talk to me, Myles, please.”
Ren kissed my lips, and I closed my eyes. I just needed to leap off the diving board.
“He cut me.” I swallowed. “He strung me up, and he was going to cut my…he was going to cut my cock off.”
“What!” Ren stepped back and looked at me. I thought for sure she would run for the door, but she balled her hands into fists.
“He didn’t. Another family took my brother Devin prisoner, so I’m the eldest son. But he did leave cut marks and….” I licked my lips. “He circumcised me.” The pain had been so intense by that point that I screamed and blacked out. I woke up alone on the floor of his torture room.
Ren stared at me, her eyes wide as she looked down, and I shifted under the weight of her gaze. “I swear it’ll still work. The doctor says that I’ll heal up fine, and I’m already much better.” Her eyes snapped back up to mine.
“You think I’m worried about whether it will work? Myles, I’d love you no matter what. I’m not with you because of what’s between your legs. I can’t believe that he would do something like this to you.”
My mouth fell open. Did she just say she loved me? She stomped around in a circle, a growl rippling from her lips.
“I’m going to kill him. I swear to God,” she snarled.
She looked fierce, her eyes murderous and hair flowing out behind her as she walked as if she were the embodiment of a winter storm.
Ren suddenly turned and marched for the door.
“He’s dead. I don’t care what I have to do, who I have to hire.
” Her fire made me smile, but I grabbed her before she could open the door.
“Let go of me. He’s a dead man. No one does that to you, no one,” she yelled, and I dropped my head to the side of her neck and held her until she stopped fighting.
“Did ya say that ya love me?”
Breathing heavily, she turned around to face me. Her cheeks were bright red, her eyes wild, but with a warmth that I craved more than my next breath.
“I didn’t mean for it to come out like that. Does that freak you out?”
No one could’ve wiped the smile off my face.
“Naw, Snowflake, it doesn’t freak me out.
I’ve been wantin’ to say it to ya from the first day we met.
” Her lip curved up as she ran her fingers over the bruised side of my face.
The doctor said that I was lucky to only have a fracture. I sure as hell didn’t feel lucky.
“You can’t go home again, Myles. I don’t care why he calls.”
“It doesn’t work like that.”
“Then call the police.”
“And talk to who? Morrison? He’s in Lawrence’s pocket. Lawrence will tell my da, and I’ll get another whoopin’. Naw, yer right, he needs to go, but now is not the time.”
“Fine. Then, from now on, if you have to see him, I’m going with you.”
“I think I’m the one that’s supposed to be protectin’ you, not the other way around.
” She raised her chin and put her hands on her hips.
I had no idea how I’d gotten so blessed for her to say yes to me in the first place.
She was as rare as the painite gemstone but even more beautiful.
“I love you, Snowflake, and I love that ya want to protect me. I really, really do. I just wish it was that simple.”
I kissed her softly and let her take the lead, groaning as she deepened the kiss and placed her hands on my chest.
“I would, you know,” she said as she broke away.
“I know.”
Sighing, she grabbed my hand and led me to my bed. I watched her as she turned on the television and put in a movie before lying down and patting the space behind her. Smiling, I laid down and pulled her into my body.
“Ya really don’t care what he did?”
She looked over her shoulder at me. “Oh, I care, but not because of why you think I should. I care that he hurt you. I care that it’s because of me that he hurt you, but I know you’re not worthless. You’re the furthest thing from it. And, no matter what scars you have, I will still love you.”
I snuggled closer and buried my nose in her hair.
“Myles?”
“Hmm?”
“Are you really okay with the whole me and Blake thing? He says you are, but we never got to talk about it.”
“Aye, I am. Especially now that ya say ya love me,” I teased, making her laugh. It took a couple of days to wrap my head around the idea of my Snowflake dating Blake, too. But I didn’t hate the idea, and if she wanted Blake, then I’d happily accept it as long as she still loved and wanted me.
“Okay, I never want to hide anything from you. We kind of hooked up today, and I didn’t know how to feel about it after.”
“Yer time with him is between the two of ya, and yer time with me is our time. Don’t feel like ya need to explain that to either of us.”
“Myles?”
“Ya, Snowflake?”
“I’ve missed this.”
“Me too.”
I’d never felt so dejected and scared as I had this week, but she’d healed more than my mind as she blurted out that she loved me.
She had healed a part of my soul that my da had tried to tear out of me with his bare hands.
Ren said she would protect me, but what she didn’t realize was that I would die to protect what we had.
Da had threatened to slit my throat, but I refused to marry Fiona.
I’d rather die than be separated from Ren, and if anyone tried to get between us again… next time, I’d be ready.
She could have a dozen guys if she wanted, but if any of them tried to take her from me, there would be nothing left for the police to find.