18. Aimee
Aimee
“Please don’t do this. I didn’t mean it. I’m sorry.” Tears spill over my cheeks.
Salt streaks my lips.
Titan grabs my chin and forces me to face him. He grins with the full force of his cigarette-stained teeth. He could have been beautiful with such intense, dark eyes and a strong jawline. Except he seeps evil from every pore.
“Please don’t,” I beg again, even as I know it’s no use.
“Oh, Aimee.” He drags his thumb over my lower lip. “I almost want to believe you. But do you know why I can’t?”
I try to shake my head, but I can barely move it with how hard his fingers are clenching my jaw.
“Desperation makes people promise anything. But promises are words, so easily broken. Do you know what can’t be taken back?” He leans in, brushing his lips over mine. “Action.”
Titan steps back, shoving my face to the side .
“You still think he’ll come for you. You still think you aren’t mine. It’s time to make it clear why that’s not the case.” Titan gazes at the men behind me. “Strap her down. And keep her awake for this. I want her to know who owns her now."
I jolt awake, drenched in sweat, as the door to Levi’s bedroom opens.
The sun is already high in the sky. He’s been gone all morning, and I’ve yet to leave his bed. Too afraid to move after my confession. Terrified of what it will mean for us.
That look in Levi’s eyes when I told him what the Iron Sinners did to me etched itself into my soul.
Devastation.
Heartbreak.
In my year with Titan, he relished in moments where he could remind me that Levi would never want me after what he’d done. Titan would tell me repeatedly that I might as well accept that he was the only one who wouldn’t be disgusted by a girl who isn’t whole.
That I should just give myself over to him.
His words still haunt me.
Which is why I understood Levi getting dressed and walking away. I didn’t try to stop him because it felt like this thin thread between us would break. I knew he needed time to process my confession, and I hoped he would come back.
I wished for Titan to be wrong.
Levi steps into the room, covered in blood, as his eyes find me .
The blood could belong to any random Iron Sinner. It could belong to Titan. It could belong to some person who stepped into his path at the wrong moment.
I’m not sure I’d blame him when I had the same urge after that happened to me.
Weeks—months—were a blur. To the point where I still can’t place what was real and what was the never-ending nightmare after the doctor stitched me back up.
Levi drops his chin and rakes his hair back, streaking blood through it. He pauses just long enough to lock the bedroom door before walking into the bathroom.
The shower turns on, and I listen to the sound of clothes falling to the floor. His bare feet move over the tile. I listen until the only sound is water cascading over skin.
Only then do I climb out of bed, still naked.
When I turn the corner into the bathroom, the glass shower enclosure is foggy. But I can make out Levi’s silhouette, tall and broad. His shoulders flex as he lifts his fists over his head and presses them to the tile.
I round the corner into the shower and find him with his forehead resting on the tiles.
Blood runs in rivers down his body, over his firm backside. So much of him is inked that there’s more demon than skin. It paints a portrait of the years we spent apart.
I step into the shower, and hot water beads on my skin. My hair immediately begins to curl from the steam. Stopping at Levi’s side, I rest my back against the wall and tip my head to the tile. I close my eyes and let the water run over me.
“Remember that ice cream truck that used to drive past Kings Auto every Sunday?” I don’t know why I say it.
Or why I’m talking at all.
Levi might not want me in here, but he hasn’t kicked me out.
“The one with the broken microphone,” I clarify.
Levi huffs out an unamused laugh. “The one that sounded like a haunted circus luring children to their death?”
“That one.” I blink my eyes open to find the bathroom is misty. “That truck was creepy as hell, but it had the best strawberry ice cream.”
Levi turns his face to me. “Fuck yeah it did.”
“Those were good times.” A tear slips down my cheek.
Or maybe it’s a bead of water from the shower.
It’s all the same in here. I feel it and I don’t.
Nothing and everything.
Levi lifts off the wall and pulls me into a hug. His chin rests on the top of my head, while I hold my palms against his tattooed chest.
Hand to heart.
Skin to skin.
He holds me until the water runs cold.
Until blood drains and the water clears. Until my teeth chatter and my body shakes.
He holds me so long that time stands still.
Until the hourglass once more flips and we’re moving forward again.