CHAPTER 35 - Bryan Trevor #3
“What the fuck!” she grunts, turning away. “If you need me, just call,” she says, then leaves the room without looking back at us.
“Did she know Brittany?”
“I don’t think so, but there’s something unresolved between her and Travis.” I open the backpack on the bed. “I hope they work it out, because it’s unbearable being in the same room with those two.”
“Did you tell Sadie?” Her voice is so quiet I wonder if I heard her right.
I don’t need to ask what she means.
“I would never do that without your permission, without preparing her first,” I answer firmly, and she presses her lips together, trying to hold back tears. “I’ll wait as long as it takes—I won’t mess with her head.”
“I have no idea how I’m going to tell her, but I need to do it—just not today, not tomorrow. I need time.” I nod, understanding perfectly.
I’m in no rush.
Now we have all the time in the world.
“Let’s shower and then go see our daughter,” I say, removing my overcoat, knowing I’ll need to start explaining each tattoo.
“Our daughter,” she lets out a sob. “It’s still surreal that you’re alive, that you saved us, that you killed all those bastards in my family.”
“Don’t sell yourself short, my love. You were part of this—after all, you were the one who killed your mother, not me.” I extend my hand and she takes it. “Your nightmare is over, Butterfly, and now your real life begins.”
“I’ll never be able to express my gratitude.” I caress her hand. “You had every reason to never look my way again, yet with just one look, you understood how much I needed you, needed us, and you chose to stay and fight for us.”
“You don’t owe me anything, you hear me?” I say firmly, and she opens her mouth to argue, but I silence her by pressing my fingers to her lips. “I’d do it all over again, Noah.”
“I have no doubt about that.” She smiles, rising on tiptoe, and I press a soft kiss to her lips. “Since we’re going to shower, how about you show me those ten tattoos?”
“I don’t think there’s a better moment for this,” I murmur, stepping back before my cock wakes up again.
Her eyes don’t leave my body as I strip off my boots, pants, underwear, and shirt.
I stand completely naked in front of her and see her gasp.
“You're so beautiful, Bryan…”
“You're the one who's perfect.” I move closer, and with just a look, she lets me lift her dress.
The bruises on her body are still painfully visible.
He beat her before I got to the Redoubt, and I wish I could have tortured him a little longer.
I try to focus on the fact that it's over now.
No one will ever touch a hair on Noah's head again, and I'll make sure to tend to every mark on her body.
“You already got your revenge, my love. You already made him pay for everything.” Her voice breaks through the walls in my mind. “I'll be fine—actually, I'm already doing great, because I have you with me.”
“I wanted to spend days torturing that bastard, but I knew I couldn't.”
“You destroyed him, and that's all that matters!” she declares firmly. “Now show me the tattoos.”
“'Home,'” I say, raising my left hand so she can see the tattooed fingers. I push Gavin from my mind and focus only on us. “I got this one because, no matter how much I tried to fool myself, you were always my only home.”
She traces the letters with her thumb—even with blood still staining her skin—and smiles as if she's looking at something sacred.
“Oh, Bryan…”
“The full moon represents the night we first gave ourselves to each other.” I turn my forearm to show her. “And the branches beside it are from the tree I used to climb to see you.” I lift my eyes to hers and smile back. “I don't think these butterflies need any explanation.”
“All ten tattoos are for me?” she exclaims, almost breathless.
“Yes. They all represent you, us, what we've been through,” I respond, and she bites her lip, overcome with emotion.
“The clock is stopped at the time you sent me the message asking for help.” I extend my right arm toward her.
“Every day, it reminded me that I failed you.” The words taste bitter as iron, but I can't deny that I crucified myself over it for years.
“You did everything you could. Everything!”
“Still, it wasn't enough.”
I close my eyes for a second, and guilt tightens in my chest.
“But today it was…”
I nod and raise my right arm, pressing the inside against my neck so she can see the outside without me turning around.
“I got the compass because even when everything seemed lost, I believed fate would lead me back to you. It was my hope of finding you again.”
She runs her hands over my arm, her eyes brimming with tears.
“How can you be so perfect?” she whispers, hugging me.
I hold her against my chest and place a lingering kiss on the top of her head before pulling away.
“This is the most recent one.” I show her my thumb. “The semicolon means our story had a pause, not an ending.”
“You felt you were going to find me,” she says, her voice barely a whisper.
“I knew. Deep inside, I always knew you would be mine again.”
Her eyes travel up my forearm, my biceps, my chest, until they stop at my ribs.
Noah takes a step back, gasping.
“Is that…?”
“The initial of your name,” I respond, watching her bring her hand to her mouth in astonishment. “Inside a locked padlock because you're the only one who's ever had my heart.”
“My God!”
“I have a ruined castle on my left shoulder blade, and it symbolizes my greatest pain, because that's where I witnessed my worst nightmare,” I say, and she understands the reference to the night I found her being abused. “But that's not what I want you to focus on when I turn around.”
“Why not?”
“Because it will be replaced by something that represents our new beginning.”
She sobs, nodding.
“That's nine tattoos…” she whispers, counting on her fingers as if to make sure she hasn't forgotten any.
“The tenth is my favorite.” I lift the corner of my mouth in a cocky smile.
The silence lasts only as long as it takes me to turn around, because then Noah lets out a cry choked with tears and disbelief.
“Bryan Trevor, you tattooed my eyes?!”
“I did.” My voice comes out deep and hoarse as I turn back around. “Because even when I lost my memory, and through every day of the last few years, they were what I saw all the time, whether sleeping or awake.”
She brings her hand to her mouth, her shoulders trembling, tears streaming down her face uncontrollably.
“Each one was a way to fill the void your loss left in my chest.” I keep closing the distance between us. “I needed to mark you on my skin over and over, because having you in my damn heart wasn't enough.”
I caress her cheeks and she lets out a sob, hugging me so hard it's like she wants to fuse our bodies into one.
“I love you so much. God, how I love you, Bryan… I love you so, so much that I hate the years that were stolen from us. I hate what they did to you, to us.”
“They're nothing compared to all the years ahead of us.” I cup her face and she nods.
I lower my lips to hers and kiss her.
The kiss is soft, carrying all those years of absence, pain, and longing, but it's also full of love, hope, and new beginnings.
A meeting of lips that seals our future, showing we belong to each other and always will.